Don’t forget majorgeeks.com.

Good question, Pol. These days free popular utilities, such as ccleaner, java, and adobe are bundling these extras. These give the option to not install the extra software but, as you stated, some install it without warning.

I believe you should always download from the developer’s website which, these days, does not guarantee to be free of extras.

When installing, take it slow and pay attention. Thoroughly read each window to make sure you don’t miss some little hidden gem.

I don’t know. There are plenty of traps set. I’m not certain of a way around this if no option is given.