You've lost nothing but the time involved in the evaluation. The Shareware industry has an excellent track record providing products that have been checked thoroughly for viruses. Also, the compressed formats used to transmit most Shareware programs tends to offer additional protection because each compressed file comes with its own safety checksum to detect tampering. And as if this wasn't enough, we at 5 Star run the software through our own state of the art virus checking software before listing it for download. Basically, it's efficient.
Costs are generally less than for software sold through traditional channels.
Lower operating costs mean shareware authors can concentrate on writing great programs, while often charging users less. Shareware also allows authors to retain complete control. These programs are free to use and do not require a payment to the Author. At time of writing, a small percentage of these titles include some kind of advertising banner placed there by the Author or developer enabling them to gain a little revenue for their hard work. However, should you prefer not to see advertising banners, you can usually upgrade to a version without banners for a nominal fee.