Yeah ... free as in beer, from dirty glasses. It's not just the barely-knowns that have that. Adobe keeps trying to push various bits of stuff I don't want (like Chrome), too. 1) if there's an option to uncheck for the Other Stuff, uncheck it (works for Adobe). 2) if there's no option up front, then when you install use the "custom" option rather than the standard one and read through carefully - I've seen a couple of freebies that hide the drive-by download there, and they don't always make it obvious or word it clearly. 3) regardless of whether the software was free or paid, look in the Programs control panel after installing to make sure nothing you didn't intend arrived, and uninstall it immediately if you find something; I've gotten Chromed or worse from paid software though it is rare.

Oh yes - and disable the Java Deployment Toolkit plugin in your browser. Firefox does this automatically. You should only rarely need to install Java apps in your browser (unsafe!), and without the Deployment Toolkit active you will be asked each time.

I don't use Picasa mainly because 3 options are already too many (mostly, I just use Irfanview and Canvas for image work), and it's Google - I avoid Google products other than the basic search due to their pervasive tracking (though even there ... DuckDuckGo works well and doesn't keep a record of all your searches, or so they say).

Be that as it may, whether free or pay, it's fun to play with images sometimes to see what you can do artistically.