I had this funny dream the other night: some know‑it‑all took control of my PC, couldn’t figure anything out, so they panicked, installed Windows, and then opened a web browser to install software. I’ve been on EOS for over a year now, and it never really hit me how insecure and ridiculous it is to install software through a browser until that dream spelled it out for me. 
Sounds like a Nightmare.
Hope you’re alright!
So windows came to haunt you…
sounds like a typical help desk to me
download source code or tarball, yes.
browser-install it, not a chance.
I was a gnome-look and plink last night looking for a new icon theme and their options are “download” or ‘install if for you.’ That second button always creeps me out.