When you first purchase a computer with Windows XP or Vista, chances are that it won’t already have a built-in download manager – a program used to download files from the internet onto your system. The default Internet Explorer browser on your computer does come with a download manager, but it’s a very basic one with no added features.
What’s the number one reason for having a download manager on your computer? It’s to resume broken download links. Many of us, myself included, cannot afford to pay $40 or $60 a month for high-speed internet access, so we use a dial-up connection instead. However, even though we have dial-up internet, we still download files and programs in excess of 20 MB in size, such as YouTube videos.
Of course, on a typical 28.8 KBPS dial-up modem, it takes roughly an hour to download 10 MB. However, our dial-up internet service providers will often disconnect us before our downloads are completed. Ten years ago, I cannot tell you how frustrated I was when trying to download computer games on my dad’s Windows 95 system, only to find out that as soon as the download was 98% complete, I got logged off. Ugh. I had to start all over from the beginning again. Easier said than done, especially when I had eagerly been waiting for the past 3 hours for the download to finish.
Suffice it to say, download managers are life-savers. If you get disconnected at any point in time during the download, the program will save the file’s status and pick up where it left off as soon as you reconnect to the internet. Of course, it’s important to note that not every download manager can resume an interrupted download – it often depends on whether or not the server hosting the file supports the resuming of downloads.
As a result, which download manager is the best one to use? There are hundreds of download managers out on the internet right now – some of them better known than others. Many of them are shareware versions with 30-day trial periods, trying to coerce you into buying the company’s full version for upwards of $40. Then again, many others are 100% free to use, claiming to offer the same services and features that the other pay-to-use download managers have.
To completely review all of the hundreds of download managers available on the internet would take forever. Therefore, I’m going to take a look at a few well-known brands and determine which one is the best for you to use.
Created by Speedbit, it’s easily the most-advertised download manager out on the internet due to the company’s mass-marketing of it. The program itself is very easy to use and the user interface is quite appealing. One problem with Download Accelerator Plus is that for some reason, the latest versions don’t seem to be designed for dial-up internet users. When you download a file with your dial-up connection, about one hour into the download, it’ll stop with an error of file corruption, even though the file being downloaded is perfectly fine. Also, if you use the free version of the program, you’ll end up seeing annoying advertisements while downloading a file. The advertisements slow down the overall speed of the download, and they can’t be removed unless you pay $39.95 for the full version.
Another big problem with the free version of Download Accelerator Plus is the fact that if you’re downloading multiple files simultaneously, you’ll have a bunch of tabs in your Windows taskbar. I first used Download Accelerator Plus when it was at version 5.0, and at the time, it was the best download manager you could get for free. Now though, the company just wants to scam you out of your hard-earned money. There are other free download managers out on the internet that provide that same services that the paid versions of Download Accelerator Plus have.
Don’t bother with this program, and definitely do not pay money to purchase the premium version.
Download Studio is another pay-to-use download manager, but you’ll get a 30-day free trial period to test it out before deciding whether or not to purchase the full version. It’s definitely one of the biggest managers size-wise, coming in at around 25 MB. The program itself has a very professional design, but it’s questionable why the program is so large in size, especially when it has very little else to offer apart from the same features installed in other managers.
If you’re looking for a temporary download manager, I’d suggest taking Download Studio out for a test run. After 30 days, you can choose not to purchase the full version and just delete Download Studio from your hard drive.
Free Download Manager is just that – a free download manager created as an open source program. No annoying pop-ups, advertisements, and no restrictions. Free Download Manager is currently the best program of its kind currently available on the internet. Although most of the newer download managers support downloading and saving website flash videos on your computer (i.e. Google Video, YouTube), Free Download Manager also has the unique ability to convert the video into a different format after being downloaded (such as WMV for viewing in Windows Media Player).
Free Download Manager doesn’t come with all of the bells and whistles, though. As of February 2009, it still does not support the downloading of flash videos from other popular video sites such as MegaVideo, NBC, CBS and ABC.
I wrote an article about Free Download Manager entitled “YouTube Videos: Copyright No Longer Applies – New Program Allows Free Flash Downloads.” Make sure you check it out for more information on the program.
Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox Built-In Download Manager
Internet Explorer has its own built-in download manager. Microsoft claims that it will automatically resume broken download connections, but more often than not, it doesn’t. Default built-in browser download managers are usually the most basic download managers in existence.
Mozilla Firefox takes it a notch above Internet Explorer by providing a download manager that actually does support resuming broken download links most of the time. It’s definitely a good, stable download manager, but overall, it still doesn’t offer the features most of the other programs have, such as file splitting and speed boosting.
Closing Remarks
Overall, Download Studio is the best download manager on the internet as of February 2009, but because it only comes with a 30-day free trial, your next best bet would be Free Download Manager.
For a few weeks in January 2009 and February 2009, download managers had problems downloading the newest flash videos on YouTube. Fortunately, the administrators of these programs have fixed this issue.
If at any point in time, a download manager has problems downloading a flash video from YouTube to your computer, you can always use the program “YouTube File Hack”, which saves the video in Flash format on your hard drive. You’ll then need to convert it to Windows Media Video (WMV) to watch it in Windows Media Player, or download an extension called the “K-Lite Codec Pack”, which will let you watch Flash videos in Windows Media Player without having to convert them.
February 9th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Fab article, I learn a lot form your articles thanks.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Good info and well researched….thanks
February 9th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Thanks for your info..
October 15th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Thanks much!