7 Free, Must Have Windows Software for Download Junkies
ADVERTISEMENTSWe always tend to download stuff from the internet. Be it movies, music, software, ebooks, we’re always in thirst of information and download plenty of things from the web. If you’re a download junkie, you can try the following free software I’ve listed below to make things better, easier and efficient:
FlashGet / Free Download Manager
Nothing beats these for download management. There’s torrent support in both these software. Flashget integrates very well with most popular browsers and the latter has support for downloading flash video files. Check out more free download managers.
Lightweight, feature rich, and encryption for your torrent downloads. Simply the best torrent client out there. It’s even got a Web based UI that can be used to control it via a remote interface.
If you just don’t want to have multiple apps for just the sake of downloading, try the DownThemAll add-on for Firefox. DownThemAll is an excellent download manager and accelerator that is constantly being developed.
FTP client that has got it all. It’s cross platform, and has drag and drop and speed limiting features. Multi lingual interface is available as well.
Bitmeter can be used to track download and upload speeds, and also bandwidth consumption. A little tool to estimate the time it’ll take to download a file is also inbuilt. Check out more bandwidth monitors.
These days, most files you download are compressed, and so an uncompressor becomes indispensable. Universal Extractor is very superior than any other archiving tool, and virtually supports every other archiving format you can think of.
CCleaner can clean up the temporary files and other installation mess that appears once you complete your downloads. An uninstaller and a registry cleaner are built in to CCleaner.
Bonus: FileHippo Update Checker – This 100KB tool analyses installed software on your computer and lists updates for those software. In a matter of a few clicks, you can instantly update
Additional information from you is welcome in the comments!
March 30th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Great programs. There are some more here that you may like…
March 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am
I use Free Download Manager and FileZilla most frequently. Never heard of DownloadThemAll. I suppose I should give it a try as well. Seems to be a very useful FF plugin.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Flashget and utorrent just rock. I have to give a try to Bitmeter.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Good ones - I use FlashGet, Filezilla and CCleaner myself.
Just one thing - some of these apps are tailored for bloggers/webmasters, though your readers are not.
Stumbled
March 30th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
@Rich: Thanks, Rich.
@Rakshit: Do try it. That’s one Firefox extension that I can’t live without
@Madhur: Yes, that’s true. uTorrent is one of my favourite programs.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
@Sumesh: Well, I’m guessing you’re pointing to Filezilla? Rest of the apps mentioned serve a purpose to all kinds of users, I’m sure people who’re not bloggers/webmasters will find it useful as well
March 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I use almost all the tools listed above.. Great list! I use 7-Zip instead of Universal Extractor though.. It is very small, light on resources and opens all kinds of archives.. One other tool that you may have missed out on is an iso image reader.. Though all the popular ones such as Magic ISO and Power ISO are paid software, one could use Undisker (http://www.undisker.com/). Undisker can open any ISO file, browse it, and extract its contents to your hard disk without your having to burn the ISO file on a CD.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
@Narayanan: Well, Universal Extractor can also open ISO files
For info, check out http://awurl.com/aqjccx34981
March 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
@Shankar: So does 7-Zip!
March 30th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Thumbs Up….Universal Extractor is awesome.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Well great list..
).
Instead of Universal Extractor, i use 7zip. Two programs i use daily are uTorrent and Ccleaner (and both of them rock
March 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
@Wally: Thanks Wally, glad you liked it.
@Keshav: Hehe Indeed they rock.
March 30th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
USE GIGAGET..it owns all else
March 30th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
[...] Shankar Ganesh tells us about some essential and free Windows software [...]
March 30th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
hey very good list there buddy.. good going.. i will send this to my frnd.. he is a download maniac
March 31st, 2008 at 5:08 am
I like FileHippo….This concept is much talked about in Wordpress and other stuffs but not on windows which I believe has lot of potential…
March 31st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Again a nice post
April 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Flashget is what I use and its damn good..!
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 am
Instead of DownThemAll, Free Download Manager does a good job for me. Cool list Madhur.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
[...] As a internet user and a download junkie, I find this utility pretty useful because when it comes to saving the files and ensuring that they are sorted properly, this utility acts as a boon to me. I think I’ll even go ahead and suggest Shankar of KillerTechTips to include this software in the excellent article written by him which states the 7 must have softwares for all download junkies. [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 8:30 am
What about Download Accelerator Plus ( DAP) free version. I think it is also good progrmme for fast downloading.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
@Joel: Yes, a tool like FileHippo update checker does have a lot of potential. In Linux, it’s possible to update the entire system (includes all individual software).
@Vishnu: Indeed FlashGet rocks.
@Syahid: Hehe FDM is a good tool as well.
@Arun: Flashget and FDM come so close to DAP in terms of features and also they’re free, so I think there’s no point in mentioning it DAP
April 6th, 2008 at 11:49 am
[...] week, I wrote on my blog about windows software that download addicts need to have installed. This time around, I’m going to talk about a few sites that you need to [...]
April 20th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I’m gonna grab all 7!
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
@Mayooresan: Do grab them
May 1st, 2008 at 9:51 am
[...] Must Know sites for the Download Junkie on Technospot, follow up to Essential Software for Download Junkies [...]
May 25th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
[...] Download HashTab for Windows. I think it’s a handy tool that is a must-have for download junkies. [...]
May 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Great list! I use Download Accelerator Plus instead of Free Download Manager. Even though you have to buy it, I love it very much. It rocks to see download speeds like 400kbps.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I love Filezilla and its easy to use interface. Filezilla is truly a boon for bloggers. Great post! Keep it up!:)
August 14th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Thank you for the info, download it now