A REVIEW OF A FEW OF THE "TOP" DOWNLOAD MANAGERS:
I figure I would love to stumble across this info...hope it helps others.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every sixth months or so I find myself reinstalling everything on my computer for one reason or another. Each time I do this I try to pick the best applications to install that will keep my computer running flawlessly while using as little RAM as possible (of course, always far from flawless). I make sure I always install
+Adaware SE Personal
+CCleaner
+Google Toolbar & Google Desktop (Desktop, though, has been unreliable crap lately--there's nothing more annoying them clicking on a file it has found to learn it no longer is in that place and Desktop is no help...so back to the tried and proven Win file search...
+Firefox & way too many plugins/addons/whatever--it seems like I need them all, but I don't...
+Internet Explorer because Firefox is to flightly--the same goes for IE
+Download Them All
+Flashget
+Picasa - even though I don't use it as often as Windows Picture & Fax Viewer
+an anti-virus program -- now it's Norton Anti-Virus 2005SE packed conveniently in Google's new Updater - this version doesn't get in the way like most other programs do -- Google Updater saves a lot of time on these complete reinstalls...
+Windows Media Player -- which I've been trying to dump for a more streamlined program like Media Player Classic or VLC Media Player, but just haven't been able to make the leap - I've put so much time into finetuning WMP it's hard to just dump it...
+Spybot Search & Destroy which -always- disappears after running a few times...and it's never really found any spyware for me???
+TuneUp Utilities 200X - great all-in-one cleanup program
And Photoshop & Office 2003 (I installed the beta of 2007 and thought it was crap-I like to know where features are when using these programs-hopefully MS fixed a lot of what I thought were issues. Same goes for Vista--no thanks for now...
Lastly, a Download Manager - which always seems to be a different application each time.
This time around I was using FlashGet to download a trial of Photoshop (329MB). Not too difficult a task. FlashGet slowly (~40 KB/sec) downloaded the whole file then somehow lost the whole thing at 99%. At this point completely over downloading and my current dl manager I set out to find the "best" download manager for my type of computing. I do a lot of things at once--too many, probably--but that's not going to change. So I started downloading and running several dl managers all working on the same file, Photoshop. It was definitely an eye-opener to see which programs could hang and which would hang. All the programs are listed below, best performers for my particular test listed first:
+++ Paraben's Download Manager (120KB/s) - AMAZING SPEED, comparatively. Never heard of it before today, but it's my new dl mgr. It was one of the last programs to start downloading and it was the 1st to finish.
++ Orbit (90KB/s) - this one swiftly and quietly downloaded with no problems. I've never heard of this or Paraben's before today--makes me wonder if there are even faster programs out there? For now I'll stick with these first two and uninstall the rest.
+ Internet Download Manager (70KB/s) - another great program. If I had to complain, I'd say this one goes overkill with "status" windows and other status indicators--like three at once, I think...all different???
+/- Download Them All - couldn't handle the large file--I stopped it several times after restarting with a new download. DTA is really better at downloading a bunch of small files at once. Firefox wouldn't be complete w/o DTA.
+/- FlashGet -lost all 329MB at 99% then stopped at 66% after dl'ing at 40KB/sec. It never finished. It did, however, pop up to download all the other dl mgr's I installed after it... I guess this one's okay it not pushed too hard???
- Free Download Manager - this one kept downloading the wrong file...instead of the exe file, it would download a tiny index file and say, "completed." After a few futile attempts to get it on track, I UNINSTALLED. These things need to be easy...
-- Internet Download Accelerator - Crap--it kept beeping and opening window after window, giving me message after message about it needing to do this and that. Never even started the download--even after opening over 100 windows. --UNINSTALLED--
ReubenNYC@gmail.com
