Internet Download Manager

Internet Download Manager software is really widespread, heck we sell a lot of it here on BitsDuJour, but what makes it good, and what do you really need? When you surf the web you’re constantly downloading files onto your computer. Managing these downloads can save you time, energy, and headache when it comes to organizing your files and maintaining your computer’s health. When you get into a regular habit of managing anything you download you’ll streamline your workflow and wonder why you ever let your files scatter about your downloads folder. Every browser has it’s own way of managing downloads. We’re going to show you how each browser does it, and then give you a few more options for the pros who need a fully featured Internet Download Manager.

Google Chrome

In your browser toolbar you’ll find an icon with three horizontal lines on it. Click the icon, and select Downloads. From there, you can see everything you’ve downloaded. You can select to “show in finder” or “remove” any file. To change your download settings, go back to the icon in your toolbar. Click Settings, Show Advanced Settings, and then scroll down to Downloads. From there, you can change the download location when clicking Change, or check off “Ask where to save each file before downloading.”

Firefox

Next to your home icon in your toolbar you’ll find an icon with an arrow pointing down. Click it, and you’ll be able to see the last three downloads in one place. You can also click “Show All Downloads” to see a complete list of downloads. From the downloads dropdown menu—you can pause, cancel, open, remove, retry, and clear your downloads. You can also change where Firefox places your downloaded files by going to Firefox Preferences: General.

Safari

You can easily manage your downloads in Safari through your preferences. Go to your Safari menu and click Preferences. In the General tab you’ll be able to choose where you want your downloaded files saved onto your computer. Safari’s default setting is usually to store files directly onto your desktop. You can also control your downloads list from this tab. You can choose to have Safari remove downloaded files once they are completed, or manually by you. You also have the option to open “safe” files once they are finished downloading onto your computer.

Internet Explorer

In Internet Explorer you can easily manage your downloads. Just go up to the toolbar and click the Tools button where you can view your downloads. You’ll find a list of your downloads and you can open your files. You can also click the Options link at the bottom and change the location of your downloaded files.

Internet Download Managers

There are other Internet Download Managers you can use instead of your browser, the sad fact is that most of them fail to live up to the promises of increased speeds. Get Right for PC is designed to queue, recover downloads, prioritize, and schedule downloads this can be a real timesaver and will actually save you time, even though you're not taking a magic "speed-up" pill. Switchboard from Connectify is an internet download manager that works especially well with sites like YouTube to bring you faster download time. Switchboard accelerates download speeds by splitting files and then downloading them simultaneously through multiple connections, so you can stream over WiFi and 4G at the same time. This is pretty cool stuff if you ask us, and it's called "channel bonding"; and it's one of the few ways to actually speed up downloads that actually works!

When it comes to downloading off of the web, there are other types of downloads that need to be managed. If you’re a regular downloader of Torrents you’re going to need a system that will manage these downloads. These internet download managers organize your files, streamline your downloads, and some of them even ensure your privacy. uTorrent is one of the most popular torrent tools. You can download large groups of files (ex: TV episodes, music) in order. Transmission is a great option for Mac users. Unlike other torrent internet download managers, Transmission doesn't bundle toolbars, pop-up ads, flash ads, or twitter tools onto your program. It’s an easy open source program that will make your torrent downloading experience easy.

Learning to manage your downloads is easy, and it’s also important. Managing your downloads leads to better organization on your computer. Knowing how to easily find your recent downloads will save you the headaches of trying to find that important document your boss e-mailed you last week. Our computers are as important as the offices they reside in and we need to keep them clean and organized in order to work more efficiently. A search for "internet download manager" on the web can give you a stack of programs that claim to download your files faster than your average browser, but most times unless these really don't live up to the hype. Be careful! Do your research before downloading any freeware onto your computer, or download from a trusted source, like us!