These days almost all decent managers have turned to being shareware. One of the remaining few download managers is Free Download Manager. It recently became fully open-source, which means it will remain free forever. Being free doesn't mean it has very few features. In fact, it is one of the most feature-rich download managers available. With features such as Pause/Resume downloads, Segmented Download, Audio/Video Preview during download, Flash video download (from sites like YouTube, Google Video, Blennus, MySpace etc.), BitTorrent support, Scheduler, Site Explorer, Site Password Manager, HTML Spider etc.
Interface
The interface can't be simpler than this. Just the simple set of buttons. The left side tree structure contains ways to filter out the downloads you want to see. It can be based on type, status, etc. The right side, on the other hand, is a split view between the list of downloads (on the top) and the details of the download in the bottom. The details section is further categorized into tabs to show the Log, Progress, Media Preview, and Community Comments (Extra tab might appear for Torrent downloads).
Flash video download
The Flash video download section is a relative new section to Free Download Manager. It allows you to download video files from some online video sites such as Google Video, YouTube, Blennus, MySpace, Dailymotion, LiveDigital etc. This section also has the option to convert the downloaded file between avi, wmv, mpg, mp4 and mp3 files.
Torrents
Torrents have become the hottest way to download stuff on the Internet. Torrent support is a brand new addition to Free Download Manager and you shouldn't expect much from it. But still, it does a quiet descent job with torrents. Please note that the "Torrents" section might only be available in the latest beta release. The latest version has support to select the files with a torrent files that you would like to download. You can also prioritize the files you want to download. Options are also available to restrict the Seeding of the file.
Scheduler
Free Download Manager comes with a very advanced scheduler which can do tasks such as Launch Program, Start/Stop download, Establish/Hang-up dial-up connection, Change traffic usage mode, Shutdown/Hibernate/Sleep system, etc. It can also be triggered on various events such as A given date/time, Certain days of every week, Every few intervals, At start-up, download completed etc. Tasks can also be deleted/disabled after completion.
Site Explorer
The Site Explorer is a unique part of Free Download Manager which allows you to view web sites in a folder structure. This allows you to download files more easily. It also facilitates in the browsing of FTP sites.
Site Manager
A section that stores the User Name/Password related to a web site. The user name and passwords are stored from the different sections of the application.
HTML Spider
Ever wanted to download a complete website or a part of the website. HTML Spider helps you download an entire section of a given website to your hard disk by following the links in the given page and the links within those pages and so-on.
Summary
Free Download Manager is one of the best download manager you can come up with. It has almost all the features you can expect from a download manager and more. It is also highly customizable using the Options available. Although, I have to admit it, the Options section might get a bit confusing for starters. Anyway, the free download manager can be downloaded from the Official Site.
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