Internet Download Manager 5.11 Review
Published by: Codrut Nistor, in Reviews
October4th2007
Since the download manager I have here is one of those notorious progras that a lot of people used and even more heard about it from their friends or in the press, let's leave the introduction aside and get straight to the subject: Internet Download Manager (not quite an original name, isn't it?).
Setup
Released on the 28th of September, the latest version of Internet Download Manager is 5.11 Build 7. The trial version can be used without any functional limitations for as long as a month (well, 30 days, to be more accurate), and the price of a single user license is $29.95.
The setup package of this program is a bit smaller than 2.5MB, so downloading it shouldn't be a problem, even for those with a slow connection to the Internet. As you can see in the screenshots above, installing the application is really easy, but I must advise you to close all Web browsers during the process (you'll be warned by the setup program about this anyway, but it's better to know it from this moment).
Interface
The toolbar can be customized as you wish, by adding and removing buttons and separators, you can use classic or 3D icons for it, and even download additional icon sets. The bad part is that I found only 4 such icon sets to download, which is a pity, but let's leave this behind and see what can be done with this program, shall we?
Features
When you click on Add Browser, you'll be required to select the executable file, and the program will retrieve that browser inside its database and apply the right settings. If your favorite browser is so obscure that it can't be found in the database, you can try to use the advanced browser integration mode, but that requires a system restart, first of all, and I don't have any browser that anonymus to make me use this.
What I really love about this download manager is the fact that while you are selecting the download location, the program is already downloading the file selected, decreasing the waiting time. Even better, a batch downloads tool is included, allowing you to easily grab groups of files from the same location, when their names are similar (for example, to download 10 files called data01.dat...data10.dat, you have to use http://path/data*.dat as the address).
Taking things a step further, the producers of this application also included a Site Grabber that allows you to download entire websites, or simply grab the files you need. Since setting options for such a task can get pretty tricky for beginners, IDM's Site Grabber has a few built in project templates to help you achieve your objective easier, and the wizard-style interface leaves only a little room for mistakes.
Other than the above, we have a very well done Scheduler with a very useful feature that enables you to set download limits (no more than x MB in x hours), and detailed, yet easy to use settings, of which I will only mention here the ability to choose a maximum connections number between 1 and 16 and to store user names and passwords for servers and sites you are using on a regular basis.
These being said, I'll leave the rest of the IDM treasure for you to discover, and I'm going to draw the conclusions, as usual...
The Good
Internet Download Manager is more than just a download manager, including an excellent Site Grabber and having outstanding browser integration abilities. The feature set is almost complete, and the ease of use and pricing are also just great!
The Bad
While similar products have remote administration capabilities and can download using the BitTorrent protocol, IDM still doesn't have them yet, but I hope it's only a matter of time until we see them included in its feature list.
Conclusion
Internet Download Manager is a very good deal, and since you can also try it for free, there shouldn't be anything stoping you from clicking the download link below. I don't want to say big words, but I can guarantee that this program works like a charm, doesn't kill your computer and your downloads are going to be faster and more reliable than before.
Developer: Internet Download Manager Corp.
Price: $29.95
Trial Link: Download










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