Do you usually download from free file sharing sites like Rapidshare, Megaupload and the likes? If so, you'll love jDownloader.

This Java-based tool makes the whole file downloading process much easier for those sites, saving you the pain of going through endless pop-up windows, waiting times and download links cunningly hidden among dozens of Google AdSense boxes.

jDownloader works best with multiple downloads, as it enables you to create a list of files and then download them all at the same time. Other interesting options include the possibility to limit bandwidth usage and support for premium user accounts. Unlike other download managers though, jDownloader doesn't have support for resuming downloads.

That said, the only thing that really needs to be improved is its user interface. I don't know if it's just the design, or the fact that the program runs on Java, but the truth is that jDownloader is confusing and sometimes counterintuitive.

If you take the time to learn how to use it, jDownloader will prove to be a handy companion for download junkies.

Download jDownloader 0.2.888 in Softonic

If you're a massive user of both Rapidshare and Megaupload it's a pain to use two separate administrators to manage your upload and downloads.

In the case of Rapidshare the most annoying thing is that you have to wait before you can click on a file to download it. FreeRapid Downloader offers a more holistic way to manage your downloads and uploads in one convenient application. It lets you download files hosted on Megaupload, Rapidshare, Netload or FileFactory without needing to click a single thing.

FreeRapid Downloader basically works by allowing you to add several links at the same time until they're queued up waiting to go. It can even monitor your clipboard for links that are cut to it and automatically add them to your queue. While this definitely makes managing your downloads easier, it still only downloads files one by one meaning if you've got several files from several file sharing sites, it can be painfully slow.

FreeRapìd Downloader will make your file sharing site downloads easier to manage although not speed them up in any significant way.

Download FreeRapid Downloader 0.61 in Softonic

Download managers are one of the most important component of any PC users' tool kit since so many e-mails contains attachments that need to be downloaded on a daily basis.

That's not forgetting files and music and anything else that your hard drive accumulates during the day as you click away. Most people have a browser integrated download manager but sometimes, its nice to have a separate application to do the job in case your browser crashes and your downloads disappear with it.

Orbit Downloader is a fast, lightweight and easy-to-use free download manager which is usually based on P2P and multi-source downloading technology. This means that downloading with Orbit Downloader is usually super fast. Orbit Downloader supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, MMS and RTSP protocols although its developers claim that it can increase speeds by up to 500% are a bit far fetched. However, you may experience increases in speed of up to two or even three times as much using Orbit Downloader depending on the file and host.

What's also impressive is that Orbit Downloader is super lightweight occupying a very minuscule amount of RAM which is important if you've got multiple downloads running at once. Orbit Downloader has also got a handy Flash capture tool which allows you to save Flash video files from YouTube and DailyMotion etc without the need to use a separate video downloader.

Fast, easy to use and very lightweight, Orbit Downloader is a competitive alternative to any browser-integrated download manager.

Download Orbit Downloader 2.7.6 in Softonic

Boasting the ability to improve the speed of your downloads by an incredible 300 percent, Download Accelerator Plus features multi-server connections to let you squeeze the best possible performance from your Net connection.

The beauty of the software lies in its simplicity, you just choose the file you want to download, tell the program where you want it to be filed away then forget about as DAP does all the donkey work for you. What’s more, if you get booted offline for any reason the software will automatically resume the download from the place it had already reached.

DAP even searches for “mirror sites” for you and this serves to make downloading a pretty painless process, with the app sucking up files fairly quickly. DAP is a veritable feature-fest making the whole process much easier by including functions like automatic hang-up on completion of a download, download scheduling, and dial-up configuration – a handy tool for anyone not yet blessed with broadband.

The only slight niggle for some people may be the fact that it is nigh-on impossible to turn the thing off, unlike most of its peers, where you can choose to manually download something fairly easily. Having said this, because the program is so easy to use and integrates beautifully with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browsers, there really is little reason why you wouldn’t want this great utility keeping watch of your downloads all the time.

Download Download Accelerator Plus 8.7 in Softonic

Neither the download managers that come bundled with Firefox or IE are particularly impressive so it's a good idea to add a third party downloader or plugin.

Fresh Download claims it can "turbo charge" downloads to make them download in less than half the time they would normally. It works with both FTP and HTTP protocols and gives you a whole range of control over how downloads are completed. Included is a pause and resume feature which is very useful for broken downloads or those downloads that suddenly and annoyingly time out. The program achieves such high speeds due to it's ability to connect to multiple connections and it works across most major browsers. if you don't want to carry out downloads immediately, you can also schedule them for a later date and it can even download links that you've copied to your clipboard or dragged into the main interface from your desktop. If you're downloading zip files, it can also decompress them automatically with it's own Zip extractor although note that it's not particularly powerful or fast - you'd be better using WinZip or WinRAR.

Although you won't notice huge download speeds, you will notice an improvement and besides, this is a much easier way to manage downloads.

Download Fresh Download 8.06 in Softonic

RapGet (full name RAPidshareGET) is a downloader with code recognition for such share servers as rapidshare.de, megaupload.com, slil.ru and others.

The program recognizes codes used by these servers and can directly obtain a connection with each to get hold of your favourite files. In addition, RapGet can work with multiple simultaneous downloads and offers information on each one of the files. It also has support for more than 40 languages.

Download RapGet 1.41 in Softonic

Free Download Manager (FDM) is a full-featured download accelerator and manager. Using this software you can easily download a list of files and whole web sites from any remote server via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. With FDM the downloading process will be as easy as never before!

FDM is a light-weight, powerful and easy-to-use application. Also this software product is well-known for its intuitive and user-friendly interface. It can function as a site manager, accelerator, site explorer and scheduler.

Free Download Manager can resume broken downloads. So you needn't start the downloading process from the very beginning after casual interruption. You can resume unfinished download from the moment when it was interrupted. Also this program warns you if resuming isn't supported by the servers. It allows you to make a decision about the downloading. So with FDM you save your time and money.

Download Free Download Manager 2.5.758 in Softonic

There are so many TV torrents now available that it's hard to keep track of your favourite ones especially long running series.

The problem I find is that all too often, you wait ages for a torrent to appear and then the minute your back is turned and you've lost interest, someone posts the exact torrent you were waiting for. This torrent tracker provides the perfect solution if you're a TV torrent downloader and it supports all mainstream shows such as 24, Lost, Topgear, Desperate Housewives, the Simpsons, South Park, Grey's Anatomy, Battlestar Galactica, etc and more. Adding your own shows is very easy courtesy of a simple wizard and you'll find that you download less fake torrents because it can detect which torrents are genuine and which are not. By defining keywords, you can instruct the program which programs to ignore or keywords to filter out. In addition, the program utilises "break schedulers" which optimise torrents to ensure that you're getting the best out of your bandwidth. Saving torrents is easy as you it takes them directly to your hard drive asking you which torrent client you'd like to download it with. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to distinguish between languages when downloading torrents so if you don't want to watch Battlestar Gallactica in German, then double check the torrents as they are downloading.

A very useful torrent tracker which any TV series fan will find saves them time, effort and fake torrents.

Download ted 0.92 in Softonic

A friend of mine who is a Mac user is always complaining about not being able to download full photo albums from Picasa. Well, I'm glad to tell her I just found the solution.

Picasa Webalbums Assistant is a simple Java tool developed by a computer student who also had the same problem as my friend: if you use a Mac and therefore don't have Picasa, downloading photo albums one picture at a time is a real pain. Of course, that doesn't mean this app is only intended for Mac users. If you use Windows but don't like Picasa you can also take advantage of this app. You'll be able to download material both from public and private albums and select the right photos thanks to its convenient thumbnail preview.

Having been created in Java, the program is not certainly very nice or user-friendly. However you can tell the author has made a great effort to make it as easy to use as possible.

While Picasa Webalbums Assistant doesn't have the most attractive interface in the world, it's the perfect tool to download Picasa photo albums without Picasa.

Download Picasa Webalbums Assistant 0.3 in Softonic

VisualWget is a download manager based on the Wget core retriever. It differs from it in that it provides an interface to manage files easily but at the same time it's similar to it in the ability to stop a download, and resume at any time.

Each download can be configured independently to assign their priority, and can also be downloaded by the percentage, size, transfer speeds, etc. VisualWget detects any download active on your PC and adds it to its interface, working seamlessly with any browser.

The most outstanding feature is the recursive downloads which basically means that you don't need to worry about dropped connections. However many times a connection fails, VisualWget keeps on doing file petitions indefinitely. It does not matter whether the cuts are your own internet connection or from the server delivering the file - in the end you will end up downloading the whole file.

VisualWget is an excellent download manager that shows clearly absolutely everything that's being downloaded onto your hard drive.

Download VisualWget 2.0.5 in Softonic

Ever wanted to stop and resume a download at a later date? Neither Firefox or Internet Explorer allow you to do this without extensions but this program does.

You can temporarily pause your download and resume it instantly a few minutes later and this includes both FTP and HTTP downloads. There's also support for BitTorrent transfers and Metalinks with full and partial hash verification, multi file support and display of metalink file information. No matter how many times your download is interrupted or stopped Retriever always ensures you have a successful download. You also have the ability to segment downloads so only a portion of the file will be downloaded which means that multi file torrents with individual files can be selected for download. You can even schedule downloads so that they start automatically. It can also store passwords for downloads from sites that require authorisation first.

In summary, this is a useful solution for anyone who experiences dripped downloads frequently or doesn't want to be tied to one download session although it does seem to drop downloads too.

Download Retriever Download Manager 1.08 in Softonic

WinGet is a simple download manager that makes the task of downloading files lighter on you.

The program looks quite basic when compared to other similar tools, both in appearance and functionality. Although the developers have included general browser integration among its features, we couldn't make it work with Firefox – only with Internet Explorer.

However, as the program can also monitor the Clipboard, you can copy links in Firefox in order to be able to download them with WinGet. Inexplicably, sometimes the program keeps on displaying the download start dialog, which I found pretty annoying.

All your downloads are conveniently organized by the program into different customizable categories. You can also check the amount of data downloaded during a certain period of time, be it just today or the whole month. WinGet features a quite complete configuration menu where you can tweak the program's behavior from its bandwidth usage limit to what it should do after the download is finished.

WinGet is a small, lightweight download manager that includes only the most basic tools in this kind of software applications.

Download WinGet 3.0 in Softonic

Flickr Downloader is not the first tool specifically created to download photos from Flickr, but it includes some interesting features that make it worth mentioning.

With Flickr Dowloader you can perform searches on Flickr based on a given username, e-mail address, tags or groups. You don't even need to have a Flickr account or allow the program to access it. Just enter the necessary keywords to find the images you're looking for – or just the username, if you know it. Make sure it's properly spelled though, because otherwise the program won't work.

Flickr Downloader will then show all the photos matching your keywords or stored in that given account. Be patient, because if there are many photos the program will take a while to display all of them. You'll be able to select photos one by one or just the complete set, and download it right away to your computer. Again, if there are images to be downloaded, this process may get a bit lengthy.

Besides downloading images, Flick Downloader also enables you create simple yet effective Flash slideshows with the pictures you just obtained. It doesn't require any coding or design knowledge – only a few clicks through a wizard-like interface - and turns out to be a great way to share pictures on your website. What's more, you can also use them as customized screensavers for your computer.

Flickr Downloader not only downloads photos from Flickr in a quick, handy way, but also lets you create Flash slideshows and personal screensavers with them very easily.

Download Flickr Downloader 1.0 in Softonic

Remember the days of dial-up connections, when to save money, you'd try and save and download as many pages as possible for reading later? With the advent of broadband, those days are thankfully gone for most people. But there are occasions when you might want to save a whole website for offline reading or to do a backup. If that's your case, then you could do a lot worse than try WinHTTrack Website Copier.

The good news is that this program is open source and totally free to use. The designer has done his level best to ensure that it's easy to use - which it is - but if you explore the program in more depth, you'll find that WinHTTrack is loaded with features galore that enable you to specify all sorts of parameters.

There are four main menu drop downs you'll need to use - 'File', 'Preferences', 'Mirror' and 'Set'. All the most common functions are performed via the time-honoured 'File' drop-down menu at the top - from here you can select to download websites and pages by entering the URL. In the preferences box, you can select exactly which format you'd like to download it such as simply HTML which only saves the coding or MHTML (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) which saves the page as a whole in one file. The Mirror menu allows you to select whether you'd like to be able to pause the transfer whilst downloading although it only becomes an option when you start the operation.

If you don't want to use the menus, an excellent wizard takes you through the process. With this, you merely have to give the project a name and specify a path to save it to. The program does the rest by using the most common settings for downloading sites. Don't worry if your connection is interrupted either, as the program can resume broken downloads at any stage.

One really useful option is in the 'Set' menu which allows you to bypass http and download directly via FTP. This is a lot quicker, although you'll need to have a little bit of FTP knowledge to configure it correctly. This option also allows you to omit certain pages from a site, a feature which, unless you are performing a backup, you'll almost certainly use. You can also set how 'deep' you want the website to be saved. For instance, do you want it to save everything that's linked to the site too or just the site itself? If you set it to 'everything' you might end up waiting a very long time as WinHTTrack Website Copier will download absolutely everything the site is linked to from every page! You can also set a 'timeout' limit for dead links so that you're not waiting all day for it to download.

One final useful option is to enable the PC to shutdown once a site has been downloaded. Some huge sites will take hours to download in which case, you can leave it running overnight but not worry about leaving your PC on.

For downloading whole websites, WinHTTrack Website Copier is a fantastic tool. The main downside we found was the program's responsiveness. Once a download is started, it seems very hard to stop, even if you ask it to cancel the operation. The program can run quickly out of control downloading sites and you end up having to use the Windows task manager to terminate it. If only this has existed 10 years ago!

Download WinHTTrack Website Copier 3.42 in Softonic

ImageShack Hotspot is an easier way to upload images to the ImageShack server. The look and feel is like that of FlashGet so you can move the upload button around the screen and it always remembers its current position. It is also semi-transparent so you can see what's below it which is useful as it's not so obstructive on your desktop.

However, if it still annoys you, you can place it in the system tray if you choose. The upload process is very straightforward. Simply drag your image file (all ImageShack formats are supported) onto the frog i.e. the Hotspot and when you drop the image file, the upload process will begin. When finished successfully, you will get three links of the image file - a direct image url, an HTML code for Web sites or MySpace and a BB code for forums. The latest version features enhanced clipboard support for Firefox too.

If you're an ImageShack user, then this is quite simply a much faster and better way to upload images to the server.

Download ImageShack Hotspot 1.3 in Softonic

Youtube Batch Downloader is designed for all those video junkies that prefer downloading Youtube videos to watching them online. There are other tools to download videos from the popular website, that's true: but this one is special for a few reasons.

First, it enables you to download not only single videos, but also multiple videos at the same time. You can actually download all the videos grouped under the same author, channel or group with a single click.

Second, the program can save videos in a variety of formats, namely AVI, WMV, MOV, MP4 and special formats for iPod and Zune. No conversion process, no waiting time. The video is downloaded, converted and saved, all in one!

Finally, you can join these downloaded videos into one single file, so that they're easier to watch, especially if they are similar in topic.

The only downside to Youtube Batch Downloader is that you'll probably need to check the documentation if you want to learn how to use, because it's not as easy as it seems. In any case, documentation is a Youtube video itself, so it's not that hard.

A Youtube video downloading tool that also converts formats and join several clips in one.

Download YouTube Batch Downloader 1.0 in Softonic

Sharing your music, pictures, videos and documents with pals used to be a very arduous task. You'd have to copy everything onto a floppy or CD, get on your bike and travel to their house and present it to them. Thanks to growing Internet speeds and more hosting sizes it's now so much easier to get these files to your friends. Upload 2000 Turbo respresents a good example of how file sharing technology has evolved.

The application lets you take advantage of unlimited mail server space to share files via P2P. Because Upload 2000 splits the files into smaller chunks, the data transmission takes place very quickly, though the speed also depends on the server you're using. The program is different to normal P2P solutions, and it doesn't contain a search feature. As a result you can only really share files and folders with people you know, but this is not necessarily a bad thing because it means downloading files is much quicker.

If you want to take advantage of unlimited server space to exchange files quickly with your friends and family, Upload 2000 provides a simple, yet comprehensive solution.

Download Upload 2000 Turbo 1.2 in Softonic

The Amazon MP3 Downloader lets you buy whole album's from Amazon's newly released (and much talked about) music store. You can also use the application to download single tracks, although it's much easier to do this online. Once installed and configured, the Amazon MP3 Downloader will launch automatically every time you decide to purchase a new album. Fitted with basic actions, it allows you to resume and pause your downloads, whose status you can monitor via a percentage bar on the right.

All downloaded albums will be automatically imported to iTunes or Windows Media Player. If you use any other MP3 player, like Winamp, you'll have to do this manually. Easy to use, the Amazon MP3 Downloader is built to handle whole album downloads and serves as a link between the MP3 store and your music library. If you're planning to buy music on the Amazon store, you'll need this app.

Download Amazon MP3 Downloader 1.0 in Softonic

Here at Softonic we download and test up to 30 programs a day, so having a download manager on our PCs definitely makes our life easier. Flashget is considered by many to be the best download manager out there, but does it really deserve this reputation? We gave it a test drive to uncover the features that make it such a widely-coveted application.

Flashget takes charge of your downloads, automating the whole process from start to finish. Among the essential features of a download manager is batch downloading of multiple files, well handled by the program. Flashget also lets you schedule downloads to start at particular times. This is good when you have a long list of files waiting to be downloaded but you want to avoid sucking up bandwidth. You can schedule them to download one after the other, or at times when you will not be using your PC. What makes Flashget a particularly valuable tool is the speed of its downloads. You can cut up a file into various parts to download it faster and can optimize the speed according to your connection. When tested out, Flashget definitely revealed higher performances than the in-browser download managers included in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Modem users will appreciate the auto-connect/disconnect function but the majority of users, who are on broadband, can ignore this feature. Our favourite function was the ability to explore a website for all possible downloads, an easy way to catch all the files in a site in one go. However, avoid using this tool for a website like Softonic, otherwise you’ll end up with hundreds or even thousands of random programs queued up.

Flashget is compatible with Internet Explorer and Netscape (meaning it also works with Firefox and Opera) but a little browsing on the developer’s website and you will find out that it also offers plug-ins for Opera and Firefox.

Flashget allows you to set up rules for your downloads, such as organizing them according to name or URL; a promising feature which actually turned out to be pretty disappointing. Where we expected a whole range of filters to select and organize downloads according to categories like size, download speed or even comments, we only found two sets of rules, seriously limiting this feature’s possibilities.

So what is our verdict? Flashget has enough features to make it a solid option for any download addict or beginner alike. What’s more, Flashget is fast. Actually, it’s really fast: the Formula 1 of download managers. If you download files often, you won’t be disappointed.

Download FlashGet 1.9.6.1073 in Softonic

Flickr has become something of an institution on the Internet, and there are thousands of people using it on a regular basis to store and share their photos online. Even if you don't have a Flickr account you're still able to navigate the site and look at what other people have added. Sareen Flickr Downloader is designed to help you save images from Flickr in a more effective way.

Unfortunately, this doesn't really work and I found that downloading images was just as quick, if not quicker, using the good old fashioned right-click method. The application is a bit of a pain to install because you can't choose where to install it, and once it's running it's still pretty cumbersome. It acts like a web browser for Flickr, except instead of right-clicking to save an image you click the 'Save' button in Flickr Downloader. The image is then downloaded and displayed in a panel at the bottom of the interace. But you can't do anything with it - just look at it. What's more, the application restricts you on what you can download by making you choose a filter for small, medium or large images.

On the plus side, the program allows you to add star ratings and tags to the images you pilfer from Flickr, making it easier for you to manage them once you've got them. Flickr Downloader may save you time grabbing photos from the famous social networking site, but this will be negligible.

Download Saleen Flickr Downloader 1.0.013 in Softonic