Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

kstev99 reviewed v5.1.23 on Jan 24, 2017

Version 3.x worked great. I used it for years. I'm sorry to say that I had to abandon it and start using IDM. Version 5 of this program just plain sucks. Half of the features that version 3 had are gone.

Sorry FDM, it was great while it lasted but you had to ruin a good program with this dumbed down version

AMIB reviewed v5.1.22 on Jan 3, 2017

The new version 5 is as simple as a baby software and it is so huge compare to features included.
I'll continu using V3 till they revise this unusable version

uberfly reviewed v5.1.20 on Nov 30, 2016

Always have used the Lite version, but is bulletproof. Awesome app!

kstev99 reviewed v5.1.15 on Jul 19, 2016

I've used FDM for a long time, and love the 3.x versions. Why they had to dumb-down the interface in this new version and remove valuable options is beyond me.

Version 5 is not ready for prime time and should still be in BETA stage, if they are going to leave most of the functionality of the program out. Terrible.

mchargue reviewed v5.1.15 on Jul 19, 2016

The new version looks nothing like what's pictured. While I can applaud the intentions behid the devs, the new version is harder to use. By a lot.

smaragdus reviewed v5.1.5.3224 Beta on Apr 13, 2016

The screen-shot is misleading- this is the GUI of Free Download Manager version 3 which is excellent, while the Beta (FDM 5) looks terrible. I give 5 stars for FDM 3 and 1 star for FDM 5 (the abominable Beta).

some guy reviewed v3.9.4 Build 1479 on Oct 16, 2014

over rated IDM is a better choice but for free better then winblows default

BANDIT- reviewed v3.9.3.1358 on Sep 23, 2013

Get the Lite version Unless you still Bat on with Torrents.. Snigggger..!!
Easily made portable from the "setup" file via CMD:Innounp
Highly configurable. Well maintained..... A super 5*

UPieper reviewed v3.9.2.1288 on Jan 16, 2013

Been using it for years. Works flawlessly...and it's free!

connectplus reviewed v3.9.1.1261 Beta on Aug 24, 2012

Downloaded this program and experienced such great pain trying to download Xubuntu files for almost two weeks straight, that I couldn't wait to get it off of my computer. Firstly, I tried downloading the 680 MB file without torrent...it stopped several times; then I tried the torrent download--3 days later, it said it was 100% downloaded, but I also noticed lots of wasted MBs in the log files; I went to open the file and it had 27 KB. Now you know I'm hot at this point! Silly me, tried once more just to be fair; and waited another 24 hours for it to download, but it stopped at 89% and refused to download further. I'm not one for wasting my time and really get angry when something else does! If this works for you, great! It didn't did work for me even with all of its beautiful interface and tooted useful tools.

liciopm reviewed v3.9.1.1252 Beta on May 29, 2012

Why FDM not operation with Firefox 9.0 - It's very very good...

Thank you by information

Liciopm

KuHGl reviewed v3.9 RC1 Build 1194 on May 5, 2012

Sorry for this review, but it doesn't seem to be avoidable. As long as I work with Win 7 64 FDM (3.8.x as well as 3.9.x) is not capable of calculating a correct bandwidth (at least it looks like). Fact: Most files are downloaded either with 2 chunks and a download speed, which is 20% (sometimes less than 10%) of - for example - DownThemAll. No way to change this behavior and also (that's the major reason why you can read this review) no chance to tell the developers on their forum this fact. Always I get the reply 'can not be reproduced', what I - sorry for this - can not ant therefore will not believe.
It seems that FDM works for the majority of users - and that's enough.
As a conclusion: If it works for you - be happy and use it (since it has very interesting features. If it doesn't work don't wait for the developer team to fix any bug - it's very unlikely that your message is processed (exception: Many other users tell the same).
Poor working program, poor forum (at least for me, sorry) - poor rating: 1 - PERIOD.

CregLion reviewed v3.9 Build 1194 RC1 on Mar 16, 2012

long path tool is appropriate for ending problem in managing, unlocking, renaming files. http://longpathtool.com/

Joseph A reviewed v3.8 Build 1173 on Dec 29, 2011

An excellent download manager.

There is also a "lite" version available at http://files.freedownloa...g/lite/fdminst-lite.exe which does not have the Video Conversion and the BitTorrent plugins, and the Language Pack. These can added later, if desired. See http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm.

rip_pit reviewed v3.8.1090 Beta 4 on Aug 18, 2011

changelog : http://freedownloadmanag...pic.php?f=1&t=15602

Karol Mily reviewed v3.7 RC1 Build 956 on Jun 13, 2011

Have you tried - http://www.httrack.com/ or http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm. Wget for Windows is my selection, run very fast. It is comsole app, there are GUI fot it.

rip_pit reviewed v3.5 RC Build 930 on Sep 17, 2010

one of the best downloaders i tried. Contains all the helpfull features need to download plus more, like video download, preview and convert

I once loved FlashGet but I found in FDM a great replacement

Not yet tested this build but i'm sure it'll do it better

tranglos reviewed v3.5 RC Build 930 on Sep 15, 2010

I've had a highly disappointing experience with FDM just recently.

One, YouTube downloads do not work at all. For a YouTube URL, FDM downloads an extensionless file named "view", which is simply the html page YouTube serves to the browser. I guess this is a bug, but what happened to testing?

Two, notice how inconvenient it is to set your own filename for a (regular http) download. I download a lot of podcasts cia Google reader - copy URL, paste in downloader. But these files almost always have uninformtaive names, like xx_YYMMDD.mp3. So I rename them to showname_person_interviewed_YYMMDD or such. Well., in FDM to rename the destinatioun file you have to click a button. The button does not have a keyboard accelerator. So you either have to use the mouse or tab through all the controls to reach the button. By contrast, in ReGetDX, all I have to do after pasting the URL is type "a" (not even Alt-A, though that works too), and the focus jumps to the destination filename field.

Minor, yes, nitpicky, yes, but it's annoying when you do it hundreds of times, and also indicative that developers don't really think much about user experience. Alt+key accelerators are there for free, just put an ampersand in the control's caption - what could be hard about that? And there's a lot of software out there that neglects this simple, basic UI facility. So I'll stay with Reget, even though it hasn't been updated in quite some time, and I still need a different app for downloading from YouTube.

kevinebrown reviewed v3.5 RC Build 928 on Sep 5, 2010

I have been using FDM for years and have yet to find anything that comes close to the speed at which this little applicaton downloads.

I dno't use it for the BitTorrent activity as I don't care much for the user interface plus I like to have my Torrents download in differnent locations than my regular downoads....I would probably use this for Torrents if I could specifiy regular FDM download directories and torrent downloads that way I could seperate these.

At any rate a real winner here!!!

YoungOldies reviewed v3.5 RC Build 928 on Aug 30, 2010

Nice to see some life again in this great download manager.

Gabrielw22 reviewed v3.5 RC Build 928 on Aug 30, 2010

I've always loved Free Download Manager. This RC is only 5905KB.

Joseph A reviewed v3.5 RC Build 928 on Aug 30, 2010

This version of FDM solved most pending problems. The only bug I found is merely cosmetic (the download notification windows just flashes even though it is enabled to stay) .

In addition to the "Latest Changes" above, there are two more:
- Fix: Other Windows 7 compatibility issues
- Fix: Minor interface issues fixes
- Fix: Open file button does not open downloaded files of unknown types in Internet Explorer.

Let us hope the final version is released soon.

This is the best download manager in my humble opinion.

shantanu reviewed v3.4 Build 902 Alpha on Jun 10, 2010

3.4 alpha (902) doesn't show up in the tray after Windows starts. I have to kill the fdm.exe process and restart it to make it show up in the tray.

Otherwise, the best!

Mystiqq reviewed v3.4 Build 902 Alpha on May 25, 2010

I was plesantly surprised after switching from older FlashGet (the new one is an abomination) to FDM.

FlashGet tend to suck about 12MB memory even when idle but FDM does not appear to go over 3MB ever, actually hovers close to 2MB at all times. Interface is super fast, although theres some "redraw flicking" when you change tabs etc.

Also has some nice extra features like Bittorrent support, which i occationally use. Not to mention all this is free!

bobad reviewed v3.4 Build 902 Alpha on Apr 22, 2010

This is the best free download manager by far, and I'm glad it's still in development. It does exactly what you need to do, which is click once on the D/L link, and walk away from your computer. Notification sounds optionally let you know when the D.L starts, finishes, of fails, so you don't have to watch a little icon in the tray to know what's happening.

Only downside, and not real serious, is the Setup Options. They're not intuitive or well organized, and no matter how many times I set the program up, it's confusing and time consuming.

The "Portable" option doesn't work so great. It keeps losing settings in both WinXP and Win7.

jmcowan reviewed v3.4 Build 892 Alpha on Mar 18, 2010

There is no official Firefox x64 build at this point, and it works fine in 32-bit browsers (Firefox, Opera, IE) on Windows (Vista, 7) x64.

hap8192739 reviewed v3.4 Build 892 Alpha on Mar 17, 2010

Doesn't work on 64 bit which I think is a must at this point in time... I dropped this software

us3r reviewed v3.0.870 on Sep 16, 2009

Best freeware download manager out there.

Version 3.0.870. Changes:

[+] "Download done" small notification window
[+] Option: Check if a new download is the mirror for existing one
[*] Improved monitoring for Internet Explorer
[+] Google Chrome up to version 4.0 support
[*] An Internet Explorer 8 related problem fixed
[-] General bug fixes

Second Shadow reviewed v3.0.870 on Sep 16, 2009

Changelog:

http://freedownloadmanager.org/changelog.txt

dhry reviewed v3.0.865 on Aug 29, 2009

I recently migrated to this program after being a user of the free Flashget for a LONG time. While I used to swear by it, Flashget's more recent versions have been a little too ambitious and after the most recent time where it just spontaneously lost all its settings I blew it away. Did a little research and got this one. I haven't got enough info to form much of an opinion on whether anything is better than FDM (although I know for a fact that Leechget and ReGet are NOT) and over the next couple of weeks I'll be checking out the newest versions of GetRight, Internet Download Manager and the rest of the pack. For the moment, I'm pleasantly surprised by this program (it worked very well straight out of the "box" and intercepted downloads from both IE and FF) and you obviously can't beat the price.. it just remains to be seen whether I find anything sh1te about it after using it for a while. For the moment, 5 stars.

Leighton E. Cyr reviewed v3.0.865 on Jun 9, 2009

I've checked the author's site and 3.0.848 is current version. I downloaded this one, and it is still showing 3.0.848 as it's version. This is not 3.0.865

us3r reviewed v3.0.865 on Jun 7, 2009

It seems to be some hot fix release for IE 8 users who reported issues on forum.

vghai reviewed v3.0.848 on Feb 12, 2009

A very good download manager. The only problem I found (and this might be because of my lack of knowledge) is that once you close the automatic download window, it never reopens. Has any one seen this behavior?

us3r reviewed v3.0.848 on Feb 6, 2009

I stopped using FDM around version 2.5 and just recently checked it again. I must say it came a long way and it is much better now. Does what it claims to do and it's completely free.

moncool reviewed v3.0.848 on Feb 5, 2009

Its Very2 cooooooool download manager i've ever tried...........trust me!!!!!!!!!!!!

GerritWittesaele reviewed v3.0.848 on Feb 2, 2009

Simply the BEST ! and freeeeeeeee !!!!!

bobad reviewed v3.0.848 on Feb 2, 2009

FDM is the best DL accelerator I have ever used. I like it because of the "silent mode", meaning you can set it up to click once on a D/L link and walk away knowing it will come down. (I don't use the "manager" part, I use the Windows Explorer to organize my stuff)

I particularly like a FlashGet feature they borrowed, which is sound. When starting a D/L, I like a small sound to indicate the D/L started successfully, and a boisterous "File's done!" to indicate the D/L finished. Also a sound for errors is helpful in case of stoppages.

The bad? SInce I don't like the default settings at all, it takes some doing to set it all up as I prefer. The good news is, you can export a registry patch to instantly configure it on another machine. I would really like to see a true portable version that registers and unregisters itself with 1 click, sort of like 7-Zip does.

GerritWittesaele reviewed v3.0.844 on Jan 4, 2009

It's the best download manager, and it's free, so there you have it !

But I miss some easy to incorporate features, like having the option to store more that 1 login combo per site, or an easy rightclick option to redownload a file from history.

Other than that, it's a fantastic free app !

aruprc reviewed v3.0.844 on Jan 3, 2009

I agree, don't know why this kitchen sink attitude of incorporating torrent, software informer and coverter, just do what you do best and that is being a download manager. Adding other stuff will only add to the bloat. In their defense, they do have a stripped down lighter version and that has none of the other stuff, also during install, one has the option of turning all the other extras off.

JCookes reviewed v3.0.844 on Jan 3, 2009

Exactly what sorlag says !
but it's still the best download manager anyway.

sorlag reviewed v3.0.844 on Jan 2, 2009

Nice download manager...
But it is slowly turning into a bittorrent only app...
each and every new version, the only thing they work on is bittorrent.
Please stop that...
for bittorrent there is utorrent...
you should work on the download manager part...

keiichi999 reviewed v3.0.844 on Jan 2, 2009

best download manager on earth, It's obvious, opensource, richness of features and smal memory usage.

plasticpig72 reviewed v2.6.829 Beta on Jan 1, 2009

For the last 5 or 6 years I have been using flashget to as nothing was as good imho, it has started to get buggy since it became freeware and you can never be sure of the new versions i.e. where they are coming from and what they contain. However a few weeks ago I downloaded this just to give it a try. Flashget is now removed from all my systems.

aruprc reviewed v2.6.829 Beta on Dec 27, 2008

Initially this used to be the download manager of my choice, however I got tempted by Orbit which is also an excellent downloader,specially the feature of downloading flash videos by Grab Pro++ but sadly, it also adds Orbit tab to my IE7 which makes it crash and worse of all, I am unable to turn on DEP which is important for me so back to FDM which causes no problems with DEP and also runs very good.

manogamez reviewed v2.6.825 Beta on Nov 20, 2008

From what I have tried, this is easily the best download manager out there. But I won't give it a 5 because I think it can be improved. As of now, the interface is too busy. I love the features that FDM offer especially HTML explorer and it's ability to capture downloads. However, I do think there is a bit of tidying up to do on the interface and the way FDM itself communicates with the user. Specifically, I would like to see:

-----SCRATCH THAT------
I've found the interface customization options and I'm officially impressed. Notification can be customized to the "T" and I don't even notice FDM anymore. It interfaces so well with Vista!

Nighted reviewed v2.6.825 Beta on Nov 19, 2008

@twood lol. :D

FDM FTW!!!

zapatero reviewed v2.6.825 Beta on Nov 19, 2008

It works, and the interface has improved since the last time I checked it. But it is still 12% slower than Internet Download Manager (average download speed in my system), and it is difficult to uninstall it completely. Second best.

twood reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 17, 2008

@ blahman
Hmmmm a trojan that steals your computer, that must be pretty amazing, does it make your computer get up and run away? Anyways, I've been using it for about 6 months now, its very good, very light and keeps my downloads from being dropped or eating up all my bandwidth. 5/5. I'd love to see a linux release if at all possible. ;)

iamnotyou reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 13, 2008

A great program.

I like that the smaller "lite" version is available, sans the torrent/up-load/video features that I don't need. I use BitTorrent for torrent files and FDM for 'normal' files.

Kudos and thanks for the software.

PRoBiSoNe reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 7, 2008

blahman2005 experienced an ID10T error!

LoL he must have failed along the line somewhere.

This app, along with its plugins, like torrents for example, is one of the best download managers I have ever used. I used to use FlashGet, but this does a better job IMO.

A SOLID 5!!!

janset reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 7, 2008

I am a Qualified Logic Thinker and I have never seen a computerprogram steal a computer.

blahman2005 reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 7, 2008

Unlike the people commenting on here I am a qualified computer expert and my antivirus software warns of a trojan which is a program which steals your computer. DO NOT INSTALL THIS PROGRAM IT IS DANGEROUS.

reddy.shyam reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 7, 2008

Excellent piece of software. Serves my purpose. Thanks to the author.

ILLEGALien reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 6, 2008

Beta changelogs can be found in the 2.6Beta forum post:

http://www.freedownloadm...d/viewtopic.php?t=10255

Aegis69 reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 6, 2008

Ironic that this is now an open source application, that cannot download anything from sourceforge.net

hap8192739 reviewed v2.6.818 Beta on Nov 6, 2008

Still not compatible with 64 bit

kail reviewed v2.6.814 Beta on Nov 5, 2008

I like & use FDM frequently. But, I'd also like to know what is fixed in each build. The change log posted below only goes up to build 758.

teranova52 reviewed v2.6.805 Beta on Sep 23, 2008

I do like this software too , but there is so many updates , with out to point out what it gets fixed.

Here is the link of the log for any one who cares .
http://freedownloadmanager.org/changelog.txt

Bottom line , this software for simple downloads works well from day one.

Beware to update the Firefox 3 FDM plugin, with the latest one.
How to do that ... just delete the old plugin from Firefox , and reinstall the latest FDM .

Ryusennin reviewed v2.6.805 Beta on Sep 18, 2008

FDM'ing since 1886.

stranded reviewed v2.6.805 Beta on Sep 18, 2008

I really like this program, I found it accidentally on the net and I use it since then. It's so much better than any browser's built in download manager.

dhry reviewed v2.6.802 Beta on Sep 18, 2008

I'm sorry. I had to join in this thread just because of the "Vista is not Windows" comment. HAHAHAHAHA! Whoever said that, pack your computer in it's box and take it back to Circuit City.

aruprc reviewed v2.6.802 Beta on Sep 17, 2008

Works fine here with XPx64...no issues.

port8001 reviewed v2.6.802 Beta on Sep 17, 2008

System requirements:
In order to use FDM, you must have one of the following operating systems installed on your computer:

Microsoft Windows 9x/ME/2000/2003/XP/Vista (32bit versions only)

bls2k5 reviewed v2.6.800 Beta on Sep 4, 2008

Vista is not Windows? Hmmm... my copy says Windows Vista, it even says it was made by Microsoft, don't they make Windows too? Hey but I'm sure that you know what you're saying ryu you must be sooooooooooooo smart. What an e-tard. I am currently running FDM on Vista Ultimate x64. Works fine here.

antimog reviewed v2.6.800 Beta on Aug 25, 2008

It works fine with Vista 64 bit.. have you even tried the program?

Ryusennin reviewed v2.6.800 Beta on Aug 25, 2008

Is there anyone dumb enough to downrate a program because it's not available on their OS? Vista is not Windows. Vista is Vista and is not supported by FDM. Period.

cyberguy reviewed v2.6.796 Beta on Aug 24, 2008

I will only give it a 3 since it is not officially supporting 64-bit Vista. I can see no overriding reason it should not but until it does it will continue to get a mediocre rating from me regardless of its features.

Reverb reviewed v2.6.783 Beta on Jul 26, 2008

The best download manager of Windows. Has all the features of other $hareware produtcts without the bloat. Handles multi-source FTP and HTTP downloads with ease and can also run as a portable app. And no, this does not contain spyware/adware or trojans. After install and scanning with NOD32 & Avast!, it comes up clean. Not fully trusting any antivir I performed manual checks to:

Startup registry entries-nothing added
Services-nothing added
Browser helper objects-nothing added
Start FDM, then close-check running tasks with Process Explorer & Taskinfo-nothing added

This is open source - you can download the source code and compile your own version if you like.

Repeat - this DOES NOT come with spyware/adware. You got spyware from something else you downloaded. You n00b!

aruprc reviewed v2.6.783 Beta on Jul 26, 2008

Excellent program, stable and does its job without any issues, the you tube downloader and converter works fine. There is no spyware period, from day one this good piece of software has been stigmatized due to some crap AS FP. I have Avira Premium and have scanned my system with Windows Defender, Super Anti Spyware and none have found anything bad in this program. Truly sad it gets blamed for nothing.

Those who are wondering whats new in this beta can check out FDM from at http://www.freedownloadm...d/viewtopic.php?t=10255

Roger Rabbit reviewed v2.6.783 Beta on Jul 25, 2008

Does anyone know what's new ?

Ryusennin reviewed v2.6.783 Beta on Jul 25, 2008

Does what it says and for the advertised price. No forced spyware whatsoever, except in the sick minds of the naysayers.

Yanaicka reviewed v2.6.783 Beta on Jul 25, 2008

Build to spy.

jeck reviewed v2.5.758 on Jun 20, 2008

Been using FDM for years; it works great on XP Pro. I've only had one problem with it in that whole time and it was a bug with the download. Spyware? What spyware; I have the most current version and I don't have any spyware on mine. I'm using it right now. It works great, but if you want to download torrents get Azureus or or uTorrent.

slickandy reviewed v2.5.758 on Jun 16, 2008

I used to love this program, but not any more! Riddled with spyware junk. Avoid!!!

darkxiiindp reviewed v2.5.758 on Jun 8, 2008

FDM create a addon to catch link in IE and it make my Windows Explorer crash everytime I close window. Thanks god. I uninstall it, now everything fine.

ShahinD reviewed v2.5.758 on May 29, 2008

Good Download manager but not good for torrent downloading.it's not possible to select witch files to download in a torrent package.

Galway reviewed v2.5.755 on May 15, 2008

Great DM, functions are clear and concise. Well recommended and works without problems on Vista and Server 2003. I have tried them all and prefer to only use this. Free is the icing on the cake.

If you already have a preferred torrent application, then I highly recommend the lite version that is leaner. Plug-ins can always be added later.

Many thanks.

incisor reviewed v2.5.753 on Feb 20, 2008

Works for me like a charm.
Open Source, active development and fast.
Best I have seen so far.

(@zapatero: No Problems with the Firefox extension FlashGot on my side.)

zapatero reviewed v2.5.753 on Feb 20, 2008

At least 12% slower than Internet Download Manager (not free) in my system. Some problems with the Firefox extension (conflicts with FlashGot).

xproject51 reviewed v2.5.752 on Feb 13, 2008

Just 4 because it's already 2.5.753 since yesterday.

Otherwise, this is a good download manager.

sorlag reviewed v2.5.752 on Feb 13, 2008

Excelent download manager!
Free Download Manager 2.5.753 is already out...

== BUILD 753 ==
[-] Bittorrent: progress tab did not show valid information when download was completed
[-] Bittorrent: restart download did not work

== BUILD 752 ==
[+] Support for non English names of files downloaded via HTTP protocol
[+] Bittorrent: peers tab improved
[-] Bittorrent 99% bug fixed
[-] Bittorrent: invalid characters in the names of peers
[-] Bittorrent: crash sometimes when stop download.
[-] Another bug of Bittorrent downloads
[-] FDM has lost login info of a download sometimes after performing the "query size" command
[-] Downloads info window was shown empty sometimes

http://freedownloadmanager.org/changelog.txt

TwinsDad reviewed v2.5.752 on Feb 13, 2008

I have been using this app for several years now and have never been disappointed. THis is as solid as software gets and even the betas are less troublesome than most release versions fo other "shareware" apps of thsi type. Gets my highest recommendation.

inventao reviewed v2.5.747 on Jan 29, 2008

Work fine in Vista, and FREE

uberfly reviewed v2.5.747 on Jan 29, 2008

Very solid. Easily the best and there are times when I work it hard. The occasional bug but nothing show-stopping. As a plus, it's constantly under development unlike a lot of other software projects. Love its built-in support for HTTPS.

Point Zero reviewed v2.5.745 on Jan 23, 2008

Full of bugs, yet this is the only downloader which ain't stupid enough to have Direct Download enabled on rapidshare.

roj reviewed v2.5.745 on Jan 21, 2008

Gold.

Just wish it could get past those damn sites that use PHP scripts for downloads.

FIVE stars.

Higgy reviewed v2.5.738 on Jan 2, 2008

I use FDM with Opera and oGet (http://my.opera.com/comm...ums/topic.dml?id=165365). It works just fine for me. The only site that doesn't work well is download.com, and that's due to an old Opera bug.

anomoly reviewed v2.5.737 on Dec 22, 2007

I tried it and it is not nearly as good as orbit.
Problem is network (I like having vidalia installed & running). It cannot default to using no proxy. Apparently you must specify per download and I don't have time to babysit the program.
Orbit's options are simpler as is it's gui.
This one is not nearly so user friendly.
Orbit is portable also.
2 only because it is OS
Name is TERRIBLE-ughh

profhsg reviewed v2.5.737 on Dec 21, 2007

Pros--lots of features--FREE

Cons--Has trouble with some sites including, ironically, this one, e.g., try downloading Launchy using FDM.

teranova52 reviewed v2.5.737 on Dec 19, 2007

This software works solid for me , with updates and with out them .

I like it allot , since the time, that started to handle torrents and youtube videos, i throed away any other download software .

Its perfect in my eyes , and does not need any updates .

gehtnix reviewed v2.5.737 on Dec 18, 2007

Tried it once and uninstalled the same day. It's not as clever as nettransport and flashget, even getright works better than this app.
I'd rate it 2, but will give 3 for being free. Well, flashget is free now, too...

DKDude reviewed v2.5.737 on Dec 17, 2007

Thanks for this GREAT tool, IMHO it's the best DM out there.

Keep up the good work.

BTW.
Merry Christmast and a happy new year.

roj reviewed v2.5.737 on Dec 17, 2007

I need to reconsider.

Methinks I should be grateful for these guys being willing to fix their product when bugs are uncovered (although I do wish they'd test a bit more thoroughly before release). There are after all a plethora of devs who just add new features and never fix old problems: NewsLeecher is an excellent case in point.

FIVE stars (and it will remain so) for excellence.

billweh reviewed v2.5.729 on Nov 26, 2007

I started using FDM about a year ago and I have tried Orbit and a few others since then and I always end up switching back.

It's a clean interface, it allows me to pick what directories/categories I want to place each file in (that alone was worth it to me).

I also like the fact that it keeps a history so that two weeks from now when I find a file in my downloads directory and can't remember where I got it from, I can look in FDM and go back to the site to see.

I know - that tells me I download too much crap :) - but at least I can find out why I downloaded it. :)

roj reviewed v2.5.729 on Nov 26, 2007

DavidGreen:

Free is not a substitute for solid and comprehensive testing. Take a lesson.

FOUR stars for a program I use every day that needs a better management team for QA.

bigmama reviewed v2.5.728 on Nov 24, 2007

Very good download manager. I would like to have less windows and popup messages. Try the lite version.

bgronas reviewed v2.5.728 on Nov 21, 2007

I use this together with Opera, and it's a tight and good combination. Absolutely reccommended!

Also, try out the Lite version, I personally think it is more than sufficient!

ljepava reviewed v2.5.728 on Nov 21, 2007

good program but i use orbit.
also i use opera.
if you need good plugin 4 opera so you can integrate download manager with opera go to
http://lexi.ucoz.ru/ and download Oget.

keir reviewed v2.5.728 on Nov 21, 2007

No rtsp, but what it does do it does well, so a 4 from me.

DavidGreen reviewed v2.5.728 on Nov 21, 2007

are you guys that think the reviews are sponsored by someone and the one that have a problem with the frequent releases are insane?! it's free/open source. say thank you when you get something you can use for free, or, program something better if you have a problem with the number of releases...you are so ungrateful.

roj reviewed v2.5.728 on Nov 20, 2007

Love the software - use it daily.

Hate the quality control - there is none.

It's juvenile and amateur and these people obviously don't test at all, else they wouldn't have so many releases in close proximity.

"Oops, we screwed up again - twice in 24 hours".

THREE stars for kids who can't get it together.

Here's a tip kiddies:

when you're about to do a release, WAIT at least 48 hours and THINK about it. Then maybe you won't have so many OOPSes happening.

Ain Soph Aur reviewed v2.5.727 on Nov 19, 2007

come on! This software is great! Many updates?? YES, and i love it, i dont want a software with the same 100 bugs as last month. why not solve them if it is possible?
really, this software is the best. i dont use firefox but opera, so i have not really the possibility for a very good plugin (but opera is mutch better than firefox...). i must use it, if i had firefox i would not use it...

kbyron reviewed v2.5.727 on Nov 19, 2007

This download manager is fair, but I really wonder about it with so many updates. It seems to me that the developer has not really thought out the entire project and the features he wants in it. It makes me wonder what he's going to do "tomorrow."

Consequently, I uninstalled FDM and found a nice plug-in for Firefox to do the work with big files. As for those who give effusively glowing reviews, I think the reviewers might be either the developer himself or someone he paid for the review.

poisonu reviewed v2.5.724 on Nov 16, 2007

Very Nice, but the interface is a bit clunky....

xanderzone365 reviewed v2.5.724 on Nov 14, 2007

BEST DOWNLOAD MANAGER EVER

Reverb reviewed v2.5.724 on Oct 30, 2007

I'm an Opera user and Free Download Manager blows Opera's built-in download manager out of the water! As a long time Opera user one of the biggest downfalls is single-homed file transfers. As an example I was downloading from a site which limited single FTP downloads to ~20 kps. I started up FDM and 8 simultaneous connections downloaded the same file in a fraction of the time. I tried Orbit but it has the annoying bug of not being able to download from sites that require a username/password, FDM downloaded easily.

@Tao2005:
If you are not interested in buggy software, why are you using Opera? It's full of bugs! I should know I use it all the time! And you are going to base your reviews on what others have written rather than trying it yourself?

Tao2005 reviewed v2.5.724 on Oct 30, 2007

Only download file manager for me is built-in to Opera. I just see using a program like this, as an excuse to eat up system resources.

IE isn't the brightest browser, like Opera. The more BHO's you download for IE. The more resources are eaten up.

from the sounds of the reviews, this program is buggy. Buggy software has no intrest in me, so I go looking else where for a program with less bugs.

krgood reviewed v2.5.724 on Oct 29, 2007

Opps...File not found!! Wonder if they forgot to post the update. Great program, works great.

Ain Soph Aur reviewed v2.5.724 on Oct 29, 2007

Really the best! Why paying for GetRight???

bobad reviewed v2.5.721 on Oct 23, 2007

Simply the best, except that it doesn't work on the Newzleech.com site. Yes, it is bloated with 6.11mb folder size, 5.52 for the "lite" version, but Orbit has 9.47 folder size! My only 2 wishes are for portability and more compact size.

[deXter] reviewed v2.5.721 on Oct 22, 2007

For those who were complaining FDM was bloated, there is a lite version too, without BT, upload manager, video converter, etc. Only 1.5 MB!

http://files.freedownloa...g/lite/fdminst-lite.exe

---

Personally though, I don't use FDM because it doesn't have automatic download scheduling. I need to manually set FDM to schedule a download when I'm adding a download. FlashGet, on the other hand can do this.

Reverb reviewed v2.5.718 on Oct 12, 2007

I have been running Free Download Manager for over a year now - I downloaded Orbit to compare and found Orbit to be buggy even with the newest version 2.3.1. I couldn't download from a site that required a username and password with Orbit in spite of entering the required info in the download options box - The log window showed 401-authentication error which means it wasn't passing the login info to the site. Free Download Manager opened 8 simultaneous connections and downloaded at top speed from that same site. Plus it's portable!! I don't know what you mean by bloat - it's 5.5 MB.

teranova52 reviewed v2.5.718 on Oct 12, 2007

I operate this software for long time now .
It does everything very well .
I do not use all the functions of it .
But i can not say that is bloated , because i do not use all the functions !!

wognum reviewed v2.5.718 on Oct 9, 2007

good, but i like Orbit better, since its a little less "bloated"

dono1216 reviewed v2.5.718 on Oct 9, 2007

Good, but yes, Orbit is better.

godzila reviewed v2.5.718 on Oct 9, 2007

nice

guti reviewed v2.5.715 on Sep 29, 2007

Not bad, but OrbitDownloader (also free, and not VB written) is a better choice.

Flashget used to be nice.

burfadel reviewed v2.5.715 on Sep 29, 2007

Geez guys, how often is a piece of software absolutely flawless? beta testing is only affective if the error is found, and the beta testers report the error. Unless you were adversely affected by the bug if you've been using it, don't rate it so low! If you're a first time user, rate it on how it is NOW not previous faults. Its as stupid as saying 'I had a 1972 model of that car when I was in uni (or college whatever) and the door handle was sticky, therefore I rate the 2007 model only 3 out of 5 stars'.

roj reviewed v2.5.715 on Sep 28, 2007

Yet anther "oh-gee-I-didn't-test-this-properly" bugfix that shouldn't have happened.

Get a grip.

To the misguided "forgiving" types who tabled the "when is a piece of software flawless" drivel:

You have an extensive beta program. It lingers on for at least four months. There are multiple beta releases. FINALLY you table the so-called "finished" version. And then within two weeks you table six more "oh-snap-i-didn't-get-this-problem-solved" releases. And it doesn't end there. over the next two weeks you table six MORE. You want to put up with that BS? Good for you. Some of us have more intelligence and are more discriminating about software QA. To be fair to the devs of this piece of software, at least they are trying to fix it unlike the a** who writes NewsLeecher who is more concerned with new "features" and his cash flow than actually finishing his software with something approaching quality.

TWO stars for sheer stupidity on the part of the devs (and that's two more stars than I give NewsLeecher and the jerk who writes it).

Just sign me:

"Tired of half-baked software"

meral reviewed v2.5.713 on Sep 21, 2007

I've I used this alot and it was good, its real pain to turn off torrent association. I tried attaching packet sniffer to it of course its send and receiving 1 byte packets over and over I just dont understand why?

spiked reviewed v2.5.708 on Sep 2, 2007

In terms of functionality, I still prefer Orbit, but the big news with the 2.5 generation of Free Download Manager is that it is Open Source (GPL) and not merely freeware as before. Both tarballs and SVN seem to lag 1-2 weeks behind the binary releases but hopefully things will improve as the developers grow more accustomed to SourceForge.

Metshrine reviewed v2.5.708 on Sep 2, 2007

Agreed, This is why you have a beta testing cycle, to catch bugs like the ones being caught in these releases. I am sorry, but the FDM Devs need to implement a beta testing cycle and allow for bugs to be squashed prior to releasing a product as a "Final"

sQin reviewed v2.5.708 on Sep 2, 2007

i agree with roj.

roj reviewed v2.5.708 on Aug 31, 2007

OK, this is just getting stupid. To the devs:

Put the damned thing back in BETA until you get rid of the various nuisances. Then release a final version that isn't going to nickel and dime users to death with "oops-I-forgot-to-fix-this". This is well into Corel-style unprofessionalism in terms of software development.

FOUR stars for a great product and devs who need to get their act together.

zapatero reviewed v2.5.708 on Aug 31, 2007

About 10% slower than Internet Download Manager with my cable connection. The video download function didn´t work when I tried to download a video from Google Video (no problem to download it with http://downthisvideo.com/).

Carlospr reviewed v2.5.707 on Aug 30, 2007

I agree it's a great free software! 5/5
I'd like just to see what's new in each version/build here.

PsychoUK reviewed v2.5.706 on Aug 29, 2007

Best damn FREE and I repeat FREE Download Manager going, for those who keep slagging this software off because they keep updating it the answer is simple, DONT LIKE IT - DONT USE IT

To the devs, keep up the great work on further developments of this product, with no banners,nag screens and completely clean of any addware etc I will continue to use this manager until the sun goes down ;-)

roj reviewed v2.5.706 on Aug 29, 2007

You know, this is getting tedious. If it wasn't ready (after the beta period from hell, I might add), why did you people release it? This is the third "oh I gotta fix something" release in two weeks since final. What's your new name? Corel??

And to those utterly clueless wonders who insist that FREE excuses everything, it's that kind of mindless BS that has killed the work ethic of "anything worth doing is worth doing well".

FOUR stars for devs who can't get their act in gear.

Romas reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 29, 2007

It looks that FDM was GPLed!

alervd reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 21, 2007

2 cricri_pingouin: I suggest you to write bug report to FDM's support. It seems that you are the only user who reported about such bug. So you may help to fix this rare bug.

Higgy reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 21, 2007

This is the best freeware download manager IMO. There is a FDM Lite version available on the download page (http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm) which may work better for some people. BTW, Build 704 is now available.

henris reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 21, 2007

100%CPU - 16mb RAM ?
LOL!!!
Clear download history and then this version use no
more then 3 mb of RAM.
100% CPU usage ? How many conections you use ? I ques 60 ? That urs antivirus(Kaspersky?) scaning each conection and uses 100%CPU.
5++++ for FDM

pola reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 21, 2007

its a good piece of software,but i think v1.7,v2.0 and v2.1 are excellent.
THE BAD
This version uses more then 16mb of disk not good.
Uses more memory as compared to previous versions not good,hang computer sometimes.
THE GOOD
EXCEPT ABOVE EVERYTHING IS GOOD BUT I PREFER V1.7

sQin reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 21, 2007

i tried many freeware, shareware downloaders, and this one is most stable, featurefull app. Free Download Manager is my choise!

cricri_pingouin reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 21, 2007

Still not working for ME. Ok, I'll give it a sarcastic 2 "just because it's free".
I'm actually very annoyed because these releases are supposedly final stable versions, and they have major bugs which make them worth than having nothing (i.e. sticking to the built in download tool).
I'll go back to Flasget in the meantime.
By the way, good thing I was running Process Tamer which allowed me to kill the process, or I'd have had to bluntly power off the machine on each occasion.

hell0 reviewed v2.5.703 on Aug 21, 2007

Oh no, cricri_pingouin, you will now be assailed by those too cretinous to understand that you are simply reporting and rating based on what you see on your system! Don't you know that you are supposed to rate it based on (1) It's price, and (2) How it works for them?

I did a clean install of the prior version of FDM, and so far it works well for me. This could change at any minute, judging from prior experience.

cricri_pingouin reviewed v2.5.700 on Aug 20, 2007

Highly unstable, not even worth an alpha status.
I installed it with just the bare minimum (i.e. I didn't install the upload manager), put around 300 files in queue, and after downloading some files, it crashed. It would use 100% of my CPU, and I couldn't access the GUI anymore. Killing the process and running FDM again would lead it to full CPU usage again as soon as it started. I eventually managed to clean the queue and make it start w/o 100% CPU usage (heck, I don't even know what I did!). Figure out which files I lost, put them back in the queue, and after a while, same thing again.
No offence, but this is junk. I assume it only owes it's glorious score and reviews to the fact that it is free, but I'm done with this one. And that's supposed to be a stable final release! Even disabling preview, drop zone , etc to leave just the main window with just the qeue didn't help.
I'd have been better off downloading my files manually, now I have to track which files I've got and which files I haven't all over again.

twanj reviewed v2.5.700 on Aug 15, 2007

I've been testing the beta for months, they put a lot of work into it & it's very stable. It's free & open source (GPL) now too! Also has metalink support which is very handy... http://www.metalinker.org/

roj reviewed v2.5.700 on Aug 15, 2007

Rating changed - this one is downloadable. Excellent proggy.

FIVE stars.

roj reviewed v2.5.688 on Aug 15, 2007

OK, so where's the download?

tarrith reviewed v2.3.682 Beta on Aug 8, 2007

Only time I've ever had this app go unstable is when pre-viewing some trpes of video. Otherwise always been solid as a rock.
Love the search for mirrior function

Tarrith

hell0 reviewed v2.3.682 Beta on Aug 6, 2007

Halfway decent in terms of features, but unstable as hell for me.

roj reviewed v2.3.682 Beta on Aug 6, 2007

Can we get this thing out of Beta? It's getting bloody tedious!

FOUR stars for devs who won't **** or get off the pot (it should be FIVE but this is ridiculous).

cricri_pingouin reviewed v2.3 Build 669 Beta 6 on Jul 25, 2007

Good piece of software. Does what it says (including batch downloading), does it well, and for free. I like it.

rhy7s reviewed v2.3 Build 669 Beta 6 on Jul 25, 2007

Been an essential program for a long time, plenty of GB have passed through this app. In regard to the comment about "Remember last download location", the drop down from the file location remembers quite a few recent directories and you can also simply type over what's there for minor changes to the starting point provided by setting up appropriate categories.

biggman15 reviewed v2.3 Build 669 Beta 6 on Jul 24, 2007

This has been my favorite download manager for a long time now... But I don't think I'll be going past version 2.1 until We can place our downloads where we want them again... 2.1 is nearly perfect as it is...

twanj reviewed v2.3 Build 669 Beta 6 on Jul 24, 2007

This download manager gets things right. Now it has torrent support, as well as metalink ( http://www.metalinker.org/ ) finally.

mmatheny reviewed v2.3 Build 655 Beta 6 on Jul 9, 2007

Before I will use it over GetRight, there needs to be another check box in the New Downloads screen - Remember last download location. I have said this before and will say it again (same goes for Orbit!) - I WANT TO PLACE MY DOWNLOADED FILES WHERE I WANT THEM!!! Not some artifical intellegence putting them where it thinks I want them. The Remember last download location is for when downloading many files to the same location.

darkripper reviewed v2.3 Build 655 Beta 6 on Jul 4, 2007

sth with the mirrors goes wrong?

i dunno. good program. this and orbit the best downloaders now

burfadel reviewed v2.3 Build 655 Beta 6 on Jul 4, 2007

Excellent programme! I agree, for xproject its like giving Windows Vista a bad review because you just installed Windows 95 and can't run most programmes on it.

If you want to write a review, write one about the current version! New versions come out to improve on older versions!

roj reviewed v2.3 Build 647 Beta 6 on Jun 22, 2007

I'm extremely happy wiht this software but can we get a final out the door? It's getting tedious...

FIVE stars for excellence.

bobad reviewed v2.3 Build 647 Beta 6 on Jun 22, 2007

FDM is the best Freeware D/L manager I have found. The "Silent Mode" is very useful, and separates it from the rest. It allows D/L with 1 click, no confirmation clicks needed. The sounds give you audible confirmation that your D/L started successfully, completed successfully, or failed. No need to keep checking your D/L progress, because the sounds keep you notified.

I wish it worked better with certain sites, such as Newzleech.com, but I suppose that site is problematic. Orbit (a pretty fair D/L manager in its own right) doesn't work with it either. It would also be nice if FDM was portable.

madcats reviewed v2.3 Build 647 Beta 6 on Jun 21, 2007

Good program. So is Get Right. I cant understand why people like "xproject" complain about bad software when they don't use the latest versions. e.g. GetRight latest is 6.3 & he whines about 5.2

speedwaystar reviewed v2.3 Build 647 Beta 6 on Jun 21, 2007

Beta 6 had a crashing problem with Firefox for me. Gone back to the stable Beta 5 while waiting for Beta 7.

xproject51 reviewed v2.3 Build 647 Beta 6 on Jun 21, 2007

Version: FDM 2.1

Ashamed, I was getting tired of using GetRight 5.2d and wanted to try something else. So I tried FDM 2.1 (not 2.3beta). It install well and downloaded a 180MB file from Nero.

But the file I downloaded is corrupted. I've never had this using GetRight.

I'll try Internet Downloader Manager next.

gene_laz reviewed v2.3 Build 637 Beta 5 on Jun 4, 2007

This is a great tool, it fulfills its main purpose well, and it's free.

The only thing I hate is the naming scheme for the options. Finding the right place to change a particular setting is confusing for a while, so I rate this a 4.

PsychoUK reviewed v2.3 Build 637 Beta 5 on May 24, 2007

Used this app from day one, just gets better on each release, fast, reliable and best of all its FREE with no nag stuff

bobad reviewed v2.3 Build 637 Beta 5 on May 23, 2007

FDM is probably the best Freeware DL accelerator. 1 point off because it has a long-standing issue with fetching NZB files from newzleech.com. The author was notified long ago, and later reminded.

vcorvinus reviewed v2.3 Build 635 Beta 4 on May 19, 2007

I used FDM for a long time. Then, it began crashing on me 80% of the time when I'd simply try running it. Uninstall/reinstall did not help. Notifying the developer was like shouting underwater.

I like the idea of a mirror-finding feature, but in my experience, finding mirrors with FDM is about as easy as finding an honest plumber. In other words, it hardly ever happens.

tatool reviewed v2.3 Build 635 Beta 4 on May 19, 2007

i've been using orbit for a while, but common... honestly - fdm is much better :)

tarrith reviewed v2.3 Build 633 Beta 3 on May 17, 2007

So far if tried quiet a few Dload managers, this has got to be the best. Orbit is just a shadow of this software.

I like how it can be set to search for file mirrors for faster sources.

There are buttons on the menu to easily select how much bandwidth for it to use unlike Orbit.

It even has a movie preview window :)

Tarrith

biggman15 reviewed v2.3 Build 633 Beta 3 on May 16, 2007

The last time I tried a 2.3 beta build... It attempted to force it's organization on me... With 2.1, I like to have it download everything to one folder... The Beta wouldn't allow that... I hope that's fixed... Otherwise FDM is still the best Download Manager out there as far as I'm concerned... I just hope this behavior is fixed... Then again... maybe they just moved the option... and I can't find it...

Zoroaster reviewed v2.3 Build 633 Beta 3 on May 15, 2007

As all download managers, it is valuable when two conditions meet : low bandwidth and/(or) slow server. In many cases it ends up to be less speedy, all considered. Part of web myths.

bigmama reviewed v2.3 Build 633 Beta 3 on May 15, 2007

i like it
i think its better than orbit

darkpepe reviewed v2.3 Build 623 Beta on May 8, 2007

Version 1.x still was 500kb, now it's 4megs. Please, don't take the wrong path and converting it into bloatware!

AlbinoAsian reviewed v2.3 Build 623 Beta on May 4, 2007

it is without doubt my favorite download manager ... it really is the best out there free or not

bigmama reviewed v2.3 Build 623 Beta on May 3, 2007

the best

twanj reviewed v2.3 Build 623 Beta on May 3, 2007

Nice! Now it has metalink support for downloading ISOs fast. http://www.metalinker.org/

billweh reviewed v2.3 Build 623 Beta on May 3, 2007

I was looking for a good download manager to be able to keep track of everything I downloaded and from where I downloaded it from.

This tool does that in spades. It's fast, sleek and low footprint.

I'd gladly pay for a tool like this (glad I don't have to, but just the same).

Fr@nKy reviewed v2.3 Build 610 Beta on Apr 25, 2007

Best Download Manager I have tried! It's stable, free and feature full. I admit that I don't want it for BitTorrent (for that I have uTorrent) but it's a nice feature to people who use BitTorrent not very often ;)

shrink57 reviewed v2.3 Build 610 Beta on Apr 24, 2007

For me FDM has been flawless. I have tried most of the free and $$$ managers and Free Download Manager has been the one that meets all my needs.

touringpro reviewed v2.3 Build 610 Beta on Apr 4, 2007

Firefox integration works fine . . . it just doesn't seem to be enabled by default.

Got to Options | Download options | Monitoring & check the Firefox box.

deric0 reviewed v2.3 Build 610 Beta on Apr 4, 2007

Excellent, stable, download manager. As far as Firefox integration goes if it doesn't work for you try the add-on FlashGot and tell it to use FreeDownloadManager, works great. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/220

Gobix reviewed v2.3 Build 610 Beta on Apr 4, 2007

Great programm, but for now Firefox integration doesn't work. Back to 2.1, i hope it will be fixed soon.
(firefox integration option is not properly saved)

speedwaystar reviewed v2.3 Build 610 Beta on Apr 4, 2007

The new betas, in case anyone is interested, are mainly around testing FDM's new bittorrent support.

bobad reviewed v2.3 Build 607 Beta on Mar 31, 2007

There's no doubt that FDM is the best Freeware download manager. It's feature packed, and has endless options and settings. I particularly like the "silent" mode, meaning that you can click on a download link and it starts with no further mouse clicks. 1 click downloads are priceless. I also like the sounds that notify you that the D/L started successfully, the D/L is done, or the D/L failed. It's nice to not have to watch the download progress in the tray. I don't know exactly when it happened, but FDM's setup program recently started remembering your install folder. Bravo! You can re-install FDM without having to drill down to your custom install folder, and you don't lose your settings!

On the negative side, FDM does not handle NZB files on the Newzleech.com site. It downloads an "Index.html" instead. Furthermore, when you set the options to ignore NZB files, it doesn't obey. That's inexcusable. Another thing that needs cleaning up is the options and settings. Jesus jumping christ, there must be a hundred settings in 3 or 4 sub-categories. It can take a person 45 minutes of tweaking to get in set to your liking. They need to be orgnanzed more intuitively, and some of them possibly eliminated altogether.

lordnaastik reviewed v2.3 Beta Build 603 on Mar 30, 2007

Excellent software. But nowadays iam more inclined towards orbit downloader, as it has a really fast update rate.

twanj reviewed v2.3 Beta Build 603 on Mar 29, 2007

Now it supports bittorrent AND metalink. what more could you need?

olavinto reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Mar 19, 2007

FDM is really an exellent tool but updates should come a bit more often. I was it's user for a long time and found it one of the best tools out there and the best thing is that it's free.

I'm giving it a four because of the update rate that's too slow for my taste. But hey, it's free so what can you expect?

Nowdays I use GetRight and have bought a license for it. Just wanted a change and bittorrent support. And Getright is usually updated more often.

zapatero: FDM supports resuming completely. All servers doesn't, so you can't resume downloads from every server. When you hit "Stop" it should resume after you hit "Continue". It does not have a separate "Pause" button.

zapatero reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Mar 8, 2007

I have used good old ugly GetRight for years, but recently I found it cannot download from a site that requires username and password. I tried FDM, but I couldn't get it to resume downloads after pausing them (after "stopping" them, there was no button for "Pause"). This is the first thing a download manager must be able to do. I also tried IDM, fast and good.

alphatrigon reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Sep 10, 2006

fantastic software and I appreciate the community feedback feature. It helps us all greatly if we want to partake in it to avoid all those trojan/spyware/malware apps out there.

I think it needs a little work on network auto regulating, so for those on dialup it isn't too painful to surf while we dl :)

bobad reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Aug 22, 2006

Great DL manager. When compared to the best Shareware DL managers, it leaves nothing wanting. All I want from a DL manager is 1 click DL with no silly confirmation, good discrimination of downloadable files, good speed, a graph showing % DL, and a sound to let me know the DL is finished. FDM does this and more... maybe too much more. This version has a "Community" feature, which unnecessarily bloats and complicates the program, with little benefit to the user. Besides that, I don't really trust such features. It can be turned off, and I am grateful for that. Great, great program! Get it you will love it.

junggeselle reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Aug 22, 2006

Very nice DL manager. I make a donation for it, because I'm a student and like free- or donationware. Hope for a long existence ;-)

Pkshadow reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Aug 22, 2006

4.5, would get a 5 if there was less options to configure within the program options defaults or a mouse over effect to tell what some options do would help novices as of course no one uses a help file.

Slick inter-face and easy to figure out.
Downloads are fast.

No bugs found as of yet :=}

Solid!

Blue_Horse reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Aug 21, 2006

I agree! FDM is the best freeware download manager that I have ever found and I have tried a bunch of them! For those who have found one or more bugs in the program, please be sure to post them on the FDM forum at http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/board/index.php so the author of the program can check them out and possibly repair them while writing the next build.

KaptK reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Aug 21, 2006

Best free download manager out there but does have some bugs in it that need fixed.

wharke reviewed v2.1 Build 494 on Aug 21, 2006

Excellent! Has all the features of the expensive download managers but is totally FREE.

datdeejay reviewed v2.1 Build 487 on Aug 15, 2006

the best download manager. 5/5 stars.

Gibbo21 reviewed v2.1 Build 487 on Aug 15, 2006

It's the best (free) download manager I've tried in months. Version reviewed *build 490*

rhoadesb reviewed v2.1 Build 483 on Aug 12, 2006

Free Download Manager is the best I've found so far. Excellent when one considers it is free.

hwlaz reviewed v2.1 Build 483 on Aug 12, 2006

Netflix & online banking issues from previous beta have been fixed with 2.1 Build 483. Great utility!

CoCoLee reviewed v2.1 Build 483 on Aug 11, 2006

FDM is best!

twanj reviewed v2.1 Build 483 on Aug 11, 2006

Great, fixes a few problems from the beta.

jGuru reviewed v2.1 Build 482 on Aug 11, 2006

Great soft. I've been using it for 2 years. Free. Fast. Fantastic.

hwlaz reviewed v2.1 Beta on Aug 5, 2006

iefdmcks.dll jacked my online banking login process erroring out Internet Explorer dumping me back to desktop. I ended up rolling back to 2.0 (build 423) for now which seems to have fixed the issue. NOTE: prior to installing the 2.1 beta I believe I had the previous beta version installed which did not produce this behavior. Still my download manager of choice.

randiroo76073 reviewed v2.1 Beta on Aug 4, 2006

Very good program, I'm downloading Linux distros all the time[50-600+ mb] on dialup,absolutely no probs, can't get along without it 8)

cricri_pingouin reviewed v2.0 Build 423 on Jun 27, 2006

Consistently crashes after completing a somewhat large file (just now, it crashed after downloading the latest ATi Radeon driver which is a whopping 12MB, and it crashed several times while downloading Nero, which is around 120MB IIRC, during download and on download completion).
Still giving it a 3 because it used to be good, but I take two points off for frequent stability issues with this build on my machine.

Nikkie reviewed v2.0 Build 423 on May 20, 2006

Always the best and free !!

wognum reviewed v2.0 Build 423 on May 3, 2006

good prog, but it had a couple of bugs, so i dont use it right now.
are there any noted changes?

Joco reviewed v2.0 Build 423 on May 2, 2006

Superb freeware. Looks nicer than Flashget and works the same.

Pantagruel reviewed v2.0 Build 423 on May 2, 2006

Great download manager. A few bugs here and there, but overall, it works just fine.

I just went to FlashGet website, its NOT a freeware:

"The registration fee is US$29.95.
Your code will remove the advertising banners and shareware reminder windows."

osric reviewed v2.0 Build 423 on May 2, 2006

It was my favourite download manager and it is a good one, but unfortunately i had to ditch it for FlashGet because of lack of support of mms.
I highly reccomend FlashGet to those seeking mms download feature. FlashGet has almost all the fuctionality that I needed from a download manager and is also a Freeware. (It has recently changed to Freeware from Shareware/Adware/Spyware, but the latest version is completely Adware/Spyware free. I know it seems that I am advertising some other product here - but I had spent quite a lot of time searching for mms support and this notice is meant for those with the same problem. For people who dont need mms support keep using FDM.)

EDIT:
Oops. I'm sorry. I was wrong. FlashGet is a shareware all right. You can use the software unlimited but you get an annoying message at startup to purchase the full version.

The MAZZTer reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 21, 2006

Fixed my problem with this, Windows Firewall was blocking it and not telling me. 5/5 it deserves.

osric: It's a proprietary Microsoft protocol. You'll need software specifically designed for ripping form MMS streams.

osric reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 20, 2006

How do I download from mms:// links?

gkar reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 16, 2006

Nice freeware utility. Don't know about all the fancy buzzwords some people use to deride this program, but as a dialup user (no choice) this program has been very useful. Thanks Alex and the rest of the FDM team!

ArabianNight reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 15, 2006

Simply the best Download manager. Been using for about 2 years now.

Nostia reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 15, 2006

Free Download Manager 2.0 Build 422 changelog:

[+] UNC path support
[*] More silent for command line "-fs" option
[-] Sometimes downloads won't start automatically
[-] Downloads window blinking bug
[-] "When done" tasks settings modification bug
[-] File can't be renamed back to original name if additional extensions used
[-] Resume download if file exists option didn't work

Blackhole8746 reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 15, 2006

It seems they're not changing anything whatsoever from version to version

Bachalor reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 14, 2006

Good freeware, I work now 2 years with it and i make last year a donation. It helps me a lot, if I dl files over ISDN.

mmatheny reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 14, 2006

Skizelli, show me where GetRight is spyware? Also, I refuse to use ANY download manager that doesn't have as simple of a configuration item as 'Remember last download location'

dejavu reviewed v2.0 Build 422 on Apr 14, 2006

Excellent freeware downloader!!!

FlauntMG reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 8, 2006

Please try not to mislead user with the statement: "has every feature as compared to the commercial ones" because thats is utterly untrue and naive. Do a checkup before reviewing a product, because its a necessity to provide an unbiased, solid and coherent review.

FDM doesnt have rtsp/mms support, no post data request, basic html parser, no streaming script parser, no md5 checksum, no encrypted transfer, no 100% secure logging to remote server, very inconsistent bandwidth fluctuation rectifier. As a commercial IT programmer, this is what we call, an initial evolving prototype, still way much work to be done to even reach pinnacle stage of a solid (code based and functional based) program. Yes, for a basic average pc user, its suffice. But for any power user who requires a constant and reliable data transfer, this will not do. Free or not, it doesn't matter. Learn to code, you can have an exact replica of this program (probably more) in less than 4 hrs.
I'll give a 3 as a token of appreciation to the programmer who took his time to update this software.

Zankur reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 8, 2006

This version is simply the best around....Has every feature in the book as compared to paid ones...
the only thing is that getright has bittorrent download capability,but it hardly matters when we have 100's of free clients all over the park...

The MAZZTer reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 7, 2006

Normally I'd rate this a 5, but there's the little issue in build 417 of it not being able to connect to ANY server. I looked into it and it claims it can't connect to the remote server, but in reality it cancels the connection immediately after initalizing it.

I have to give it a 1 rating until this problem is fixed.

Skizelli reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 6, 2006

@mmatheny: Actually, GetRight is garbage and contains spyware. You obviously don't know how to use FDM correctly, for you can easily save things even with a calling code if you know what you're doing.

Mystenes reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 6, 2006

small, fast, do what it means to do.
no bugs/crashes at any time.

Pantagruel reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 5, 2006

mmatheny,
What are you talking about?

I like this program. I used to use wellget , but it doesnt support https and hasnt been updated for years. So, FDM rocks. simple, to the point. If you donwload some 1GB file, its a good idea to have a download manager. Nothing fancy, but works just fine. Great job.

tp reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 5, 2006

You may be right, I dont know, haven't used GR because it is payware.. FDM is the best of the free variety.

mmatheny reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 5, 2006

Absolute rubbish - any program that insists I follow their idea of where I want to place my downloads is garbage! Also, unless the download is a direct link, it downloads the calling code! As the other user said, GetRight is the king and one to beat, and no one has done that yet! I have tried about every download manager out there, and NONE compares to the feature set of GetRight!

Tokar reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 5, 2006

[+] Order of downloads can be changed via up/down buttons now

Man I've been waiting to see that feature in FDM for a LONG time.

Master- reviewed v2.0 Build 416 on Apr 5, 2006

Works well.

No ads.

What can i say? SPLENDED!

uberfly reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 5, 2006

Not only is it free, but it performs EVERYTHING the average person needs in an external download manager and does it well in an easy to use package. Too many of these download manager are WAY too intrusive, overbearing, and unecessarily complex. This is none of those. Also includes nice features such as built-in SSL support.

FlauntMG reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 5, 2006

"It has every feature which commercial ones have"

Are you serious. As a programmer myself, this program is the most basic (no pun intended) freeware out there, so much maturing need to be done. No mms/rtsp support, no post data request, no data transfer encryption, no md5 checksum, horrible html parser, no rss feeds, no streaming script parser, childish interface. It's good for any average pc user, but to say it has similar features as the commercial ones are plain ridiculous. GetRight Pro still holds the crown.

biligt reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

I 've been using this download manager fot 1.5 years. It's the greatest download manager I've ever used. It has every feature which commercial ones have. I really recommend it. :D

Blue_Horse reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

Regarding Opera, if I may quote Alex on the FDM development team:

FDM supports Opera 9.

When you click on file to download, Opera will open "Download file" window.

1. Press "Change" button.
2. Choose "Use plug-in".
3. Select "Free Download Manager Click Catcher Plugin for...".
4. Press OK.

Do so for each type of file (zip, exe, ...).

wanderer2005 reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

Free Download Manager is one of a few truly free managers. Most downloader managers are either adware, shareware or the dreaded spyware.

This message is for "osric." As far as i can tell, Free Download Manager does not support the Opera web browser. However, both Leechget and Getright support Opera. The two are excellent alternative download managers. Safter Networking,makers of Spybot Search & Destroy, recommend this manager because it is totally free - no ads and no spyware. Getright is shareware but it is the most robust download manager i have ever use. Dare i say it is even better than Free Download Manager. It is shareware but in a sense it is kind'a like Winzip. Users are suppose to uninstall it after the trial period but they generally don't because the program continues to work after the trial period. You need to download a plugin for Getright to work with Opera but the plugin is free as well. Leechget doesn't require any other plugins or extension. I hope this helps you.

OCedHrt reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

Too bad FlashGet does FDM+FlashGot and more. RSTP, MMS, wildcards, and all that right click FlashGot goodness, 5 years ago.

brotherS reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

While FDM has its flaws, it beats *every* other download manager I ever tested. And yes, together with FlashGot it's great! Don't believe me? Read http://www.donationcoder.../index.php?topic=1801.0 :)

osric reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

It's great. I've used it with IE and FF. Can someone help me on how to use it with Opera?

olavinto reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

Actually FDM supports Internet Explorer 4.x - 6.x, Mozilla Firefox, Opera 6.x - 8.x and Netscape 6.x - 7.x. For Mozilla based get FlashGot extension from http://addons.mozilla.org.

FDM beats most expensive download managers on the market and it is completely free.

hap8192739 reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

Like most managers , tho, it only seems to work with IE.

Useless to me.

aruprc reviewed v2.0 Beta on Apr 4, 2006

Agreed,been using it since beta version 1 and till today,with the latest one,I have no problems and no need to look elsewhere for a downloader.

agamen0n reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Feb 5, 2006

This is a great software. Better than any other downloads manager that I used (maybe equal to IDA), with the advantage of freeware. You lost a little at graphics, but you won a lot with system resources and speed. Top software!

dumaiso reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Jan 7, 2006

A software with such qualities for free? You won't find elsewhere. FDM is the best download manager/tweaker I ever used. I'm talking about download manager, not that bloatware DAP turned into.
Easy, light, and the most important, free.

Philidor reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Dec 21, 2005

Best download manager I've tried.

Worth noting that the Check for updates feature often is out of order, and new builds are frequently identified only in the forum.

The new builds often fix significant bugs, so it's worthwhile to go to the site now and then to check.

kgruber reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Nov 28, 2005

This program needs to add streaming support to compete with other freeware/commercial alternatives.

The Second Maker reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Sep 20, 2005

It's a great program, but too bad you can't set the transparency level for the Progress window, and make it display download speed :(

hjcuebas reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Sep 20, 2005

incredible, just perfect, ived used all the crappy things out there, even the ones that cost money but this is just a magnificent application.

Mystenes reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Sep 13, 2005

Great program!!

The MAZZTer reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Sep 12, 2005

rpavl: Download Managers can usually only accellerate downloads if the server they're downloading from has a lot of connections or is limited their bandwidth to you. And you have available bandwidth of course. If a one threaded download take sup most of your bandwidth it's not going to make much difference.

This is easily the best download manager I've found. I've used:
- NetVampire... adware
- Star Downloader... shareware now, and the free version constandly bugs you to "update" to the crippled version
- Bunch of other ones

FDM beats them, and is the only tool with a built-in video preview and a couple other nifty things.

ArabianNight reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Sep 12, 2005

The best!

Master- reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Sep 12, 2005

Ugly picture. ^^
But still, its the best!

gkar reviewed v1.9 Build 335 on Sep 12, 2005

This is one of the finest download managers I have ever used. Very feature rich.

brotherS reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 24, 2005

rpavl: the fact that you are using CAPS only clearly shows that you don't get some things... FDM is great! (And yes, even with the 6 MB DSL I have)

rpavl reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 24, 2005

GOOD STUFF....BUT REALLY WHO NEEDS A DOWNLOAD MANAGER WITH HIGH SPEED??? THE MAIN FEATURE OF THESE MANAGERS IS THAT THEY SUPPOSEDLY CONNECT TO MULTIPLE SERVERS, I HAVE 5MB CABLE AND HAVE NEVER SEEN ANY FASTER DOWNLOADS,,, ANYWAY WHO WOULD NEED ONE?

cool_guy reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 24, 2005

The best of the best. I have been using this since version 1.4. It's a great product. I have never had any problems with it.

Metshrine reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 23, 2005

This program is the best of the best in freeware download managers. It might not have the polish and some of the features that its commercial breateren might have but it does everything I need it to do. And now, with the advent of 1.9, it can FINALLY open a file without having to save it first and then manually delete it when done (such as when downloading antivirus definitions manually). Very few, in fact I think only getright, have this ability to OPEN a file (after it is saved to a temp folder) without requiring the user save it to disk first. Very good program and very highly recommended to anyone looking for a freeware download manager.

JeRrYFaR reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 23, 2005

Program works as advertised. They even added one of my suggestions in the new version.. :-)

No complaints.. and free to boot..

arossetti reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 23, 2005

Well, it's not as good as Internet Download Manager, but it's pretty darn close, and it's free! Very nice piece of software.

foe reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 23, 2005

list of changes :
http://www.freedownloadm...rd/viewtopic.php?t=1007

sQin reviewed v1.9 Build 333 on Aug 23, 2005

best of free dnld managers

Noogle reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Aug 23, 2005

Very nice, very feature rich.

Not the most resource-friendly, but name an all-encompassing download manager that isn't anyway. No spyware, no nag screens. Plus when it interecepts a file you don't want downloaded (such as a CGI script), when you cancel the download it hands it back to the browser to handle normally.

_eclipse_ reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Aug 10, 2005

Simply the best. And free :)

henris reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Aug 9, 2005

The Best

marcdesbiens reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jul 24, 2005

Excellent program, however there are a few minor bugs, the convenient dropbox sometimes disappears off the screen at random, then it comes back when I shut down and restart the program. In order to avoid frustration, I'm not using the dropbox option anymore actually, I turned it off cos' it was rather unreliable as I said. Also from time to time, the program loses the clipboard monitoring, once or twice per day, I notice it, that is also fixed everytime when I close and restart the program. Other than that, excellent download manager.

kmleow reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jul 17, 2005

Good software.

Hopefully they will add in RTSP support soon.

wingo reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jul 2, 2005

well took this after being targeted by antispywaresoftware who decided flashget is so dangerous that they removed all components. ;(

well this has a nice gui but is uses more resources than flashget. i uninstalled it, proper way i might ad and still its left in firefox everytime i click a zip it says fdm was not properly installed.

will try to install it again and un-install. would NOT recommend this software.

Wings reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jul 2, 2005

Stevefarrell, you're not the brightest light in the chandelier are you?

What this guy is trying to say that he doesn't trust the program. I wouldn't trust a program either that wants to connect to the outside world when it's not clear what it's doing.
Of course he understands that he can't download when he blocked it...geez man, give his intellect some credit.

Your other comments are also extremely foolish:
"anyway i havent tried it yet but i an about to download it. but just for the aske of it i will give it a 5 cause its free"

You never tried it, but you already give it 5 because it's free...

I'm telling ya... some people...

Anyway, good program, but I don't give it more than 4.

Stevefarrell reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jul 1, 2005

dude its obvious that this program wont work if your firewall is blocking it. anyway i havent tried it yet but i an about to download it. but just for the aske of it i will give it a 5 cause its free

Quixley reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jun 21, 2005

Been looking for a new download manager. Saw some pretty good reviews of this one so downloaded it to give it a go. The second it was installed my firewall asked if I wanted to give permission for this program to access internet. Most likely it wanted to check for "updates", couldn't care less... Blocked the access and looked around in the program, couldn't find any setting to switch to manual checking and/or turn it off.
A easy 1 rating in my book. Next...

emredondo reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jun 13, 2005

The best download manager.

Spupuz reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jun 13, 2005

cool but getright if it is not free still remain the best try to improve and make possible to choice the destination dir for download and maybe could be better.

johnd164 reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jun 13, 2005

This program has nearly all I require from a download manager,however, because it dose not have the ability to delete completed downloads from your HDD via the FDM interface I have had to go back to Freshdownload. I have contacted the authors of this program and they tell me that it is Not possible to add this feature and that is why I can only give it a rating of two.

thehunger reviewed v1.8 Build 307 on Jun 12, 2005

One of the best, but still needs support for SFTP.

brano27 reviewed v1.8 Build 306 on Jun 8, 2005

Hmm relly good download manager. Drag and drop is good idea. Great work

cip2kro reviewed v1.8 Build 306 on Jun 8, 2005

Yes. I used flashget for 2 years. Now it's outdated. I use FDM and it's working great. Best downlaod manager so far.

Zankur reviewed v1.8 Build 306 on Jun 8, 2005

Another stunning update from FDM.It's simply the best download manager,and is simply free.
I don't know where do people find stuff like spyware-adware with FDM.
It's totally worth its admiration by users world-wide!

CyberHobo reviewed v1.8 Build 306 on Jun 8, 2005

Set Spybot Search and Destroy into overload. I thought it's spyware free. Any who, I'll stick with Mass Downloader.

ArabianNight reviewed v1.8 Build 306 on Jun 7, 2005

Simply The Best Download Manager.

thehunger reviewed v1.8 Build 306 on Jun 7, 2005

Yup, it's a keeper!

It still needs support for sftp, https and parsed downloads. By the latter I mean it should be able to do http POST's which are required by some download sites.
Also I'd like it to not keep the history forever, ie. delete all entries after, say, a week.

tre2004 reviewed v1.7 Build 295 on Apr 28, 2005

This is a GREEEAT download manager, And to beat it all,.... it's free!!! 5 of 5

OSuser reviewed v1.7 Build 295 on Apr 27, 2005

Exactly what captainahab said! It's FREE! It's a 5!

captainahab reviewed v1.7 Build 295 on Apr 27, 2005

I keep trying to find a better download manager but so far, no go.
Works fantastic with Firefox and even better with the FlashGot extention.

thehunger reviewed v1.7 Build 295 on Apr 27, 2005

Very, very good.
It still lacks support for SFTP, though.
And searching for and adding additional mirrors could be easier and more automated, like GetRight.

bugmenot reviewed v1.7 Build 286 on Apr 17, 2005

Hey Banquo ...i fully agree with you, 1.1 was the best...can u tell me where i can get it??i deleted the setup file

NiukNiuk reviewed v1.7 Build 286 on Apr 9, 2005

It's not a spyware, it's "only" a banner.
Do a spyware scan, and it won't find anything.
And by the way go and read their forums to properly understand what the developpers mean by "adware content"...it's not spyware.
This version really works well on my system (previous versions were freezing my computer and took ages to launch), so I recommend this download manager to everyone.

Banquo reviewed v1.7 Build 286 on Apr 8, 2005

Version 1.1 is excellent and I give it a five easy. They ruined the later versions though and I refuse to use them. Big ugly icons, spam (get your own custom version with spyware, woo-hoo), etc. So I'm sticking with 1.1 until they hopefully come to their senses.

egg83 reviewed v1.7.285 on Apr 6, 2005

Great download manager, works fine in conjunction with Firefox and Flashget plugin. Also, a big plus is that there is NO spyware and adware bundled with this! Get it now!

cool_guy reviewed v1.5.256 on Mar 29, 2005

Simply the best free download manager out there. If you want something which is free then this is the way to go.

uberfly reviewed v1.5.256 on Mar 29, 2005

Love using this app. For specific purposes it is really a timesaver. It is the first program I've found since the old days of gozilla that replicated its 'leach' feature - giving you great tools for exploring and downing only specific part of a site. Also, the built-in support for https is REALLY nice.

seeolfreeloader reviewed v1.5.256 on Mar 29, 2005

FDM is OK if you don't know about other free stuff. What I hate the most about this app is that it likes locking up when you need to download something critical. It's good but not outstanding and I found that WinGet at www.indentix.com/winget.html is a whole lot better on Windows. Really liked FDM but it essentially seems to be stuck in place :(

Portal3 reviewed v1.5.256 on Mar 29, 2005

I've found it's spidering capabilities to be VERY limited as far as customizing what to include/exclude etc. It takes up too many resources loading and is buggy to say the least with mass batch creations. Ie: 10,000+ files.
Other than that, it's a good little program to resume IE downloads (when applicable).
What's its change log?!!?

NiukNiuk reviewed v1.5.256 on Mar 28, 2005

Great program, works fine.
But it takes too much time to load IMO, while it loads the CPU is used @ 100% and the web pages opened seems to be frozen...and sometimes it takes something like 15Mo of memory on my system.
That's weird...

grkn reviewed v1.5.255 on Jan 10, 2005

The good:
Excellent silent downloading, good interface, manages downloads very well.

The bad:
It lacks support for downloading streams in general. (rtsp, mms, compfused.com wmvs). The devs seems unwilling to include support for this.

The bothersome:
You can't delete files from hd through FDM, only from download list.

Devs doesn't seem to listen to suggestions made one their forum..

Bottom line:
Probably the best and most complete freeware download manager right now. But If wellget (www.wellget.com) gets a similar silent download system and as good stream support as netlimiter has, I'd switch.

zorty reviewed v1.5.255 on Dec 13, 2004

highly recommendable.. especially in conjunction with Mozilla's Firefox and the flashgot extension!

In the past I had sometimes troubles getting files from certain ftp servers.. it seems like this problem has been fixed! 5/5 for being free and doing its job quite smoothly!

darkpepe reviewed v1.5.255 on Dec 12, 2004

Awesome! NavBar no longer included, thx!

DarthVeda reviewed v1.5.255 on Dec 12, 2004

It's my download manager. I had no problems with it so far. And best of all it's free.

aalaap reviewed v1.5.255 on Dec 12, 2004

I have a specific problem with this otherwise beautifully free Free Download Manager. Once you start downloading from a URL, if the server goes down, you can't change the URL to a mirror if you have one handy. Yes, you can go into the mirrors tab and add or find mirrors but there are problems in that too. You can add a bunch of mirrors manually, but there's no button to make any of them a primary URL. So you HAVE to wait for FDM to timeout a few times on the main URL for it to switch automatically to a mirror. Lame. And then, if you click "find mirrors" it automatically populates the mirrors list with a few, well, mirrors. But you can't edit or remove them. I can understand not being able to edit (to a cerain extent) but why can't a remove a damn mirror?? What on earth is wrong with these developers? I'm going out to buy a copy of Mass Downloader. I suggest you do the same.

bobad reviewed v1.5 on Nov 30, 2004

Excellent! I like the way FDM installs right over the old version and keeps settings. I like the ability to choose sounds to notify you when a file has started and finished. You don't even have to look. I like the frequent updates, the lack of any spyware or adware, and I like the excellent compatibility with Maxthon. This program is 99% as good as FlashGet, the best commercial D/L manager out there, IMHO. FDM needs a D/L progress graph on the drop button, and it will be the best, Freeware or Shareware.

HaST reviewed v1.5 on Nov 30, 2004

The 1.5 version don't include any other software (NavExcell...) with the installer.

Very good software.

DiGiTaLFX reviewed v1.5 on Nov 30, 2004

Think I'm going to stick with 1.1 for now. Don't want to use something that tries to install crap on my computer (even though I use msgplus but thats difference). I tried 1.45BETA and didn't like the new look (why make the donate button so big!).

This is a real shame because when I found FDM I thought I'd found a product that would work well and have a good development cycle to it. I suppose its time to look again.

nerrad reviewed v1.45 Beta on Nov 28, 2004

Ok. Time to take some wind out of FDM's sails. What was once an excellent piece of freeware, is rapidly turning into something ugly. It is now bundled with the NavExcell parasite.
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/NavExcel.html
NavExcell can cause Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer to crash every time they are started. An unwary user can easily install this malware if the "I Agree" box isn't unchecked on the NavExcell page.
The icons were also changed in this release. The new icons are really huge and ugly, with the "Make A Donation" button taking up 1/4 of the toolbar...ugly. The "Make a Donation" button should be where it belongs...in the Help/About menu. There's also a "Phone Home" issue. It's supposedly checking for updates, but there isn't an easy way to turn it off. I also looked at FDM.exe with a hex editor. There's a reference to a buy.html in there. I expect FDM will be shareware in the future. With all this going on, I'll have to give it a low rating. I also can't recommend downloading it. If you have your old 1.1 version, hang on to it.

Spupuz reviewed v1.45 Beta on Nov 25, 2004

very good but i do continue to prefere getright... but as i said very very good.. and i will come back using it if it will be inproved as redirection detection ssl and https and other thing.

asellus reviewed v1.45 Beta on Nov 19, 2004

Just as great as the version 1.1 but DON'T INSTALL THE NAVHELPER.

kiwibank reviewed v1.45 Beta on Nov 19, 2004

tried every download manager known to man...this one is right up there........

bobad reviewed v1.45 Beta on Nov 18, 2004

Gets a 4.5. Excellent features, works excellent with Maxthon. This program is very similar to FlashGet, which I consider the best out there Freeware or Shareware. I very much like the "silent monitoring", with no confirmation on download. Click the link, a little sound optionally indicates the file is downloading, and another optional sound indicates the file has completed downloading. Try it, you'll like it.

fourte3n reviewed v1.1 on Nov 5, 2004

Best Download Manager!!! (I'd add more "!" but I think that would be silly)

CoCoLee reviewed v1.1 on Nov 3, 2004

Excellent!!!! FDM is best!

KaptK reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2004

I would like to give it 5/5 but can't

More effort needs to be put into the documentation so we know what is new each release and the help file is old.

The main reason though is that the author didn't listen to a big request of silent downloads so the dialog popup still appears every download you make.

So this release is 5/5 (for being the best download manager) minus the 2 for sloppy docs and not doing the silent dialog thing.

KriTenKs reviewed v1.1 on Sep 29, 2004

Tried most Download Managers. This one is the best! 1.1 now has History and a Search feature

darkpepe reviewed v1.0 on Sep 5, 2004

Download speed sometimes goes down to zero for no reason, but still the best free donwload manager I know about

kmleow reviewed v1.0 on Aug 13, 2004

One of the best freeware downloader. How about making it able to download from RTSP also?

Zankur reviewed v1.0 on Aug 13, 2004

i think it's one of the best around.I think it should give serious competition to DAP,Getright.

bobad reviewed v1.0 on Aug 12, 2004

Pretty good D/L accelerator. Needs sounds. (like FlashGet). Needs to work better with Maxthon.

httpd.confused reviewed v1.0 on Aug 12, 2004

It's pretty nice. I find it a bit clunky. It lacks download windows, and Opera integration doesn't work unless you go into Opera's own settings and select the FDM plug-in (something the FDM docs don't mention).

gkar reviewed v1.0 on Aug 12, 2004

This version successfully integrated into FireFox! Had to reboot after installation for it to locate Firefox plugin directory. Thank you!

gkar reviewed v0.9 Beta on Aug 3, 2004

Outstanding, (I like the shutdown feature). If there is anyway a Mozilla Firefox plugin could be added, this baby would be perfect. 9.5 Stars *********1/2

Update: Download this patch and FDM will integrate into Firefox:

http://www.freedownloadm...er.org/fdm_operafix.exe

alexrhcosta reviewed v0.9 Beta on Aug 1, 2004

Great piece of software!
And best of all, it´s FREE!
Runs perfectly on Win XP.
Keep up the great job!

arvind reviewed v0.9 Beta on Aug 1, 2004

Simply the most effective, no frills download manager I've come across. Never thought I could download at 5.7k/sec constantly on a dialup :-)

DarthVeda reviewed v0.9 Beta on Aug 1, 2004

Awsome download manager. I am dropping the file links on the download basket to download in firefox.

TomRC reviewed v0.9 Beta on Jul 31, 2004

Nice. Great Dowonload Manager. A lot of functions and a handy GUI. Some tweaks here and there and the final will be awesome.

The only contra is the lack of mozilla support. The firefox plugin doesnt work for seamonkey.

xllx reviewed v0.9 Beta on Jul 31, 2004

Using this with FireFOX and it smokes!!! A Great download manager...and FREE to boot...THIS SOFTWARE IS GREAT...What are you waiting for click the link all-ready...

This will allow for download redirection in Firefox
http://www.freedownloadm...er.org/fdm_operafix.exe
go there or to the fourms...

chichiri reviewed v0.9 Beta on Jul 31, 2004

This is a first impression review, I can't yet say how stable this downloader is longterm.
Featurewise it is very impressive, seems to have all the best features of its "big" shareware cousins blended right in there.. and its free!