Aktiv Download Manager

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on November 03, 2010

Aktiv Download Manager from Goforsharing is a free tool that enhances Windows' downloading capabilities. It can schedule and manage up to 99 simultaneous downloads, pause and resume downloads in a variety of connection types, accelerate downloads, segment files, and automatically search for additional and faster downloads.

Aktiv Download Manager's businesslike interface is divided into two panes, Current Downloads and Finished Files. A suite of control icons lets users add and delete URLs for download sites, reset the list, pause and resume downloads, and quit the program. An Options button initiates a properties dialog for setting general preferences such as destination folders, specifying connection segments and proxy settings, scheduling downloads, and choosing English, French, or Spanish language versions. We verified that the program's browser integration option was selected on the General tab of the Options dialog, closed the program, opened Internet Explorer, browsed to a download, and right-clicked the link. The file menu displayed an option to download the link with Aktiv; we clicked it, and a dialog appeared displaying the download progress and related data. Next we tried downloading three applications at the same time. We thought something had gone wrong, but in fact Aktiv Download Manager had downloaded all three so fast that we hadn't had time to notice. Clicking Open File on a finished download opened it directly from the Aktiv interface, and right-clicking an entry opened its details dialog. Right-clicking the program's system tray icon let us quickly pause and resume downloads as well as access the program's main interface.

As luck would have it, a rare hitch in our broadband connection let us test Aktiv Download Manager's pause and resume feature under real conditions, and it performed as claimed. We were a little disappointed that the program doesn't seem to integrate with Firefox as it does with IE. Nevertheless, it's a free download manager that's well worth checking out.

Publisher's Description

From Goforsharing:

Aktiv Download Manager is a most needed tool for those looking impatiently for the next download. The application is developed to manage downloads, pause and resume downloads, queue downloads, or search for downloads. This software comes with an adaptive download accelerator, dynamic file segmentation, and multipart downloading technology to considerably improve the download process. It successfully reuses available connections without further connecting and login stages to get the best out of the download performance. The installation is in the same tone extremely fast and easy you'll be able to use the program within seconds from downloading it. Aktiv Download Manager offers complete error recovery and resume capability which means it can resume broken or interrupted downloads that occurred during lost connections, network problems, computer shutdowns so you needn`t start downloading from the zero again. Aktiv Download Manager can be scheduled to download at user specified intervals. You also have the freedom to set the maximum number of segments and the maximum number of simultaneous downloads which can go as high as 99. In addition to splitting files into smaller pieces, Aktiv Download Manager gets really busy on its automatic chase for faster mirrors. You're going to love the way this software handles downloads, but the most important feature remains is the great speed. A well thought out interface, nice, clean, and intuitive makes it easier to have a good control over the app's features. Its functionality lies in just a few clicks.

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