Fresh Download Editor's Review

Fresh Download is a free download manager that can speed up your downloads and resume them if they got cut off from the hosting server or from the ISP.

The first thing that came into my mind was the fact that this might be another FlashGet. Well they are not that different. The thing I can say about this one is the fact that it is a pretty good download tool.

The shell integration with Internet Explorer is good and it's replacing the unreliable built in download manager that Internet Explorer has. The shell integration is pretty good with Firefox too where the FlashGot extension has the support for this download manager.

Before starting the download a window will pop-up where the user is asked about the download location. You can set up into that window other things like the number of mirrors it can support. You can set a number of mirrors between 1 and 8.

You can also set if your download should be scheduled or not. Or if the servers requires authentication you may set your username and password there. The manager usually can detect the size of the file you are going to download. Another thing that you can set up in the download window is the md5 hash for that file if it's available from the hosting server. This kind of option isn't available in all download managers. Some sites are giving that hash, some don't so this is optional.

The download is working pretty fine with this manager. I didn't get any corrupted downloads like other managers do sometimes.

Pluses: it is a free download manager with a quite good thread management of your downloads. It is using low resources and it has a good integration with the browsers.

Drawbacks / flaws: it requires registration. Yes, the registration is free but the application is bugging the users in order to register it.

In conclusion: you may like it or not. I think it's worth at least trying because it is offering decent options for your downloads and it won't cost you a dime.

version reviewed: 7.62