14 DAY TRIAL // The reasons behind the birth and expansion of the download managers family are well known and we have discussed them before. Even if these reasons are unknown to you, after losing two or three large downloads due to connection problems or download server issues, you'll start to figure them out.
The name of our subject today is Fresh Download. It has reached version 7.56 and seems a decent download manager, especially when keeping in mind its price (it's free for personal use), but not only that.
First steps, the download and installation, should pass fast and easy - 1.9MB setup package and nothing special to do while installing, just click some "Next" buttons and set some basic (and obvious) options. Registration is free for personal use, and in order to use the program for longer than 11 days you have to spend a couple of minutes for it.
The interface of this program seems a bit old, especially when it comes to that texture on the background of the main window, but the good thing is that you can remove it or place one of your favorite images in its place.
Now let's get to the action: speed and features.
Fresh Download is not going to change the world or make the planet spin faster, but it does its job within reasonable limits. While downloading, it automatically splits the file into a number of pieces that you can set from the Preferences area. It didn't throw me off the chair, but the download speeds were around 90-95% of my bandwidth.
What about the features? Well, there are enough of them to satisfy most beginners and average users. Let's check them out!
Adding new downloads is very easy, and scheduling them is no problem at all. Once you add more files for downloading, you can schedule them, each with a different setting. For example, you can download a file each day of the week, starting at 12:00AM for the next two months, and there are a lot of other possible combinations, of course.
You can't download torrent files, browse HTTP and FTP servers or remotely control this download manager, but its options are rich enough to allow you complete control over the download task.
Fresh Download can integrate into Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Netscape Navigator, and even other browsers. It can monitor the clipboard or check the downloaded files using an external virus scanner that you have chosen.
The manager can split a file in 8 pieces and have maximum 10 simultaneous downloads. Of course that, when talking about the connection, using a HTTP or FTP proxy is no problem, you just have to enter their details and that's all.
Some sites don't allow download using download managers, and to avoid problems with files that you may download from them, there is an editable list containing excluded sites.
Fresh Download has a built in Zip Extractor that can help you a lot when downloading lots of archives of this type. About the other features, I am sure you will have the pleasure to discover them!
The Good
Fresh Download is a small download manager with good features and easy to use for everybody.
The Bad
Fresh Download has a Help system that's a bit behind the rest of the program... when having so many options available to set up, I expect to have them all explained carefully in the Help file... but it's not the case here. Also, the version number doesn't reflect the maturity of the program; just think about FlashGet or FDM!
The Truth
Fresh Download doesn't look that fresh, but it has enough features to make it an interesting choice. If you are not addicted to FlashGet or another famous download manager, I advice you to get this and give it a try, it may be worthy of your attention, especially if you don't have high expectations.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
