Popular Download Managers Reviewed - FlashGot

FlashGot is a freeware download manager integration and Firefox (Mozilla, Flock, Thunderbird) extension. It's also open source (GPL). But what does this extension do? It handles single ("selection") and massive ("all") downloads with independent and standalone download managers. At the time of writing, 39 managers are supported.

As soon as we load up this extension, we can already use four of its main features: FlashGot Link, which downloads the specific link under your mouse pointer; FlashGot Selection, which catches the links in highlighted text/images and attempts smart pure text conversions in order to forge a downloadable link; FlashGot All, which picks up all of the links from the current web page and transfers them to your default download manager; and FlashGot Tabs, which performs the aforementioned "FlashGot All" on each of your open tabs.

FlashGot's main advantage is that it supports download managers regardless of the operating system - Windows, Linux, MacOS X. It replaces the traditional way of handling downloads from Firefox by expanding and enriching your favorite standalone download manager application. It adds a notch of privacy and security, too.

(FlashGot's Compact Context Menu)

The last feature that stands out is the Build Gallery. Thanks to this you can generate synthesized full media galleries in one page from various pages. This is very useful when download links are scattered over multiple pages. By using this function you can quicken the process by finalizing it with a "FlashGot All" once the page is synthetized.

All in all, this extension shouldn't be missed by any Firefox enthusiasts because it eliminates the need to constantly run your download manager on tray in order to keep monitoring all of your download activities, and eventually struggle with integration. Furthermore, if your favorite download manager application isn't supported yet, then you can add its support manually by entering the command line arguments.

Totaling the aforementioned features and abilities, I truly think that FlashGot deserves a sum of 10 points. All of you "FF fan-boys" won't want to miss this extension!

Final Thoughts

Thus far, we've reminisced about the early days of the Internet where download managers were absolutely required, discussed their features in great detail, and reviewed three completely free download managers. Moreover, the previous section was dedicated to Firefox enthusiasts, covering the FlashGot extension.

I truly hope that my article was informative. If it has refreshed your memory of your early days of downloading when you couldn't live without a download manager, then it has done its purpose. If you weren't familiar with the Internet back then, no problem, just take our advice and get in the habit of using download managers.

Trust me; it's way better to prevent accidents of all kinds. Download managers improve your overall time spent on the Internet; they are feature-laden, stable, effective, and aesthetic. The ones mentioned in my article are freeware! Go get 'em!

Should you prefer a commercial alternate manager, then I'd recommend checking out the following: GetRight, Download Accelerator Plus (DAP), ReGet Deluxe, and Internet Download Manager. Be prepared to shell out anywhere from $10 to $30.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to visit our community at "DevHardware Forums" and hit us with the most provocative issues. We are a community and together we do our best to solve technical troubles and software dilemmas of this computing generation. We demystify confusions, decipher crises, and figure out hardware puzzles!