Download Accelerator Plus 8

This download manager brings much more to the table than fast file transfers, but it definitely delivers those, too. Upon installation, Download Accelerator Plus asks for your e-mail address in hopes of sending you special offers, but you don't actually need to submit any information. Although the program is free, the trade-off is the "information panel" that displays software advertisements in the right portion of the interface. Luckily, it's easy to get used to. In most other respects, the tabbed main window is straightforward to use and navigate. Download Accelerator Plus also installs a handy toolbar in Internet Explorer and integrates with alternate browsers such as Firefox.

Increased download speeds are the program's bread and butter, and it doesn't disappoint, speeding up downloads by almost 200 percent in most cases. Besides using the common tactic of splitting files into smaller pieces, it automatically seeks faster mirrors. It also can get a file simultaneously from several sites, which is useful if a particular site limits the download speed. Other useful tools include the ability to resume interrupted downloads, log on to protected sites, and schedule downloads at low traffic times for faster downloading. We appreciate the extra tools for organizing media and finding games, as well as the basic yet functional FTP client. We also found a very interesting feature (only in the pay version, however) that allows you to resume all downloads, whether a server supports it or not. All things considered, this feature-rich program will prove valuable for most avid downloaders.