IDM (Internet Download Manager) vs ?

[corker]

At these days, it is still quite difficult to find download managers which support Google Chrome natively. In addition, most of download managers are not incorporated with automatic download interceptor like IDM. I can mention few which does, they are Free Download Manager (FDM), Internet Download Accelerator (IDA) and GetGo Download Manager. I have never liked FDM. To me, it is bloated and somehow I never succeeded in capturing any YouTube videos with it. IDA is also bloated by ads. GetGo by far is the closest to IDM as to features. In fact, its one-click flash video grabber is better than IDM. Simply placing the normal URL of the video, and GetGo shall "sniff" the content for us. But to my dismay, it installs toolbar and does not support Chrome (May be because Chrome does not allow any third-party toolbars).

Try DAM (Download Accelerator Manager)

DAM is to IDM, as Haozip is to WinRAR

You Must Be Registered and Logged On To View "URL" BBCode Contents...

Nah, tried that.
Albeit the interface is IDM-alike, but it lacks several features IDM has. Unless you are a paid user, you will not be provided with sufficient acceleration. Limited to only 4 segmentation, if I am not mistaken. No zip preview nor Scheduler (?) either. Neither does one-click YouTube download. The absent of one-click flash content is offset by the Media Grabber which I think is less practical. This Media Grabber has to be opened prior to download.

Thank all of you guys for the great feedback!!

BTW, I looked around the IDM website and it seems the license is lifetime (Support | licensing) but Purchase pate says you get all updates for free for 1 year. (Support | licenseing says you get all minor updates until next version #)

So... we'll see what happens in 4 days. Perhaps the license I have behaves differently since it was a promo license. I'll report back what I learn. Thanks again everyone!!!

In the mean time, try to keep the latest IDM 6.09 build 2 setup then.

If you've bought IDM, then it'll work for lifetime, but you won't be eligible for free updates/upgrades after 1 year. Without updates and upgrades you can continue to use it. On contrary, if it's a license which you won at a giveaway, then you can neither be entitled for free updates/upgrades nor you can use it after 1 year.

If that is proven the case, then I am afraid almost everyone of us here who have IDM will have to bid farewell to the program after the license expires because I am sure the majority of us got IDM from giveaways.

I think Sam is right But would love if someone contradict this fact

jelson can be our guinea pig. If he succeed to continue using IDM after, let's say, a week onwards after the expiry date then the case will be proven otherwise. You wouldn't mind, would you, jelson?

[jelson]

jelson can be our guinea pig. If he succeed to continue using IDM after, let's say, a week onwards after the expiry date then the case will be proven otherwise. You wouldn't mind, would you, jelson?

Yeah!!! I get to be the guinea pig!

Hey, wait a minute

BTW, just downloaded the latest build (6.09.2.1) from their website.

I think Sameul is right. It makes good biz sense to giveaway a 1 yr license. If the product is really good, then you'll likely to plunk your $ down. And if the paid license is lifetime with all minor updates, that's cool. Especially since they're at 6.09 Wonder how long it will be before they have a major update to 7.x?

If the paid licenses were 1 yr only, then I'd have a problem with that.
Anyway... will report back soon. Clock is ticking!

[corker]

The summary of your observation seems quite unpopular info, jelson.

But did you guys notice that I wrote

If that is proven the case, then I am afraid almost everyone of us here who have IDM will have to bid farewell to the program after the license expires because I am sure the majority of us got IDM from giveaways.

The text in bold should indicate there is at least someone who does not belong to the group. And who that could be? None other than I MYSELF!
I obtained my key from translating IDM. And guess what? I looked into my IDM receipt. It was issued on 2009-12-24 so it is more than two years ago and yet it is still running fine even now. Either downloading or updating, everything OK! May be it is a special treat exclusive for me. Ha...ha...ha....

So, Happy Hunting for new IDM keys to you all!

And jelson, as long as you can afford it, I advise you'd better go with purchase. It is well worth the money. Or you may try out Mass Downloader from MetaProducts beforehand. It is cheaper and its renewal policy is based on major version release. However, Mass Downloader can't intercept download automatically like IDM does. And there is slight possibility it will be featured on Giveaway of the Day.

[avibky]

For free i still say go with Orbit you wont go wrong. Yes FDM has been become bloated but I always download the core installer and if i need any extra feature i add it using the plugins.

If for paid my best bet is always DAP. I used to use it long ago, got a license from dunno whom :dunno: but after my old hard drive wnet bad i lost everything.

[Samuel]

Thanks corker for putting up interesting points. BTW, you can try FDM lite, if you think the standard version is bloated.

PS : I'm keen to see your reply Jelson...

[jelson]

UPDATE

Well the other shoe dropped today. Upon launching Firefox was greeted with the message that my IDM has expired.

Interesting data:

• Feb 26, 2012 --> expired
• Feb 19, 2012 --> msg that was expiring in 5 days
• Mar15, 2011 --> first installed (as evidenced by creation date of IDM folder in Program Files dir)
• Mar 03, 2011 --> received license key from AvinashTech

So, the license must have started on Feb 26, 2011. Likely the day the license keys were created by Tonec.

So, looks like I'll be trying out some of the alternatives but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up paying for a IDM license for my new machine.

Imagine I'll end up using an alternative for my soon to be "old" (XP) machine.

[Ashwin]

UPDATE

Well the other shoe dropped today. Upon launching Firefox was greeted with the message that my IDM has expired.

Interesting data:

• Feb 26, 2012 --> expired
• Feb 19, 2012 --> msg that was expiring in 5 days
• Mar15, 2011 --> first installed (as evidenced by creation date of IDM folder in Program Files dir)
• Mar 03, 2011 --> received license key from AvinashTech

So, the license must have started on Feb 26, 2011. Likely the day the license keys were created by Tonec.

So, looks like I'll be trying out some of the alternatives but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up paying for a IDM license for my new machine.

Imagine I'll end up using an alternative for my soon to be "old" (XP) machine.

You could try what Grr said

Edit: Deleted info about using IDM beyond trial. Sorry guys

[jelson]

You could try what Grr said

Ash's Edit:Removed the comment partially.

It's likely they write something to the registry in a Classes | CLSID entry that says you first installed a trial version so that you can't find it and delete unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

I suspect that's why Grr suggested Sandboxie.

[Ashwin]

It's likely they write something to the registry in a Classes | CLSID entry that says you first installed a trial version so that you can't find it and delete unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

I suspect that's why Grr suggested Sandboxie.

Indeed. I found some registry files with Regseeker.

[Alpha]

That means IDM licenses don't have any self life.... Thanks Jelson for providing this great info...
Guess i need to think quickly on what to do with my (unused) license.