VisualWget

VisualWget was designed as a GUI front-end for Wget, a content retriever originally designed for GNU that has been on the market longer than we can remember. It is a general download manager, being able to fetch documents, archives, pictures, as well as HTML resources.

VisualWget is a user-oriented application, sporting the basics that such an application must have in order to become a reliable option for home users. However, because it is based on a rather old and outdated protocol, it lacks the speed of a modern download manager.

It comes wrapped inside a well-built interface that appeals to users, boasting an organized menu and toolbars that allows for the easy management of downloads.

It also has a built-in clipboard sniffer, which will automatically retrieve the link into the ‘New Download’ dialog, saving you the time of pasting it yourself.

You can add multiple downloads at a time in a dedicated section, by placing the addresses in a list which the program will process in the order specified by you. If you want to schedule a download to start at a later time, that’s also possible.

The download process is, as mentioned, a bit slow, because the files are split into several packages, which will be grabbed individually, with a visual progress of the operation displayed in the main window.

Other highlights include the possibility to limit the download rate and to set a number of maximum running downloads, as well as support for proxy.

VisualWget has got the proper means to download a wide array of file types, but unfortunately lacks some essential features such as integration within browsers and support for downloading media content from online resources. These arguments suffice to turn heads to something more reliable and more appealing.