Orbit Downloader

Orbit Downloader is a versatile download manager that runs as a standalone program or embedded in a web browser.

Orbit Downloader is a download manager that can handle a wide range of protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and RTSP. You can use Orbit to recursively download files from a website, to snatch streaming video or music from services like YouTube or Pandora and to download multi-file archives from file-sharing sites, such as RapidShare and MediaFire.

Orbit Downloader can run as a standalone program, and it has its own user interface that, while a bit outdated in terms of aesthetics, supports advanced features like drag and drop. Orbit also can run embedded inside a web browser, and the program supports Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When running embedded, you access it via a toolbar, and you can bring up the main window at any time.

The nice thing about Orbit Downloader is that it consolidates all of your downloading into a single place. It also gives you tools to organize those downloads, and it can accelerate downloads as well across a number of different protocols. You can pause, resume, fix corrupt downloads and even download pieces of the same file concurrently. The program also gives you control over bandwidth management.

Automatic organization is achieved through tagging. Assign a tag to a particular folder, and Orbit Downloader will automatically place similarly tagged files there. You can also have the program recognize files based on their types. If you’re downloading all files from a site, the program can automatically put videos in one folder and images in another.

Orbit Downloader supports proxy servers and offers full configuration options. The space used on disk is small. It doesn’t require many resources, and it won’t interfere with browser performance. Perhaps one issue is that it isn’t particularly sophisticated when it comes to file-sharing sites. If you need a program that can circumvent captchas, recognize account limits and so forth, you’ll need a different application.

Pros

• Runs standalone or embedded
• Embeds in most major web browsers
• Supports a wide range of protocols

Cons

• Outdated user interface