About this release
Ant Download Manager sits between the browser and the server and breaks every transfer into a set of parallel connections, so a file that trickles in from a single stream arrives at the full rate of the line instead. On connections that never saturate from one socket, the difference shows up the moment the first big download starts, and the queue keeps running whether the machine is attended or not.
The part most people install it for is the media capture. A small panel drops over embedded players on a page, and a stream that would otherwise mean digging through the network inspector becomes a single click that saves the whole thing as one file. It reads the common adaptive manifests, stitches the segments back together, and hands you a finished video rather than a folder of fragments.
Around that sit the ordinary comforts of a mature download tool. Full resume after a dropped line or a sleep cycle, a scheduler that runs a batch overnight and shuts the machine down when the queue empties, category folders that sort finished files by type, and browser extensions for the mainstream Chromium browsers and Firefox that hand links straight to the queue.
What it does
- Multi threaded downloading with up to thirty two connections per file
- Full resume support for interrupted, paused or dropped transfers
- Video capture panel over embedded players with adaptive manifest support
- Browser integration for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Brave
- Download scheduler with queues, speed caps and post queue shutdown
- Automatic sorting of finished files into category folders by type
- Clipboard monitor that offers to catch any copied link
- Proxy support with per site authentication storage
- Silent install script for unattended deployment
- Portable mode that keeps its settings beside the executable
Changes in this version
- Updated capture module for the current Chromium browser releases
- Fixed a stall on servers that throttle aggressively per connection
- Improved stitching of fragmented adaptive video streams
- Better resume behaviour after a laptop wakes from sleep
- Reduced memory use on very large download queues
What the package contains
- Ant Download Manager full installer
- Browser integration extensions for all supported browsers
- All interface languages
- Silent install script for unattended setup
- Readme with the install order written out step by step
Installation notes
Follow these in order. Most reports of a failed install come from skipping a step rather than from the package itself.
- Close every browser window before you begin.
- Disconnect from the network.
- Extract the archive to any folder, the package is small.
- Run the installer as administrator and finish the wizard.
- Launch it once, allow the browser extension prompt, then reconnect.
- Turn off the built in update check so the state is left alone.
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 7 or newer, 32-bit or 64-bit |
| Processor | Any 1 GHz or faster processor |
| Memory | 512 MB minimum |
| Graphics | No requirement |
| Storage | 120 MB free plus space for what you download |
| Display | 1024 by 768 minimum |
Things worth knowing
- If the extension does not appear, add it by hand from the integration tab in settings.
- Very high connection counts get throttled by some hosts, eight to sixteen is the practical range.
- DRM protected players will not produce a capture panel, which is expected.
Questions about this title
Does it catch video from any site?
Why did my speed not change?
Can it run without installing?
Will a Windows update break it?
What people are saying
Grabbed a lecture stream off a page that had video download blocked everywhere else. Came out as one clean file.
Extension needed a manual add on Edge but that was the only fiddly bit.
Scheduler shutting the box down after the overnight batch is exactly what I wanted.
Listing information
This entry is catalogued under Internet & Downloaders and carries the tags below. Language coverage is Multilingual, 20 interface languages, and the supported platform list is Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11. Version 2.17.7.96580 is the current catalogued build, last checked 3 days ago, and the entry has been in the index since it was added 2 years ago.