WinBITS 0.8 Manual
A short Introduction... |
First of all I would like to say that you cannot compare WinBITS to other public download-managers like GetRight. At the moment, WinBITS is just a GUI (Guided User Interface) for the BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) which is included in Win2000/XP. Until now, WinBITS has not been as comfortable as other Download-Managers.
BITS was primarily designed by Microsoft® for auto-updates (e.g. Windows® Update). The advantage of BITS is that it uses free bandwidth for the downloads. Your connection won't be slowed down if BITS is downloading files in the background.
BITS is a so-called "service" which is running in the background any time your system is running. Even if you close WinBITS, your BITS-downloads will still be processed.
With WinBITS, you can use BITS for you own purposes, e.g. downloading large files from the internet.
Installation |
- Make sure you've installed the .NET Framework
- Use the installer to install WinBITS
- Run WinBITS
How to use WinBITS |
Adding a new Job (=Download) to BITS
1.) Select "Menu" -> "Add new Job" or right-click in the main-window and select "Add new Job".
Following popup window will appear:
2.) Select a name for your job. This name will appear in the main-window and in the tray notification. (You can use the same name for two or more jobs)
3.) Select, if you want to save all files - corresponding to your job - to one directory, or if you want to select a different location for each file.
4.) Add Files to your job. Click on "Add URL to Job" and enter the URL, or just drag & drop the URLs (Links) from your Browser to WinBITS (just drag it to the WinBITS taskbar entry (hold your mouse down) - WinBITS will pop up - then drop it to the File List).
Other methods: Load your URLs from a file, Catch URLs from Clipboard
5.) Add your job to BITS by clicking "Add this Job"
Just select "Load URLs from file" in the "Add new Job" window and select the file
Each URL has to be seperated by a break (new line).
For Example:
urls.txt
http://www.yourprovider.com/yourdir/yourfile.ext
http://www.yourprovider2.com/dir2/file2.ext
and so on...
Enable this option to add your URLs easily via the clipboard.
Anytime you copy a new URL to the clipboard (and WinBITS is running), WinBITS will automatically open a new "Add new Job" window with your URL.
If a "Add new Job" window is open and you copy a new URL to the clipboard, it'll just add the URL to your current job file list.
You can change the save-path afterwards or select different directories for each file by right-clicking them (-> change local path)
WinBITS is also able to catch multiline - URLs (for example out of a text file)
1.) Right-click on one of your job-entries or select the job and click the "Change Properties" button in the main-window.
2.) Click " View Job Details " to get more information about the specified job (files, date, etc.)
3.) If the Job-State is " Suspended ", the job is paused. Select " Start this Job " to start/resume this job. If the job-state is " transferring " or " queued " you can pause the job by selecting " Suspend this Job".
4.) You can change the priority of a certain job. Foreground priority means highest priority.
5.) If the Job-State is " Transferred ", the Job is done. You can complete the job now by selecting "Complete this Job" (if " auto-complete " in the options is turned off).
6.) If You select "Complete and Open", WinBITS will complete the job and - if the job just contains one single file - try to open this file with its attached application (Like notepad for .txt files). If the Job contains more than one file, WinBITS will open the directory.
6.) By clicking " Cancel this Job ", you can delete the selected job (which is irreversible).
HINT: Double-clicking the job will show you the details. If the job-status is "transferred", it will complete the job and open the file(s)
Options |
1. Tab: General Options
1.) Auto-complete jobs: WinBITS will auto-complete your jobs, when they're done. They won't appear in the Joblist any longer. If you enable this options, you can't use the 'Complete and Open' feature
2.) You can enable/disable the catch URLs from clipboard feature
3.) You can select if WinBITS should minimize to system tray (it won't appear in taskbar, just in your system tray)
4.) You can even select that WinBITS minimizes to system tray, when you click the "X" button.
In this case you have to close WinBITS by right-clicking the system tray icon and selecting "Exit".
5.) WinBITS can start minimized (for example if you want to launch WinBITS on startup)
6.) WinBITS can hold the "Add new Job" window on top (this makes drag & crop links much easier)
2. Tab: File Options
1.) The Save Path is the regular directory in which your files will be saved (if you use " Save all files to one Directory ")
3. Tab: Notifications
1.) WinBITS can show a tray notification to you when a download is finished.You can also select a .WAV file, wich will be played when the job is done.
About |
WinBITS is freeware. I work on it in my free time - just for fun.
If you have any questions, ideas or comments - feel free to write me:
info@graffixx.org (german or english)
Philipp Richter - 27.02.05