Adware is on the rise, thanks in part to various "download managers" file hosts have begun wrapping their software with. Taking a few seconds to check what links you're clicking on will usually reveal a checkbox or direct download to avoid getting the unwanted bytes (and toolbars), but that doesn't make it any less annoying. Sadly, we may soon be taking the decade-old FileHippo off the whitelist, with news it's looking to introduce its own helper.

iOS: iPhones are not exactly great at handling files regardless of where they come from, but downloading anything from the web is particularly problematic. Meteoric Download Manager (MDM) makes it easy to grab files from a simple URL, a web page, and various other sources at fast speeds. Plus, there's plenty you can do with those files once you've got 'em.

Firefox's separate downloads window can get kind of annoying, especially if you don't have the screen space to be moving windows around. The Downloads in Tab extension will let you monitor those downloads in a tab, Google Chrome-style.

Firefox: DownThemAll, your favourite download manager for Firefox, has just officially updated to 2.0, bringing a host of new features as well as support for the soon-to-be-released Firefox 4.

You're handy with BitTorrent, you've learned your way around Usenet and you have all kinds of files streaming onto your hard drive. Learn how to automatically unpack, rename, convert and otherwise make your media ready for viewing with these 10 helper apps.

Firefox: DownThemAll, the Firefox extension that lets you automate and supercharge your downloads, is getting a big upgrade with a 2.0 release. Download throttling, private browsing support, Flash video and HTML5 support and lots more power user additions are on the way.

Mac only: When it's time to download something via BitTorrent, most Mac users manage their torrents with the popular client, Transmission. Folx offers almost all of Transmission's features, but adds folder organising, one-click torrent adding, and a download manager for your browser.

Windows/Mac/Linux: If you're a frequent visitor to popular file sharing sites like Rapidshare you'll want to grab a copy of JDownloader, a java-based tool that completely automates the downloading process.

Windows only: Last year we shared TubeMaster Plus with you, an extremely handy program for downloading videos and music from streaming sites. TubeMaster++ has been released and comes with a slew of new features.

Windows with Opera only: oGet improves on the limited and often non-existent integration between the Opera browser and third-party download managers, acting as a link between them. After installing oGet, you'll be asked to select which download manager you would like oGet to pass your download requests to. The plug-in doesn't actually install the download managers, so you'll need to grab it on your own—check out the Hive Five for best download managers if you need some help picking one out. oGet supports over 25 managers including GetRight, FlashGet and LeechGet, among others. Depending on the content you click on, you're offered the following options in your right-click context menu: download, download all, and download selection for downloading the contents of a link, an entire page, and a selection of files or links, respectively. oGet is free and works with Opera 9.0 and higher. oGet

Windows only: Why download a hefty ZIP file only to find out that the file you needed is only a tiny fraction of the bulky download? Grab only the files you want with LoadScout. Plug in the address of the archive—a web or FTP address will do—and LoadScout remotely displays the contents. From there, you can browse the directories and files just like would if the archive was open on your computer. The option to cherry pick what you want to download is extremely helpful if all you need, for example, is a single driver file out of a bulky driver pack. In addition to remote archive browsing, LoadScout previews media like MP3 and AVI files by jumping to any location in the remote file and starting playback from there. Even if you intend to download the entire file, LoadScout lets you verify the contents before you waste time and bandwidth downloading it. LoadScout is freeware, Windows only.

LoadScout

Any Unix-friendly dude or lady will tell you that Wget packs a ton of power for such a small terminal command. It can grab different versions of the same file on a regular basis, crawl through web sites to mirror content as many links deep as you'd like, grab the newest MP3s or Flash video files from a popular web site, and stretch it as far as your data-trading imagination can stretch. And with WinWget, a free wget graphical interface for Windows, you don't need to learn how to append a half-dozen options and switches in the right order and capitalisation. Read on for a look at a couple of examples of how WinWget can expand your downloading power on Windows.

Flickr's streaming videos are concise, higher-quality than similar vid-sharing sites, and hard to download using web-based converters. Orbit Downloader, the runner-up to our readers' five favourite download managers, can grab the FLV file from a Flickr video and drop it wherever you'd like, and the software's maker has posted a short tutorial on how to pull it off. Orbit doesn't seem to work with Chrome all that well, but users of IE, Firefox, or Opera should have no trouble getting their files. How to Download Flickr Video Free

Don't like Firefox 3's built-in download manager's default behaviour? The Mozilla Links blog points out five configuration tweaks that can customise it. Our two favorites: in about:config set browser.download.manager. showAlertOnComplete to false to remove the taskbar pop-up notification of a completed download. Also, on Windows, you can keep downloads from cluttering up your My Recent Documents folder by setting browser.download.manager.addToRecentDocs to false. For more on about:config fun, see our useful Firefox 3 configuration tweaks. Tweaks for Firefox 3 download manager

You download hundreds of files to your computer on a weekly—and sometimes daily—basis, a practice that can take forever and has the potential to turn your organised filesystem into a cluttered nightmare. Here's the five most popular tools our readers use to manage, organise, and speed up their downloads.