Although more and more is going towards services related to direct use via the Internet (streaming, cloud etc.), for many types of files (especially the largest ones) using the BitTorrent network is still the best solution, since there are no queues and we can quickly find everything we are looking for without having to go crazy among a thousand sites (often full of advertisements and traps for our computer). uTorrent still remains one of the best programs to download with the BitTorrent network, since it is really simple to install and use even for users who have never downloaded a file with this fast P2P service. If we are a beginner and we want to find out everything about this program, we have created a complete guide on how to download and use uTorrent for free, so that we can start your downloads quickly and without too many steps (we have simplified everything as much as possible, so that even the least experts can use it).
How to download uTorrent
To download uTorrent to our PC, all we have to do is visit the official page of the program and click on the button Download for free .
The program is also available for a fee, but the advantages offered are very few so we advise you to always take the free version (complete from all points of view). Once downloaded the executable uTorrent.exe, we double click on it to start the installation procedure, in which we will have to click on Next in the first two windows, press on Accept on the user license page and select Decline on the page. additional offers (they add personalized homepages and additional programs, so it is better to pay particular attention). The only window worthy of attention is that relating to the configuration of the program.
Here we can leave all the ticks without problems; the only item that we recommend to manage is the one related to the automatic start together with Windows (the program is light so we can also set it to auto-start, but if the PC is already slow at its best remove the check mark) .
We will find ourselves in the main interface of the program: the section relating to actual torrents can be found in the Torrent menu on the left side.
Before continuing with the actual use of uTorrent, allow yourself to be shown the "trick" to remove the advertising present in the program (greatly worsened from this point of view, therefore better intervene immediately): open the Options menu, select the item Settings then let's go to the Advanced menu. Here we use the Filter field at the top right to find the following entries and set them to False (just double-click True next to each entry):
- bt.enable_pulse
- gui.show_notorrents_node
- gui.show_plus_upsell
- offers.content_offer_autoexec
- offers.featured_content_badge_enabled
- offers.featured_content_notifications_enabled
- offers.featured_content_rss_enabled
- offers.left_rail_offer_enabled
- offers. _torrent_offer_enabled
By setting these items and restarting the program, we will have a uTorrent very similar to the program known by many users up to a decade ago, with no banner ads.
How to use uTorrent
After installing and "fixing" the program, we will show you in this part of the guide how to use it to download any type of file at maximum speed. First we will have to open the access doors on our modem / router, so as to unlock the maximum speed (by contacting a greater number of fast sources immediately): to make this change, we access the control panel of our modem or router, we identify the menu with advanced settings and we check the presence of a menu or a section of the type Port Forwarding, Port forwarding, Port configuration or similar. Once the right section or menu has been found, we take care to forward the uTorrent port to the IP address of the computer in use; in this regard, we invite you to read our two guides on how to configure port forwarding on a router easily to open communication ports and the guide to open router ports .The uTorrent door can be viewed by opening the program and taking us to the path Options -> Configuration wizard, next to the Current door field.
Once the door is correctly opened, we remain in the Guided Configuration menu and make the adjustments relating to the speed to be used; for this purpose we will have to recover our network speed by clicking at the bottom of the button Start the tests . We wait just a few minutes for the end of the tests, where we will get two green check marks on the side of both sections (to indicate a correct configuration of the program). If we believe the wrong values, we can always manually change the upload value by changing the field Your upload speed and choosing the appropriate one; we pay particular attention to the indicated unit of measurement: the KB / s or the MB / s is used, not the Megabit per second (used in most tests; to convert the unit of measurement we use the following online converter). At the end, click on Save & Close at the bottom to make the changes applied.
Now we are ready to download! We recover a magnetic link (also called Magnet) or a torrent file from the Internet (for testing we can also use the torrent link for the Linux Ubuntu distribution), then add them to the program by clicking on the +-shaped button (for torrent files) or by clicking on the paperclip button ( Magnet link).
We can also drag the files or links inside the interface or double-click on the torrent files: if we followed all the instructions during the installation, the Magnet files or links will be immediately opened inside uTorrent. Adding the torrent will open a preview window: make sure that the item Start the torrent is checked and that the right destination folder is present, then click OK on the bottom.
Once the torrents are added, we can get comfortable and minimize the program: it will start downloading at maximum speed, contacting all owners of the same file. We can take a look at the latter by examining the Seed / Peer item next to each torrent: the higher the ratio, the faster we will download.
In the settings you can also activate the streaming service that allows you to watch the videos even if they have not yet been downloaded.
As a player to indicate, you can put the path of the VLC Media Player program, the best because it can read all types of videos without having to download additional codecs.
For the same objective it is also possible to use the uTorrent Web version, which has the purpose of streaming videos on the Torrent network.
uTorrent also proposes to improve the program with the non-free uTorrent Pro version, without advertising and with additional functions. Those who use a program such as uTorrent to exchange or download files via the internet, should not need to add other functions such as the converter or antivirus control that can be obtained, even better, with external programs.
Conclusions
uTorrent has always been the best program to be able to download torrent files on Windows, thanks to its ease of use, the download speed obtainable (the highest of all similar programs) and the ease with which we can configure it to get downloads immediately rapid.If, however, we are looking for equally valid and fast alternatives, perhaps without advertising, we recommend that you read our guide to Alternative programs to uTorrent to download Torrents . If instead we wanted to download torrents from our Android smartphone or tablet, we suggest you read our article on the best apps to download torrent files from Android .
