How to schedule your downloads. Automatically start/stop downloads and shut down computer

Ever left your computer to download large files during an off peak time and wished the downloading would stop by itself just before peak charge time started so you wouldn’t have to pay a higher rate? Many ISPs have multiple rates so its more economical to download large files during an off peak time. Unfortunately if you’re not around to stop it, the download may continue into the peak time to the detriment of your bank balance.

This is when download scheduling is a plus. Most of the popular download managers give you the option to decide when to start and stop downloads automatically so you won’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to stop your download when peak time starts.

Method for scheduling using three popular download managers is explained below.

For Orbit Downloader and Download Accelerator Plus, after the file to schedule download for is in the download tray, right click on it and select ‘Scheduled’ or its equivalent from the menu. If the file is being downloaded you will have to pause it to be able to select ‘Scheduled’. Find the preferences/options of the download manager and select ‘Scheduler’. From here you can select when to start and stop the download automatically. You can also choose if the scheduler runs once or daily. Usually if more than one file is ‘Scheduled’, all of them will follow the same ‘Scheduler’ settings.

Scheduler for Orbit Download Manager

For Internet Download manager, once the file to download is in the ‘Main download queue’, you just need to go straight to ‘Scheduler’ and select start/stop times etc.

Automatically shutting down the computer when download completes

Many download managers can automatically close and shut down the computer when a download completes. You may want to leave the computer to download at night before you go to sleep and have it shut down by itself when the download is complete.