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If you're like us, you probably keep all of your web downloads cluttered in one communal download folder, whether it's direct downloads with Firefox or legal downloads with Bittorrent. Eventually, your downloads folder grows to several gigabytes, and sorting through all those pictures, videos, and songs takes the better part of a day. Here's a way to automate the sorting of all your downloads and keep torrent-ed files organized with just a single click.
The Magic Folder is a widget for Windows Vista and 7 that can automatically sort files based on their extension. With the way it's meant to be used, you assign file types to any folder, and just drag files to The Magic Folder widget icon for automated sorting. This feature is enabled by clicking the check-box when you first install the widget.
But The Magic Folder also has a feature that enables it to monitor a folder and automatically sort any files that are downloaded or moved to it. Enable this ability by going to the widget's General settings tab and clicking the "Turn on the Watched Folder" option.
This "Watched Folder" is actually named "The Magic Folder" and resides next to your other document folders in your Windows User directory. Unfortunately, you can't rename or move the location of this watched folder.
What we're going to do next is set all our Firefox downloads to go to this watched folder, which would include.torrent files.
The Magic Folder has presets to recognize commonly downloaded file types, like JPEGS and MP3s, but it doesn't recognize .torrent files... yet. Hit the Folders tab in The Magic Folder settings menu and create a torrent folder location. This is where you want Magic Folder to drop all downloaded torrent files. We created a folder nested inside our default downloads folder to store these torrents.
Next, hit the Extensions tab and add a .torrent extension, directing these files to the previously created torrent folder location.
Here's the tricky part. We're going to use uTorrent - our preferred torrent manager - to automatically start downloading files based on torrents found in the newly created torrent storage folder. We can do this because uTorrent has its own folder monitoring feature!
Enter the uTorrent preferences, and click on the "Directories" menu. Near the bottom of the menu, enable the "Automatically load .torrents from:" feature and direct it to the torrents folder.
Next -- and this is important -- set the "Put new downloads in" option to a temporary folder anywhere on your hard drive. This is where uTorrent stores partially downloaded files.
Finally, set the "Move completed downloads to" option to The Magic Folder watched folder we mentioned earlier.
Complicated enough? Here's a breakdown of what happens when you download a file after all of this is done:
Have any great software combos or mash-ups that use can't live without? Post them in the comments below!
Comments are closed on this article
allie_valenza
May 16, 2011 at 9:59am
Good list! It is worth trying some of the things you've done here. I didn't know much about them and i 'm surprise but it really seems easier than i expected. I like o find out new things about software and learn how different programs work. The last post I read was about common file Extensions and it was helpful as well. It's nice to see how they all link together.
cuKrista
December 28, 2009 at 12:39pm
That’s undisputed that the expert essay order service will compose the best customized essay for persons which don’t have writing skills. That could be the most simple way for such kind of people, I think!
Sparx10
December 22, 2009 at 9:47pm
Cool combos, reminds me of Kirby :P I never knew that Hamachi was for VPN, I just thought people used it for pirated game servers and such. I'm gonna try the gmail one. And I might try the HotKey one too. Although I already have AutoHotkey, and am not really a fan of mouse gestures.
Edit: tried CookiePie. screwed stuff up.
levenberg@veriz...
May 23, 2009 at 1:09pm
Nice work, but what about Portable Firefox and Tor? You gave both of them very warm reviews, and I use them together to securely get pass content restrictions. Where I'm from, they don't even let me check my email, so I use these two apps together to get what I need off my email. They've never let me down.
KaylaKaze
May 21, 2009 at 10:55pm
Hard and symbolic links are functions of NTFS, not Vista or Win 7. They work perfectly fine in XP. You can use the free program Winbolic Link to make them (since XP doesn't have mklink).
Sp3ctre18
May 21, 2009 at 2:24pm
Very nice list, I didn't know about many of these and I might try some of them.
However, I'm confused about the mashup with Hamachi. You did not mention at all the main service / application of the creators of Hamachi: LOGMEIN, as their domain implies. Logmein is a free service to do just that; access your PC remotely, and even better: from ANY computer. You simply install the logmein progam on the clients, and you use the logmein website to access it. Very simple, very easy to use. The paid servies adds a few things for ease of use such as file transfer and even getting sound.
So why use Hamachi and UltraVNC? unless you wanted more control over the secure connection, but again, I think you should have mentioned it and tell us your arguemtn, why go through the hassle of setting up Hamachi and UltraVNC instead of simply using logmein.
Composer of Film / Cinematic music
g2
May 21, 2009 at 7:54am
Awesome set of free utilities, a couple others that I find very useful and should make the cutoff
Crossloop – remote pc control
Argali - phone number lookup
gamzu07
May 21, 2009 at 6:34am
You can already sync firefox profiles without using Mklink. Just create a new profile and browse to the dropbox directory.
lunchbox73
May 21, 2009 at 6:27am
I gave up on Hamachi quite a while ago. I always get a relayed (slow) connection no matter what I try. Different computers, different locations, ISPs, didn't matter. I never did figure that one out.
I currently use RealVNC + port forwarding on my router + encryption for my VNC stuff. Not as secure as a VPN I know but the connection is rock solid and speedy.
metric_inch
May 21, 2009 at 7:06am
Did you try setting Hamachi to use a specific port for tunneling?
Pref > Status > Detailed Config button. Then set ports under the Connecting thru NAT, then make sure the firewall is forwarding those ports to the box running hamachi.
I had one site that needed to have ports entered, and forwared from the router. Home, Office, and Job site 1 all see each other just fine, but Job site 2 needed to have specific ports set. The idea of sending VNC traffic in plain text is way to scary.
Denis63
May 21, 2009 at 6:13am
One thing about uTorrent i want to share is that it will look in a specifird folder for any torrent files and it will automatically add them into utorrent with the default settings, then delete the torrent file. Also, it can download stuff to a "Pending" folder then when they're done it'll copy them to a "Completed" folder. What a fantastic program. -Denis
Defiant
May 21, 2009 at 7:33am
They already mentioned both those Denis, but I agree they are quite useful features
bytor7
May 21, 2009 at 5:25am
I have been using Hamachi and UltraVNC
to remote into and troubleshoot my relatives computers from the
comfort of my home for years. Hamachi and FreeProxy is another
great combination to securely browse the web wherever you go.
Creating a Hamachi network with
FreeProxy on a home computer turns it into a secure proxy server.
Log into the Hamachi network from a laptop when you are not at home and
change the proxy settings of your web browser. Enter the Hamachi IP
address of the computer running Freeproxy and use port 8080. Now
your web traffic will be running through the secure Hamachi network.
It's great when using open wifi at a hotel or coffee shop. It may
slow you down a bit, but it's better than having some latte sipper
snooping in on your IMs.
spentnickles
May 21, 2009 at 3:55am
Nice little mix here... I must say, things like this are the reason that I'm a MAXPC magazine and online reader... Keep up the good work...
kiroshimasylvia
July 02, 2010 at 10:14pm
I think that you need to check and see, my understanding is that flood insurance is available. One of the problems that the public may encounter is an agent that has not been to flood insurance education to sell it. That might have alot to do with it.. I think he said the other day that 33% of the claims for flood, were not in the flood plain. But, most people will not buy due to paying another premium….=========================<a href="http://useabletechnology.com" rel="dofollow">Useable Technology</a>
