UTorrent is a P2P software that lets you download torrent files such as movies, games, music, or even e-books. Before you can download torrent files, you need to have this type of software installed on your computer. It's an easy process and can be done in just a few minutes. Download a torrent with plenty of seeders. The speed at which you can download a torrent file is determined by several variables. A torrent with a largest number of seeders is one such desirable variable and having a low number of leechers is the other. The two interact together to affect how quickly a torrent can be downloaded.
Usually in the real world, if everyone tries to make a grab for the same thing, it leads to chaos. But in the world of torrents, it is this basic principle that’s followed. Let us explain it a bit more clearly. When you click a link to download something, the relationship between you (the downloader) and the source is pretty much one-to-one. Torrents on the other hand, work with peer-to-peer sharing.
We’ve already talked about downloading torrents on a Mac. In this most, we’ll go into a bit more details on what torrents are, how they work and how to download them on Windows.
Each file that is in the process of being downloaded is shared across a large number of users. Each user in this network of downloaders is downloading a file and also sharing it with others by uploading a piece of it. As a part of this large, distributed peer-to-peer network, you don’t need a whole file to share it with others. As soon as you receive a piece, you can start sharing it. This two-way downloading-uploading system helps to give you a complete file bit by bit.
The following Wikipedia illustration maybe will help you see the bigger picture.
You basically need two things to download with torrents – A torrent client and a torrent file.
You might have come across the word – BitTorrent. BitTorrent is a method (or protocol) of downloading files using the torrent file sharing system. Software which use the BitTorrent protocol are called BitTorrent clients. You can choose to install any of the following BitTorrent clients to start your first download. Wikipedia has a comparison of torrent clients.
The recommended ones are – µTorrent, Vuze (formerly Azureus) or BitTorrent’s own default client. All three are free, lightweight, and work across all operating systems.
But first you need to search for a torrent file to download.
The .torrent file is not the entire file. It is a small file that contains the data that points to the actual file and the people who are sharing it. It is like a master map which is used by the BitTorrent client to assemble all the different pieces of the file together. To get the .torrent file for the particular download, you have to take the help of specialized websites that host torrent files. Some of the popular ones are:
Torrentz – A good BitTorrent meta-search engine.
The Pirate Bay – The very popular site that’s almost synonymous with torrents.
KickassTorrents – A very neat site with few ads.
IsoHunt – One of the oldest torrent sites out there.
The screenshots below show how you can use uTorrent to download files on Windows. (The Complete Guide to Downloading Torrents on Your Mac shows the Vuze software in action.)
1. Download the torrent file to your desktop (or open it with a torrent client like uTorrent).
2. You will get the following screen (or something similar) when you open the torrent file with your client and it starts downloading.
3. A few terms here are important as they explain what is going on in the client’s interface as the download progresses:
Tracker: Trackers are the servers which keep track of the seeds and leechers.
Seeds: Seeds are people who have already downloaded the complete file and remain connected so that others can download from them.
Leechers: Leeches are people who are still downloading the file. They are typically called peers because they remain logged in and share their files even after their own download finishes.
The torrent client connects to the tracker, gets all the info on seeds and leechers and begins the download process. After the download finishes, best practice says that you should remain logged on for a while to share your complete file with others who still are in the process.
Torrent downloads have come under a lot of scrutiny because of rampant downloads of copyrighted files. But it is a case of blaming the tool and the protocol for the faults of others. Torrents remains the most powerful peer-to-peer method for free sharing of files.
So, if you haven’t gone this route yet, trying starting your first torrent download and let us know how it went.
Are you struggling to keep your
uTorrent has over 150 million users. With it on Windows 10, we can share and download torrent files with ease. But some users ran into uTorrent not responding. In this post, MiniTool will discuss the issue and offer feasible fixes to it.
uTorrent is very useful when you want to download Torrents on the website. But some users reported that they have come across uTorrent not responding on Windows 10. The error message is “It seems like uTorrent is already running but not responding. Please close all uTorrent processes and try again”.
Why Is uTorrent Not Responding on Windows 10? The following paragraph lists the possible causes.
The uTorrent client requires elevated access so it can download data without any interruptions from Windows Firewall or issues with accessing the hard drive.
How to run uTorrent administrator on Windows 10? Refer to the following tutorial.
Step 1: Right-click the uTorrent client and then select the Properties option from the menu.
Step 2: On the Properties window, navigate to the Compatibility tab and then check the Run this program as an administrator. Click Apply > OK to save this change.
Step 3: Restart your Windows 10 PC and then launch uTorrent again to check if the issue persists.
uTorrent not responding cab been caused by the fact that the internet traffic of this app has been blocked by Windows Firewall. So, follow the steps below to check if uTorrent has complete access.
Step 1: Type Windows Firewall in Cortana’s search bar and then click the result.
Step 2: On the Windows Firewall window, click Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall.
Step 3: On the new window, find uTorrent from the list of entries. Then check both Public and Private network box for the app.
The user configuration files can get corrupt easily. Once this happens, uTorrent will load data and “uTorrent not responding Windows 10” happens. In this case, you need to remove the uTorrent’s data from the application configuration folder.
Step 1: Call out the Run window by pressing Windows + R and then type %AppData%utorrent in the dialogue box and press the Enter key.
Step 2: Delete all the contents of the current folder. After that, restart your computer and launch uTorrent again to see if the issue has been removed.
You may enable proxy servers to enjoy faster internet. But the use of proxy servers can conflict with network applications, including uTorrent.
Here is the tutorial on how to disable proxy servers.
Step 1: Call out the Run window. Input inetcpl.cpl in the dialogue box and then hit the Enter key.
Step 2: On the Internet Properties window, navigate to the Connections tab and then click the LAN settings button.
Step 3: Uncheck the Use a proxy server for your LAN box and click the OK button to confirm.
After disabling proxy servers, relaunch the application to check if the issue is resolved.
When uTorrent not responding happens, it is possible that your computer has been infected with virus. If that is the case, you need to scan your computer. You can do that with Windows built-in tool that is Windows Defender or third-party antivirus, like Bitdefender.
Here I show you how to run Windows Defender to scan your computer.
Type Windows Defender in Cortana’s search bar and then click the result. On the new window, click Virus & threat protection > Run a new advanced scan. Then select Full Scan and hit the Scan Now button.
If all of the above fixes fail to fix uTorrent not responding, you can completely uninstall this application. Power off your computer and power on it. Then fresh-install the latest version of uTorrent and see if the last resort could be helpful.
In this post, I would like to recommend some free tools to help you improve Windows 10 experience. What are they? Read the post now.