Features

Ghost Downloader is an AI-powered, next-generation, cross-platform, multi-threaded downloader with the following main features:

Smart Chunking & AI Acceleration 🚀

• Smart Chunk Downloading:
  • Splits download tasks into multiple parts based on the preset number of chunks (preBlockNum) for parallel processing.
  • Supports resume capability: Download progress is saved in real-time to a .ghd file and can be resumed after interruption.
  • Dynamic Thread Allocation: When a chunk downloads quickly and has a large remaining amount (exceeding maxReassignSize MB), it automatically splits the chunk in two and creates a new thread to accelerate the download.
• AI Smart Acceleration (Experimental):
  • Enabled via the autoSpeedUp configuration option.
  • Monitors download efficiency. When it determines that adding threads can effectively increase speed, it automatically triggers the dynamic thread allocation mechanism to try adding more download threads (up to 253) to fully utilize bandwidth.

Network Features

• Global Speed Limit: Allows setting a total download speed limit (KB/s) for all tasks in the settings to avoid consuming too much bandwidth.
• Proxy Support: Supports SOCKS5, HTTP, and HTTPS proxy servers, configurable in settings (supports "Auto" detection or "Off").
• SSL Certificate Verification: Option to enable or disable SSL certificate verification (SSLVerify config option).
• System Proxy Detection: Supports automatic detection of system proxy settings on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Application Features

• Smart Filename Recognition: Attempts to automatically recognize and decode the correct filename through various methods (HTTP Header, URL parameters, URL path).
• Sparse File Support: On supported file systems (like NTFS, ext4, APFS, etc.), it attempts to use sparse file technology when creating download files, which can quickly pre-allocate disk space and avoid long waits.
• Single Instance: Prevents multiple instances of Ghost Downloader from running simultaneously; restarting the application automatically activates the existing window (Windows).
• Global Error Capture: When unexpected errors occur, it attempts to log detailed information (Ghost Downloader 运行日志.log) and may display a notification via the interface.
• Clipboard Listener: Optional feature to automatically detect download links in the clipboard.
• Run on Startup: Option to automatically run the application when the system starts.
• Convenient Operations:
  • Drag & Drop Add: Supports dragging download links or text containing links onto the main window to quickly add tasks.
  • Paste Add: Pressing Ctrl+V in the main window quickly adds links from the clipboard.
  • Clipboard Listener (Auto Add): When enabled, automatically pops up the add task dialog when a downloadable link is copied.
• Task Management:
  • Batch Add: Supports pasting multiple download links at once in the "Add Task" dialog.
  • Task Customization: Allows setting a specific number of download threads and custom HTTP headers for tasks added in a single batch (overrides global settings).
  • Supports pausing, resuming, and canceling download tasks.
  • Option to completely delete downloaded files and records when canceling.
  • Supports redownloading completed tasks.
  • Supports calculating file hashes (MD5, SHA1, SHA256) for completed tasks for verification.
  • Features a segmented progress bar to visualize multi-threaded download progress.
  • Completed tasks support drag-and-drop operations (provides file path and original URL).
  • Completed tasks have a context menu (Open Folder, Copy File/Link, Redownload).
• System Integration:
  • System Tray: Supports minimizing to the system tray icon, allowing continuous background downloading. Operations or exiting the application can be done via the tray menu.
  • Resume Unfinished Tasks: Automatically loads and resumes unfinished download tasks on startup.
  • Auto Update Check: Option to check for new versions on startup.
• Windows Features:
  • Supports Toast notifications (Windows 10 1709+).
  • Supports window border accent color (Windows 11+).
  • Supports various window background effects like Mica, Acrylic, Aero.

Cross-Platform Support

Perfectly compatible with mainstream desktop operating systems:

Platform	Required Version	Architectures	Compatible
🐧 Linux	glibc 2.35+	x86_64/arm64	✅
🪟 Windows	7 SP1+	x86_64/arm64	✅
🍎 macOS	11.0+	x86_64/arm64	✅

TIP

Arch Linux AUR support: Community-maintained packages ghost-downloader-bin and ghost-downloader-git are now available (Maintainer: @zxp19821005)

Other Features

• Global Settings: Provides rich global configuration options.
• Detailed Download Information: Displays detailed status and information for tasks.
• Scheduled Tasks: Supports setting up scheduled download tasks.
• Browser Extension: Provides browser extensions for conveniently adding download tasks (under continuous optimization).
• Global Speed Limit: Supports setting a global download speed limit.
• Memory Optimization: Ongoing efforts to optimize memory usage.

Future Plans

• Plugin System: Open up plugin functionality to leverage the Python community ecosystem. (In progress)
• Enhanced Task Editing: Support for more powerful task editing features.
• Magnet/BT Download: Planning to support magnet links and BT downloads.

Check GitHub Issues for the latest feature requests and known issues.