How to Download Using Torrents on Windows [GUIDE]

Using Torrents is not illegal but downloading copyrighted material from Torrents is illegal.

This guide has been written for people who are completely new to the world of Torrents. We often face this problem when we encounter the problem of downloading stuff from Torrents. Most normal internet users are familiar with downloading things just by clicking on the big green download button. They are either too new to the internet or never bothered how to download using Torrents.

How does the Torrent System Work?

Torrents are spread through a P2P network. The P2P stands for person-to-person or peer-to-peer network. Here a user can be a seeder or leecher. Seeder is the person who has the full file and seeds (uploads) it for others to download. Leecher is the person who is the downloader of the file.

Books, TV shows, movies, music, and whatnot! You name it and the internet has it in the form of a torrent. No more waiting for a Game of Thrones next episode.

But mind you, folks, it’s illegal to share copyrighted material. So only share or download something through torrents that are under a Creative Common license or stuff that you have the rights to.

So here’s a simple guide to downloading good quality torrents with better quality and fast downloads in the form of steps.

1. Torrent website:

There are many torrent sites available on the internet. But generally, there are two main types of torrent sites; Public Sites; are the ones where torrents are listed freely and anyone can download from them.

Then there are Private Sites; where you can only download torrents if you are invited by an existing user. Sometimes they even ask you to upload the same amount of data that you download from the site in order to use their services.

2. Searching a torrent:

While searching a torrent, make sure to keep the search entry crisp and to the point. For Example: To download a movie simply type ”Movie name”. Similarly to download an episode of a series, simply type “series name S05E01”.

3. Concept of Seeders and Leechers

When you finally find links to your required search, you will see that there are a number of Seeders and Leechers. Seeders are the folks who have the entire file available for downloading. The more the number of seeders, the better the quality of your torrent will be there.

Also, seeders determine the speed of downloading your torrent file and also vouch for no viruses attached to the torrent file.

Leechers are the users who are currently downloading the file, but not seeding. A leecher becomes a seeder when the file is completely downloaded on his system. The number of leechers should always be less than the number of seeders, as leechers affect the downloading speed and quality of the torrent. 

4. Download Magnet Link

Magnet links are a little different from regular links that you may see in your search query. Magnet links take you directly to the downloading site rather than downloading the separate torrent file.

In simple words, it means sharing an online published article link directly to someone, rather than downloading the article and then sharing it. This saves the torrent sites legal trouble also as most of the time the illegal content that you might proceed to download is not listed on their site directly.

5. Quality of the torrent file

One can simply judge the quality of torrent files before downloading them. When it comes to the video quality of the downloaded files, many options are available from DVD-quality video to 720p HD to 4k HD video.

Quality ranging from 720p to full HD quality is the best. Also, there are video previews and reviews given below by seeders. Make sure to go through them once before you start downloading and wasting away your bandwidth on files that don’t even meet the requirements.

5. Installing a torrent client:

The BitTorrent protocol lets you exchange data over the internet freely and independently. No central servers are involved and data is downloaded from other users; Seeders. There are many independent clients available on the internet that connect you to the host and enable you to download the required data.

Some of the famous ones are; BitTorrent, Utorrent, Vuze, Ares, etc.

6. Opening the torrent file:

Once you download the torrent file, you right-click and you see an option for opening the file. When you click on it, the file will open automatically in your torrent client window.

7. Monitor your download

You can always keep an eye on the downloading speed of your torrent. There is a progress bar in front of every torrent file that you want to download. It shows the estimated time of download to ease your nerves.

Along with that, you can also allocate bandwidth to each torrent separately so that all downloading bandwidth is not focused on a single torrent file. You can also set the priority of the torrent to determine how much bandwidth it gets.

You can enable features like queueing etc. to download files one by one. You can also set automatic shutdown or sleep commands in many of the popular clients like Utorrent.

8. Opening the download:

The file will not open until and unless it is completely downloaded. Once done, right-click on the downloaded file, and select the option of open file location. Once you reach the file location, simply click on the file and do whatever you want to do man.

9. Seeding:

Seeding is what makes the torrent community going. Without seeders, torrents would not be vouched. So make sure to seed every time you are done downloading so that others can also get the benefit of good quality torrents.

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Shreya Verma

Shreya Verma is a Bibliophile, food lover and a wild child! Currently working as an HR professional and trying to make a name in this big world!