Binary Vortex

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffJanuary 13, 2010This free tool for grabbing files from Usenet newsgroup is supposedly optimized for downloading images, but it has one doozy of a drawback: it doesn't let you preview images before it grabs them.Binary Vortex sports a rather bland interface based on Windows-style tabbed dialog boxes, and it may not be simple to comprehend for novice users. (Visiting the help manual is nearly a requirement for using this tool.) The search feature is very effective for locating Usenet groups from which to grab images. The downloading process performs quickly, even for large files.However, Binary Vortex doesn't allow you to preview images. It simply starts downloading, revealing the current image in a pane of the Download tab as it's being saved. You can view downloaded images as a slide show in a separate viewer than opens for that purpose. Binary Vortex works well enough to suit anyone interested in downloading image files posted to Usenet groups, but being unable to preview images before downloading them is a limitation most users won't appreciate.