Free Download Manager not working

[CSULB71]

I've upgraded from Win 98SE to XP Home Ed./SP2, doing a fresh install on a new hard drive, and am in the process of reloading all my software. In Win98, when I wanted to download a video clip, I would left-click on the clip and the Free Download Manager (FDM) app would "intercept" the URL (keeping the Firefox browser from doing the download) and start the download. Worked perfectly.
Now in XP, I loaded the same version of Firefox and FDM as I had in Win 98, made sure all the settings were the same as they used to be, and now FDM doesn't do a thing when I left-click to start a download -- the Firefox browser pops up, wanting to do the download. I then updated both Firefox and FDM to the latest versions, and same thing -- no FDM activity, just the Firefox browser offering to do the download. I visited FDM's website and looked thru the forum there, and several people asked basically the same question -- how do you make FDM the default downloader -- but there were no responses. Since all the settings in Firefox and FDM are the same as they were in Win 98, I have to assume something in XP is different than in Win98 causing this, but what can it be? Thanks.

Edit: I just now downloaded a software app, and FDM automatically jumped in and did the download! But it still won't do a video download -- WTH?

[louv68]

Try using Orbit Downloader. Works great.

[themaster1]

i use fdm on a daily basis but it's true it's not my default dl manager i'm not sure you can do that there is always a window that pops up in firefox so i can download a file.if i cancel i then get a fdm window .

[TJohns]

This may help - in Firefox go to TOOLS - OPTIONS. Select the APPLICATIONS tab. You can then set the default behavior for various filetypes. Set your video files to use FDM instead
Trev

[CSULB71]

TJohns: I don't have an "Applications" tab in Firefox -- the closest is under "Content", where I can configure certain file types. I changed how Firefox will handle MPG files, as a trial, but the only option is to "open with" an application, not "download with". I picked "open with" and selected FDM, but when I clicked on a MPG clip URL, FDM opened but no download was done.
I never had to set any special handling criteria before -- with the "Monitor/Firefox" option selected in FDM , a plug-in was created in Firefox's "Add-ons" section. Since FDM already has all the usual video file types listed under the download "Video" folder, all I had to do was set the default folder on my hard drive for the downloaded files to be saved in.

themaster1: that's odd -- FDM was my default downloader before under Win 98, and now it isn't under XP, no matter what I've tried. Have you checked in FDM to make sure you are monitoring your browser? It's under Options/Download Options/Monitoring. That was (and still is) selected on mine, but FDM doesn't intercept ("monitor") video files as the default downloader under XP now.

[CSULB71]

Follow-up -- Well, I thought I had it fixed. I uninstalled both Firefox and FDM, then reinstalled Firefox and the new FDM "Lite" version. Checked all the settings to be sure they were right, and tried a video clip download -- FDM handled the download like it should! But, after I rebooted the PC, FDM no longer worked; it was back to Firefox doing the downloads. Nothing else I fiddled with made a difference. What the heck would a reboot do to mess things up again??