Prism for Windows

A free, open-source download manager for your Windows PC

For Windows 11 and Windows 10. Prism speeds up big downloads by splitting each file across up to 32 connections, catches downloads from Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and Firefox, and picks up where it stopped — after a crash, a reboot or a power cut. No ads, no account, no telemetry.

Download for Windows MSI and portable

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free under the MIT license

Prism's main window on Windows: downloads with live progress and speeds, and a connections pane with 16 parallel segments for one file. Prism's main window in the light theme.

On Windows

Made for the way Windows works.

Everything Prism does — the multi-connection engine, browser capture, video, torrents, queues and the site grabber — plus a few things that matter on a Windows PC.

No admin rights needed

The installer sets Prism up for your own user account. IT admins get an MSI that installs it for every user.

Portable, even on a USB stick

Unzip the portable version anywhere and run prism.exe. Settings and history stay in the data folder next to it.

Your browsers, connected

Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and Helium add the extension from the Chrome Web Store; Firefox from Firefox Add-ons. Prism registers its browser helper for you.

Magnet links and torrents

The installer registers magnet: links and .torrent files, so they open straight in Prism.

Downloads while you sleep

A queue can start on a schedule, wake the computer to start, and put Windows to sleep or shut it down when it’s done.

At home on Windows 11

Liquid glass that follows Windows’ light and dark mode, a tray icon, a mini window and notifications. It can start with Windows, quietly in the tray.

Download accelerator

Faster than the browser — where it can be.

Many servers and mirrors cap the speed of each connection. Prism opens several (8 by default, up to 32) and keeps every one busy until the last byte, so in our test a 1 GiB file from such a server came down 15× faster than over a single connection.

  • Writes straight into the final file (a sparse file on NTFS) — no slow “assembling” step at the end.
  • Respects servers that allow only a few connections, and remembers the limit per site.
  • Honest: when a server doesn’t limit connections, your line is the limit, for Prism as for any other tool.

See the benchmarks

Download details: 16 live connections, a file map and a speed graph. Download details in the light theme.

Download

Install in a minute.

Three ways to get the same app: the installer for most people, the MSI for all users of a PC, or the portable zip.

Step by step

  1. Run Prism_<version>_x64-setup.exe

    It installs for your user account — no administrator rights needed.

  2. If SmartScreen appears, click More info → Run anyway

    The installer isn’t signed with a paid certificate, so Windows asks once. The source code and the build pipeline are public, and every release lists SHA-256 checksums.

  3. Prism opens with a short welcome tour

    It lives in the system tray while it works, and walks you through connecting your browser.

  4. Add the browser extension

    Open Prism in the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome (in Edge, first click Allow on Allow extensions from other stores). Firefox: see the extension guide.

Coming from IDM? Turn off the IDM Integration Module extension so the two don’t compete for the same downloads. Switching from IDM.

FAQ

Prism on Windows, answered.

Something else? Ask in Discussions.

Does Prism work on Windows 10 and Windows 11?

Yes, on both, 64-bit. The installer, the MSI and the portable zip contain the same app.

Is Prism free on Windows?

Yes. Prism is a free, open-source download manager under the MIT license: no trial, no paid tier, no ads and no account.

Why does SmartScreen say “Windows protected your PC”?

The installer isn’t signed with a paid code-signing certificate yet, so SmartScreen doesn’t recognise it. Click More info → Run anyway. Every release is built by GitHub Actions from the public source and lists SHA-256 checksums you can compare with Get-FileHash.

Do I need administrator rights?

No. The setup .exe installs Prism for your own account. Use the MSI when you want to install it for all users of a computer, and the portable zip when you can’t install anything at all.

How do I make Prism catch downloads in Chrome or Edge?

Add the Prism extension from the Chrome Web Store, pin its icon and check that it says Connected. From then on, clicking a download link opens Prism’s Download window; hold Alt while clicking to let the browser download it instead. Edge asks once to allow extensions from other stores.

Can I use Prism together with IDM or another download manager?

Yes, but turn off the other manager’s browser extension. Two extensions fighting over the same download means neither works reliably.

More about Prism

The Prism home page has the full feature tour, benchmarks and the install guide.

Prism homeFeatures, benchmarks, film and guide. Prism for MacApple Silicon and Intel, macOS 11 or later. Prism for Linuxdeb, rpm or AppImage for any distribution. Browser extensionChrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and Firefox. An alternative to IDMWhat carries over from Internet Download Manager. Hugging Face modelsGGUF and safetensors, only the files you need.

One beam. Many rays.

Free, open source and ready for your next big download.

Download Prism Star on GitHub