What Is uTorrent?

Date First Published: 7th June 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Software

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 5/10

Learn more about what µTorrent is in this article.

µTorrent, also spelt as uTorrent, is a free BitTorrent client that was developed by Rainberry, Inc with over 150 million users. It was originally released on 18th September 2005 and written in C++. Outside of Asia, it is the most commonly used BitTorrent client. It works just like any other BitTorrent client by accepting torrent files, starting to download the data associated with it, and automatically seeding the file to other peers. However, the free version of uTorrent is supported by advertisements. uTorrent is compatible with Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux.

A paid version of uTorrent exists with no advertisements, premium support, instant play in HD, blocking of malware and viruses, and conversion of files.

Note:

The original author of uTorrent was Ludvig Strigeus, a Swedish programmer. However, the software is owned and maintained by BitTorrent, Inc. as of 7th December 2006. This was when uTorrent was purchased by that company.

Features Of uTorrent

The features of uTorrent are:

• Scheduled downloads. This allows the day and time for torrent downloads to start, stop, and seed.
• Optimisation for bandwidth. uTorrent Classic automatically adjusts bandwidth usage, based on the network and internet connection.
• Support for downloading torrents in bulk. uTorrent Classic enables multiple downloads to occur at the same time that can be managed from one single location.
• Support for magnet links in version 1.8, released on 9th August 2008.
• Quick resuming of interrupted transfers.
• Ability to use encryption of all traffic.
• Customisable search bar and user interface design.
• Full proxy server support.
• HTTP tracker support.
• Ability to add RSS feeds.
• Peer exchange with other BitTorrent clients.
• Support for 30 languages, including English, Albanian, Arabic, Belarusian, Brazilian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean (Default), Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

Pronounciation

There is often confusion as to how uTorrent is pronounced. In 2005, an admin on the uTorrent forums said “I don’t really know how it’s pronounced. I usually say ‘you torrent’ because it looks like a u”. In Greece, which is where the software is widely used, it is called ‘me torrent’ because the letter µ of the Greek Alphabet is pronounced [mi] in Modern Greek. The symbol µ is the lowercase Greek letter mu. This is short for the SI prefix ‘micro’, in reference to the small amount of memory required by the program.