Q. How do I uninstall Ares?

There are 3 ways to uninstall Ares from your computer.

1. Go to add/remove programs and click "remove".
2. Go to "c:/program files" and find the folder that says Ares. Delete this file.
3. Go to "start, programs, ares, and you will see an uninstall link. Click this..

Q. How long does it normally take to download a track?

On an average, on a 56.6 Kbps dial-up modem, a 4 to 5 minute track would take about the same time to download as any other 3-4 MB file. The time taken is directly proportional to the length and the file size of the track you are downloading. With a cable/DSL or any other broadband connection, it should take relatively lesser time. This is purely dependent on your internet connectivity, since different Internet Service Providers (ISP) offer different speeds. The download will be much faster if the internet traffic at that point of time is low.

Q. I just downloaded and saved the file to my hard drive, but I forgot where it is. How can I find it again?

This is a common problem and the solution is very easy. Normally your web browser defaults to the same directory for every download, until you change it. An easy way to find out the download directory is to simply start another download. When asked, choose to save the file to your hard drive and the "Save As" window will appear, revealing your download directory. I downloaded a file and it wont play on my MP3 player? Most MP3 files on public servers are named with strange extensions or are not descriptive to what file type they are. If you already tried renaming the extension of the file to .MP3 and it wont play it may be a COMPRESSED ARCHIVE file in various formats. Of which the most popular is obviously WINZIP. Try renaming to .ZIP and open the file in WinZip. There are other COMPRESSED formats and some have password encryption so you may need a password. In most cases we provide the password if we know it but 99% of the time the file is either an MP3 file or a WinZip file. One other occasionally used format is self-extracting archive. Try renaming to .exe and running it (BE CAREFUL SCAN FOR VIRUSES).

Q. How do I share my files with other users?

Go to Library section, click on Preferences and chose to perform an autoscan, wait till the scan completes and select one or more folders to share, finally hit apply.

Q. Where do all my downloaded files go to?

You can choose the location of your downloaded files by going to "Ares Control Panel->Transfer->Download folder", the default download location is "C:\Program Files\Ares\My Shared Folder". Pay attention: Ares won't copy your previously downloaded files to the new folder if you change the location, also keep in mind that you have to restart Ares to apply new settings.

Q. Why do some things take so long to download?

The speed at which a download takes place is limited by both the bandwidth of the downloader and by the bandwidth of the uploader. A document cannot by transferred faster than the uploader is capable of sending it, nor can it be transferred faster than the downloader is capable of receiving it. To Maximise transfer speed chose search results having more than 2 yellow stars.

Q. What does Queued mean?

When the user who should send you a file is already sending files to others, you get a place in line. If you are willing to wait long enough, you will probably get the file.

P2P File sharing and Windows Vista

Windows Vista has additional security features that can make it more secure than previous versions of Windows. One is the User Account Control (UAC). The UAC forces all users to run with no administrative privileges.

The result is that any 3rd party program that is not digitally signed by microsoft will prompt a pop up screen requiring the user to click "ok" to continue. This can cause big problems with some of the older versions of Ares. Many users have had their computer "freeze up" and have to be restarted.

If you are already using Ares with Windows Vista and are experiencing problems,
the solution is to turn UAC off. You will still have the built in "Windows Defender" and the Norton, or Mcafee, antivirus protection.

For a great post by Jim Alchin, the principal architect of Window Vista, on Vista Security Features

Methods for disabling UAC
Method #1 - Using MSCONFIG

1. Launch MSCONFIG by from the Run menu.

2. Click on the Tools tab. Scroll down till you find "Disable UAP" (this should probably change to UAC in next Vista beta builds and in the RTM version). Click on that line.

3. Press the Launch button.

4. A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window.

5. Close MSCONFIG. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.

Note that you can re-enable UAC by selecting the "Enable UAP" line and then clicking on the Launch button.

Method #2 - Using Regedit

1. Open Registry Editor.

2. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3. Locate the following value (DWORD):

EnableLUA

and give it a value of 0.

Note: As always, before making changes to your registry you should always make sure you have a valid backup. In cases where you're supposed to delete or modify keys or values from the registry it is possible to first export that key or value(s) to a .REG file before performing the changes.

4. Close Registry Editor. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.

In order to re-enable UAC just change the above value to 1.

Method #3 - Using Group Policy

This can be done via Local Group Policy or via Active Directory-based GPO, which is much more suited for large networks where one would like to disable UAC for many computers at once.

If using Local Group Policy you'll need to open the Group Policy Editor (Start > Run > gpedit.msc) from your Vista computer.

If using in AD-based GPO, open Group Policy Management Console (Start > Run > gpmc.msc) from a Vista computer that is a member of the domain. In the GPMC window, browse to the required GPO that is linked to the OU or domain where the Vista computers are located, then edit it.

In the Group Policy Editor window, browse to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

In the right pane scroll to find the User Access Control policies (they're down at the bottom of the window). You need to configure the following policies:

You'll need to reboot your computers.

Method #4 - Using Control Panel

1. Open Control Panel.

2. Under User Account and Family settings click on the "Add or remove user account".

3. Click on one of the user accounts, for example you can use the Guest account.

4. Under the user account click on the "Go to the main User Account page" link.

5. Under "Make changes to your user account" click on the "Change security settings" link.

6. In the "Turn on User Account Control (UAC) to make your computer more secure" click to unselect the "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer". Click on the Ok button.

7. You will be prompted to reboot your computer. Do so when ready.

In order to re-enable UAC just select the above checkbox and reboot.