Magnetic links have been a fundamental pillar of the most important browsers for a long time, allowing the download of torrent files in a much easier way. In this article we explain what magnetic links are , and how you can use them in any modern web browser.
What are magnet or magnetic links
Many users believe that magnetic links and torrent files are the same. While they are not entirely wrong, they are not right either. Magnetic links and torrent files go hand in hand , but they are different.
The main advantage of magnetic links is that there is no need to download a torrent file to start downloading content. This is because crucial identifying information is calculated on a particular website rather than on the torrent client, and then sent directly to the Bittorrent program.
How can I open the magnetic links in Google Chrome and other browsers
You are likely to be surprised that when trying to open a magnetic link with your web browser, you can't. This is because some browsers do not allow the opening of these types of links in their default settings.
Fortunately, it is something that we can solve in a very simple way. In this case, we will rely on the Google Chrome browser to show you the process, since it is the most widely used web browser. If you use another browser like Firefox, the process is very similar.
The first thing we need to do is access the configuration menu of our Google Chrome browser.
Once you are in the Google Chrome settings menu, you need to go to the "Privacy and security" section. Then use the built-in search engine at the top of the browser interface to search for "Drivers." The next step is to access the " Site Settings " option .
Scroll down until you find the " Drivers " option .
In this section you must check the option "Allow websites to request to become default protocol drivers". This is the option that allows us to use magnetic links.
With this you should be able to open magnetic links with your Google Chrome browser without any problem. When you proceed to open one of these links, a window will appear from which you will have to select the program you want to use to open these types of links, logically you will have to select your Bittorrent program.
Some users have encountered the problem of not being able to use the special magnetic links having followed the previous steps. If this is your case, you will need to make a small modification in the Windows 10 registry.
To modify the Windows 10 registry, you need to use the "Regedit" application, which you can access from the Start menu search engine.
Once the Windows 10 registry editor has been opened, you have to go to the following path using the tree that appears on the left side of the interface:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Magnet \ shell \ open \ command
The last step you must do is to edit the default value in Data to indicate the path of the Bittorrent program, followed by “% 1» / SHELLASSOC ”.
For example “C: \ Program Files (x86) \ MyPony \ MyPony.exe” “% 1» / SHELLASSOC ”
Now yes, you should already be able to use magnetic links perfectly.