Question 1

How to cancel a download in electron-dl?

Accepted Answer

Use the onStarted callback to get the DownloadItem and call item.cancel(). This throws a CancelError in the download promise, which you can catch and handle as shown in the manual usage example.

Question 2

electron-dl vs native Electron download API: which should I use?

Accepted Answer

electron-dl abstracts away boilerplate for progress, auto-save, and UX features, making it faster to implement. Use the native API only if you need low-level control or are building a minimal app without these conveniences.

Question 3

Does electron-dl show download progress on Windows?

Accepted Answer

Core download progress works, but platform-specific features like taskbar badge counts are not supported on Windows, as mentioned in the README's platform integrations section.

Question 4

How to set up electron-dl for all windows in my Electron app?

Accepted Answer

Call electronDl() without arguments in the main process after app.whenReady(). This registers download behavior globally for all BrowserWindow instances, per the README's 'Register it for all windows' example.

Question 5

Can I use electron-dl to download files to a custom folder?

Accepted Answer

Yes, set the directory option in the download call to an absolute path. By default, it uses the user's downloads directory, but this can be overridden for specific needs.

Question 6

How to handle errors when using electron-dl.download() manually?

Accepted Answer

You must wrap the download call in a try-catch block and handle errors yourself, as error dialogs are not shown in this mode. The README's manual usage snippet demonstrates catching CancelError and other errors.

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