FrostWire, a BitTorrent client (formerly a Gnutella client), is a collaborative, open-source project licensed under the
GPL-3.0-or-later license. In late 2005, concerned developers of LimeWire's open source community announced the start of a new project fork "FrostWire" that would protect the developmental source code of the LimeWire client. FrostWire has evolved to replace LimeWire's BitTorrent core for that of Vuze, the Azureus BitTorrent Engine, and ultimately to remove the LimeWire's Gnutella core to become a 100% BitTorrent client powered by the
libtorrent library through FrostWire's jLibtorrent Java wrapper library since August 2014.
Gnutella client The project was started in September 2004 after LimeWire's distributor considered adding "blocking" code in response to
RIAA pressure. The RIAA threatened legal action against several peer-to-peer developers including LimeWire The second beta release of FrostWire was available in the last quarter of 2005.
Multiprotocol P2P client Since version 4.20.x, FrostWire was able to handle torrent files and featured a new junk filter. Also, in version 4.21.x support was added for most Android devices.
BitTorrent client Since version 5.0 (2011), FrostWire relaunched itself as a BitTorrent application, so those using the Gnutella network either have to use version 4, or switch to another client altogether.
Preview before download Since version 6.0, FrostWire adds preview files before download.
Adware and malware Since around 2008 some members of the FrostWire community began to notice the distribution of the optional
Ask.com toolbar in the Windows installers. On September 9, 2015, the official knowledge base claimed that FrostWire no longer distributes the Ask.com toolbar, and provided instructions on how to remove it. Around 2019, Frostwire has been noted to install other adware and malware, such as the browser hijacker
WebDiscover. == FrostWire 4 Legacy==