Instagram helps you take cool-looking photos and share them with friends, but it's not so good at  helping you compile a permanent collection of those snapshots. Free Instagram Downloader (free is a handy  application that lets you download your favorite Instagram photos to your desktop.

To use Free Instagram Downloader, simply install it to your desktop PC and search for photos by Instagram user names.

You don't need a password to access the photos. Free Instagram Downloader can access any photos that other Instagram users have made public. Once the user name is recognized, the application loads a list of their photos, complete with thumbnails—and it does so quickly, even when dealing with dozens of snapshots.

Each thumbnail has a box next to it; you can select as many or as few of the photos as you like, and then choose what action to take. You can download all of the photos to a folder on your desktop or open them in a Web browser. When downloaded, the Instagram photos are saved in their full 612x612 resolution. Opening the photos in a Web browser takes you to Instagram's site, where you can view comments or login to post your own.

Free Instagram Downloader limits you to working with the photos of one user at a time, so you can't set it to download the photos of all your friends at once. And it's not a full-featured Instagram tool like Instagrille, a free application that lets you access many of Instagram's features from your desktop.

But Free Instagram Downloader succeeds in large part because it offers a simple way to save permanent copies of your favorite Instagram shots.

Note: The "Try it for free" button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.