Torrent2exe is a web-based utility that does for BitTorrent files what Audio/Video to Exe does for audio and video files. That is, both utilities let you take a file that's typically useless without companion software and make it usable on its own. While Audio/Video to Exe makes audio and video files playable without a media player, Torrent2exe makes files distributed via BitTorrent downloadable without a separate BitTorrent client.

Here's how it works. You download a torrent file (just the tiny torrent, not the big ole file it helps you to download) to your desktop, and then upload that torrent to Torrent2.exe. Click the download button, and you'll get an executable file. When you run this program, a standalone BitTorrent program will start up and immediately try to download the source file to whatever directory the executable is in.

The site also allows you to enter the URL of a torrent instead of uploading a file from your desktop. But we had less success with that method.

If you want to convince your less tech-savvy friends or relatives to download a Linux distribution or Creative Commons licensed movie, Torrent2exe could come in handy. Instead of telling them to download a BitTorrent client, then a torrent file which they have to load into that client, you can just create an executable that you can send to them.

[via Instant Fundas]