Download files with powershell from website

By default, the Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet downloads the file to the current directory. On Windows 10, there are two aliases available for the Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet: curl and wget.

So, to download a file from the Internet website, you can use a shorter command. Instead, we can simply use the Copy-Item cmd to download a file from a server. If you want to know more about the Copy-Item cmdlet, then you should read this article where I explain more about the cmdlet and alternatives. The method to download zip files is pretty much the same as a normal file. But I wanted to show you how that downloads and extracts the zip file. This way you can immediately process the files inside the zip file without manual interaction.

I am going to use this sample csv on GitHub which we can download in a zip file. We have to set a destination for the zip file itself and a path where we want to extract the files to. The next step is to extract the zip file automatically in the desired location.

For this we are going to use a COM object. With the COM object we can extract the zip file and copy the content to the desired location. When you need to scrape a website first then it can be a little bit more work to set up properly.

Try to use the Start-BitsTransfer cmdlet for downloading files and set the priority to normal when using it in an autonouse script. BitsTransfer has more option when it comes to retries, resuming and bandwidth control then Invoke-WebRequest. If you have any questions about how you can download a file with PowerShell, then drop a comment below. Thanks for this. I plan to use this in conjunction with Windows task scheduler to download a fresh file every week.

The first column should contain the link to the source, while the second column must contain the destination path. The file contents would like the one below. Once the CSV file is ready, use the command below to begin the file download. Refer to the demo below to see how the code above works. As you can see, the download starts, and you see the download progress.

The PowerShell prompt is not available during the download process. Suppose you want to start the download process as a background job. To do so, you only have to add the -Asynchronous switch at the end of the Start-BitsTransfer command. Initially, the state of each job would show c onnecting. To check the download job status, use the Get-BitsTransfer cmdlet. PowerShell is based on. NET, and its nature makes it capable of leveraging the power of. NET itself. If you want to know more about these two.

HttpClient vs. To use the WebClient class, you need to initiate an object as a System. WebClient object. Then, using the DownloadFile method starts the download of the file from the source.

Please copy the code below and run it in your PowerShell session to test. However, the PowerShell prompt will be locked until the download is complete. If the source requires authentication to allow the file download, you can use the code below. Instead, use the System.

HttpClient class. It appears that the WebClient class is obsolete, and the new class that Microsoft is endorsing is the HttpClient class. And see if it looks the way it should all the way on down. You might have to adjust my code a bit. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. Downloading website files in powershell Ask Question.

Asked 8 years, 1 month ago. Active 1 year, 8 months ago. Viewed 27k times. Improve this question. Consider using wget for this task. Additional details: I am using PowerShell 2. Have you tried this other guy's method?

Yes, that method was used as the basis of what I am trying to do here, but when I typed up that one, it would not download anything.