How to download a file from powershell

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. Therefore, to download a file by commands, they had to use different scripts. But PowerShell, with its power and modular capabilities, allows you to easily download a file.

The command we teach in this article is very similar to the wget command in Linux. The Invoke-WebRequest command is a very complete command for downloading all types of files with a direct link. You can use the wget , curl and iwr commands instead of the Invoke-WebRequest command. For example , to download a file from a site, the following command will be entered:. This command has many parameters that will help you to download the file with different features.

In this article , we will explain some very important parameters of this command. Outfile: This parameter can save the name of the file being downloaded to another path and name. Credential: This parameter allows us to send a username and password to allow access to download the file. MaximumRedirection: The number of times a link is redirected and the download command still stands and follows the next link.

For versions of PowerShell earlier than 3. WebClient class must be used to download a file from the Internet. To download a file from an FTP server with authorization, you need to specify the FTP username and password in the script:. 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. The next section talks about using the HttpClient class in PowerShell to download files from the web.

Like the WebClient class, you need to create first the System. Refer to the comments above each line to know what each line of code does. In situations where downloading a file requires authentication, you need to add the credential to the HttpClient object. To include a credential to the file download request, create a new System. HttpClientHandler object to store the credentials. You can copy the code below and run it in PowerShell to test. Or you can also run it as a PowerShell script. In this example, the code is saved as download-file.

At the start, the directory only has the script file in it. Then, the script proceeds to download the file. After downloading the file, you can see that the new file is now inside the destination directory. Whether downloading password-protected sources, single or multiple files — a PowerShell way is available to you.