Windows batch file file download from a URL

I am trying to download a file from a website (ex. http://www.example.com/package.zip) using a Windows batch file. I am getting an error code when I write the function below:

xcopy /E /Y "http://www.example.com/package.zip"

The batch file doesn't seem to like the "/" after the http. Are there any ways to escape those characters so it doesn't assume they are function parameters?

With PowerShell 2.0 (Windows 7 preinstalled) you can use:

(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://www.example.com/package.zip', 'package.zip')

Starting with PowerShell 3.0 (Windows 8 preinstalled) you can use Invoke-WebRequest:

Invoke-WebRequest http://www.example.com/package.zip -OutFile package.zip

From a batch file they are called:

powershell -Command "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://www.example.com/package.zip', 'package.zip')"
powershell -Command "Invoke-WebRequest http://www.example.com/package.zip -OutFile package.zip"

(PowerShell 2.0 is available for installation on XP, 3.0 for Windows 7)

There's a standard Windows component which can achieve what you're trying to do: BITS. It has been included in Windows since XP and 2000 SP3.

Run:

bitsadmin.exe /transfer "JobName" http://download.url/here.exe C:\destination\here.exe

The job name is simply the display name for the download job - set it to something that describes what you're doing.

This might be a little off topic, but you can pretty easily download a file using Powershell. Powershell comes with modern versions of Windows so you don't have to install any extra stuff on the computer. I learned how to do it by reading this page:

http://teusje.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/download-file-with-powershell/

The code was:

$webclient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$url = "http://www.example.com/file.txt"
$file = "$pwd\file.txt"
$webclient.DownloadFile($url,$file)

Last I checked, there isn't a command line command to connect to a URL from the MS command line. Try wget for Windows:
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm

or URL2File:
http://www.chami.com/free/url2file_wincon.html

In Linux, you can use "wget".

Alternatively, you can try VBScript. They are like command line programs, but they are scripts interpreted by the wscript.exe scripts host. Here is an example of downloading a file using VBS:
https://serverfault.com/questions/29707/download-file-from-vbscript

Downloading files in PURE BATCH... Without any JScript, VBScript, Powershell, etc... Only pure Batch!

Some people are saying it's not possible of downloading files with a batch script without using any JScript or VBScript, etc... But they are definitely wrong!

Here is a simple method that seems to work pretty well for downloading files in your batch scripts. It should be working on almost any file's URL. It is even possible to use a proxy server if you need it.

For downloading files, we can use BITSADMIN.EXE from the Windows system. There is no need for downloading/installing anything or using any JScript or VBScript, etc. Bitsadmin.exe is present on most Windows versions, probably from XP to Windows 10.

Enjoy!

---

USAGE:

You can use the BITSADMIN command directly, like this:
bitsadmin /transfer mydownloadjob /download /priority FOREGROUND "http://example.com/File.zip" "C:\Downloads\File.zip"

Proxy Server:
For connecting using a proxy, use this command before downloading.
bitsadmin /setproxysettings mydownloadjob OVERRIDE "proxy-server.com:8080"

Click this LINK if you want more info about BITSadmin.exe

---

TROUBLESHOOTING:
If you get this error: "Unable to connect to BITS - 0x80070422"
Make sure the windows service "Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)" is enabled and try again. (It should be enabled by default.)

---

CUSTOM FUNCTIONS
Call :DOWNLOAD_FILE "URL"
Call :DOWNLOAD_PROXY_ON "SERVER:PORT"
Call :DOWNLOAD_PROXY_OFF

I made these 3 functions for simplifying the bitsadmin commands. It's easier to use and remember. It can be particularly useful if you are using it multiple times in your scripts.

PLEASE NOTE...
Before using these functions, you will first need to copy them from CUSTOM_FUNCTIONS.CMD to the end of your script. There is also a complete example: DOWNLOAD-EXAMPLE.CMD

:DOWNLOAD_FILE "URL"
The main function, will download files from URL.

:DOWNLOAD_PROXY_ON "SERVER:PORT"
(Optional) You can use this function if you need to use a proxy server.
Calling the :DOWNLOAD_PROXY_OFF function will disable the proxy server.

EXAMPLE:
CALL :DOWNLOAD_PROXY_ON "proxy-server.com:8080"
CALL :DOWNLOAD_FILE "http://example.com/File.zip" "C:\Downloads\File.zip"
CALL :DOWNLOAD_PROXY_OFF

---

CUSTOM_FUNCTIONS.CMD

:DOWNLOAD_FILE
    rem BITSADMIN COMMAND FOR DOWNLOADING FILES:
    bitsadmin /transfer mydownloadjob /download /priority FOREGROUND %1 %2
GOTO :EOF

:DOWNLOAD_PROXY_ON
    rem FUNCTION FOR USING A PROXY SERVER:
    bitsadmin /setproxysettings mydownloadjob OVERRIDE %1
GOTO :EOF

:DOWNLOAD_PROXY_OFF
    rem FUNCTION FOR STOP USING A PROXY SERVER:
    bitsadmin /setproxysettings mydownloadjob NO_PROXY
GOTO :EOF

---

DOWNLOAD-EXAMPLE.CMD

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL

rem FOR DOWNLOADING FILES, THIS SCRIPT IS USING THE "BITSADMIN.EXE" SYSTEM FILE.
rem IT IS PRESENT ON MOST WINDOWS VERSION, PROBABLY FROM WINDOWS XP TO WINDOWS 10.


:SETUP

rem URL (5MB TEST FILE):
SET "FILE_URL=http://ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com/5MB.zip"

rem SAVE IN CUSTOM LOCATION:
rem SET "SAVING_TO=C:\Folder\5MB.zip"

rem SAVE IN THE CURRENT DIRECTORY
SET "SAVING_TO=5MB.zip"
SET "SAVING_TO=%~dp0%SAVING_TO%"

:MAIN

ECHO.
ECHO DOWNLOAD SCRIPT EXAMPLE
ECHO.
ECHO FILE URL: "%FILE_URL%"
ECHO SAVING TO:  "%SAVING_TO%"
ECHO.

rem UNCOMENT AND MODIFY THE NEXT LINE IF YOU NEED TO USE A PROXY SERVER:
rem CALL :DOWNLOAD_PROXY_ON "PROXY-SERVER.COM:8080"
 
rem THE MAIN DOWNLOAD COMMAND:
CALL :DOWNLOAD_FILE "%FILE_URL%" "%SAVING_TO%"

rem UNCOMMENT NEXT LINE FOR DISABLING THE PROXY (IF YOU USED IT):
rem CALL :DOWNLOAD_PROXY_OFF

:RESULT
ECHO.
IF EXIST "%SAVING_TO%" ECHO YOUR FILE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY DOWNLOADED.
IF NOT EXIST "%SAVING_TO%" ECHO ERROR, YOUR FILE COULDN'T BE DOWNLOADED.
ECHO.

:EXIT_SCRIPT
PAUSE
EXIT /B




rem FUNCTIONS SECTION


:DOWNLOAD_FILE
    rem BITSADMIN COMMAND FOR DOWNLOADING FILES:
    bitsadmin /transfer mydownloadjob /download /priority FOREGROUND %1 %2
GOTO :EOF

:DOWNLOAD_PROXY_ON
    rem FUNCTION FOR USING A PROXY SERVER:
    bitsadmin /setproxysettings mydownloadjob OVERRIDE %1
GOTO :EOF

:DOWNLOAD_PROXY_OFF
    rem FUNCTION FOR STOP USING A PROXY SERVER:
    bitsadmin /setproxysettings mydownloadjob NO_PROXY
GOTO :EOF

' Create an HTTP object
myURL = "http://www.google.com"
Set objHTTP = CreateObject( "WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1" )

' Download the specified URL
objHTTP.Open "GET", myURL, False
objHTTP.Send
intStatus = objHTTP.Status

If intStatus = 200 Then
  WScript.Echo " " & intStatus & " A OK " +myURL
Else
  WScript.Echo "OOPS" +myURL
End If

then

C:\>cscript geturl.vbs
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

200 A OK http://www.google.com

or just double click it to test in windows

CURL

With the build 17063 of windows 10 the CURL utility was added. To download a file you can use:

curl "https://download.sysinternals.com/files/PSTools.zip" --output pstools.zip

BITSADMIN

It can be easier to use bitsadmin with a macro:

set "download=bitsadmin /transfer myDownloadJob /download /priority normal"
%download% "https://download.sysinternals.com/files/PSTools.zip" %cd%\pstools.zip

Winhttp com objects

For backward compatibility you can use winhttpjs.bat (with this you can perform also POST,DELETE and the others http methods):

call winhhtpjs.bat "https://example.com/files/some.zip" -saveTo "c:\somezip.zip" 

AFAIK, Windows doesn't have a built-in commandline tool to download a file. But you can do it from a VBScript, and you can generate the VBScript file from batch using echo and output redirection:

@echo off

rem Windows has no built-in wget or curl, so generate a VBS script to do it:
rem -------------------------------------------------------------------------
set DLOAD_SCRIPT=download.vbs
echo Option Explicit                                                    >  %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo Dim args, http, fileSystem, adoStream, url, target, status         >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo.                                                                   >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo Set args = Wscript.Arguments                                       >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo Set http = CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1")              >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo url = args(0)                                                      >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo target = args(1)                                                   >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo WScript.Echo "Getting '" ^& target ^& "' from '" ^& url ^& "'..."  >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo.                                                                   >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo http.Open "GET", url, False                                        >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo http.Send                                                          >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo status = http.Status                                               >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo.                                                                   >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo If status ^<^> 200 Then                                            >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo 	WScript.Echo "FAILED to download: HTTP Status " ^& status       >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo 	WScript.Quit 1                                                  >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo End If                                                             >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo.                                                                   >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo Set adoStream = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")                       >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo adoStream.Open                                                     >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo adoStream.Type = 1                                                 >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo adoStream.Write http.ResponseBody                                  >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo adoStream.Position = 0                                             >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo.                                                                   >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo Set fileSystem = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")        >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo If fileSystem.FileExists(target) Then fileSystem.DeleteFile target >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo adoStream.SaveToFile target                                        >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo adoStream.Close                                                    >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
echo.                                                                   >> %DLOAD_SCRIPT%
rem -------------------------------------------------------------------------

cscript //Nologo %DLOAD_SCRIPT% http://example.com targetPathAndFile.html

More explanation here

1. Download Wget from here http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32/wget-1.11.4-1-setup.exe

2. Then install it.

3. Then make some .bat file and put this into it

   @echo off
   
   for /F "tokens=2,3,4 delims=/ " %%i in ('date/t') do set y=%%k
   for /F "tokens=2,3,4 delims=/ " %%i in ('date/t') do set d=%%k%%i%%j
   for /F "tokens=5-8 delims=:. " %%i in ('echo.^| time ^| find "current" ') do set t=%%i%%j
   set t=%t%_
   if "%t:~3,1%"=="_" set t=0%t%
   set t=%t:~0,4%
   set "theFilename=%d%%t%"
   echo %theFilename%
    
   
   cd "C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin"
   wget.exe --output-document C:\backup\file_%theFilename%.zip http://someurl/file.zip
   

4. Adjust the URL and the file path in the script

5. Run the file and profit!

You cannot use xcopy over http. Try downloading wget for windows. That may do the trick. It is a command line utility for non-interactive download of files through http. You can get it at http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm

Instead of wget you can also use aria2 to download the file from a particular URL.

See the following link which will explain more about aria2:

https://aria2.github.io/

If bitsadmin isn't your cup of tea, you can use this PowerShell command:

Start-BitsTransfer -Source http://www.foo.com/package.zip -Destination C:\somedir\package.zip

Use http://www.f2ko.de/en/b2e.php">Bat To Exe Converter

Create a batch file and put something like the code below into it

%extd% /download http://www.examplesite.com/file.zip file.zip

or

%extd% /download http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4619088/windows-batch-file-file-download-from-a-url thistopic.html

and convert it to exe.

There's a utility (resides with CMD) on Windows which can be run from CMD (if you have write access):

set url=https://www.nsa.org/content/hl-images/2017/02/09/NSA.jpg
set file=file.jpg
certutil -urlcache -split -f %url% %file%
echo Done.

Built in Windows application. No need for external downloads.

Tested on Win 10

BATCH may not be able to do this, but you can use JScript or VBScript if you don't want to use tools that are not installed by default with Windows.

The first example on this page downloads a binary file in VBScript: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/vbstech_internet_download.php

This SO answer downloads a file using JScript (IMO, the better language): https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4164400/windows-script-host-jscript-how-do-i-download-a-binary-file/5768841#5768841

Your batch script can then just call out to a JScript or VBScript that downloads the file.

This should work i did the following for a game server project. It will download the zip and extract it to what ever directory you specify.

Save as name.bat or name.cmd

@echo off
set downloadurl=http://media.steampowered.com/installer/steamcmd.zip
set downloadpath=C:\steamcmd\steamcmd.zip
set directory=C:\steamcmd\
%WINDIR%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command "& {Import-Module BitsTransfer;Start-BitsTransfer '%downloadurl%' '%downloadpath%';$shell = new-object -com shell.application;$zip = $shell.NameSpace('%downloadpath%');foreach($item in $zip.items()){$shell.Namespace('%directory%').copyhere($item);};remove-item '%downloadpath%';}"
echo download complete and extracted to the directory.
pause

Original : https://github.com/C0nw0nk/SteamCMD-AutoUpdate-Any-Gameserver/blob/master/steam.cmd

You can setup a scheduled task using wget, use the “Run” field in scheduled task as:

C:\wget\wget.exe -q -O nul "http://www.google.com/shedule.me"

I found this VB script:

http://www.olafrv.com/?p=385

Works like a charm. Configured as a function with a very simple function call:

SaveWebBinary "http://server/file1.ext1", "C:/file2.ext2"

Originally from: http://www.ericphelps.com/scripting/samples/BinaryDownload/index.htm

Here is the full code for redundancy:

Function SaveWebBinary(strUrl, strFile) 'As Boolean
Const adTypeBinary = 1
Const adSaveCreateOverWrite = 2
Const ForWriting = 2
Dim web, varByteArray, strData, strBuffer, lngCounter, ado
    On Error Resume Next
    'Download the file with any available object
    Err.Clear
    Set web = Nothing
    Set web = CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1")
    If web Is Nothing Then Set web = CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest")
    If web Is Nothing Then Set web = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
    If web Is Nothing Then Set web = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
    web.Open "GET", strURL, False
    web.Send
    If Err.Number <> 0 Then
        SaveWebBinary = False
        Set web = Nothing
        Exit Function
    End If
    If web.Status <> "200" Then
        SaveWebBinary = False
        Set web = Nothing
        Exit Function
    End If
    varByteArray = web.ResponseBody
    Set web = Nothing
    'Now save the file with any available method
    On Error Resume Next
    Set ado = Nothing
    Set ado = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
    If ado Is Nothing Then
        Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
        Set ts = fs.OpenTextFile(strFile, ForWriting, True)
        strData = ""
        strBuffer = ""
        For lngCounter = 0 to UBound(varByteArray)
            ts.Write Chr(255 And Ascb(Midb(varByteArray,lngCounter + 1, 1)))
        Next
        ts.Close
    Else
        ado.Type = adTypeBinary
        ado.Open
        ado.Write varByteArray
        ado.SaveToFile strFile, adSaveCreateOverWrite
        ado.Close
    End If
    SaveWebBinary = True
End Function

This question has very good answer in here. My code is purely based on that answer with some modifications.

Save below snippet as wget.bat and put it in your system path (e.g. Put it in a directory and add this directory to system path.)

You can use it in your cli as follows:

wget url/to/file [?custom_name]

where url_to_file is compulsory and custom_name is optional

1. If name is not provided, then downloaded file will be saved by its own name from the url.
2. If the name is supplied, then the file will be saved by the new name.

The file url and saved filenames are displayed in ansi colored text. If that is causing problem for you, then check this github project.

@echo OFF
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set Url=%1
set Url=!Url:http://=!
set Url=!Url:/=,!
set Url=!Url:%%20=?!
set Url=!Url: =?!

call :LOOP !Url!

set FileName=%2
if "%2"=="" set FileName=!FN!

echo.
echo.Downloading: %1 to \!FileName!

powershell.exe -Command wget %1 -OutFile !FileName!

goto :EOF
:LOOP
if "%1"=="" goto :EOF
set FN=%1
set FN=!FN:?= !
shift
goto :LOOP

P.S. This code requires you to have PowerShell installed.

use ftp:

(ftp *yourewebsite.com*-a)
cd *directory*
get *filename.doc*
close

Change everything in asterisks to fit your situation.