5 Free Software To Download Files From Command Line In Windows

Here are 5 free software to download files from command line in Windows. In this article, I will talk about very powerful tools that you can use to download files using the Windows command line. Some of these software come with certain nice features such as VirusTotal lookup, resume downloads, BitTorent support, and many others. You can use all of these software right from the Windows command prompt.

Command line software make the use of system memory efficiently and even perform faster than the GUI based software. That’s why I have compiled the following list of free software to download files from Command line in Windows.

So, let’ find out what are 5 free software to download files from Command line in Windows.

5 Free Software To Download Files From Command Line In Windows

aria2

aria2 is a quite a unique free software to download files from command line in Windows. It comes with numerous powerful set of features that you will like. It supports a lot of protocols to download files, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and lot more. While using aria2, you can download a file from multiple sources, you can use multiple connections per host, etc. Apart from a being a command line file downloader, aria2 is also a BitTorrent client with some features like Web-Seeding, DHT, Magnet URI, Encryption, Selective Downloads, and some others. While downloading files using aria2, you can see the progress, average speed, downloaded file size, and many other parameters.

Getting started with aria2 is fairly simple. After downloading the Windows Binary of aria2 from the above link, you can move that file to C:\Windows folder. Or, you can use the EXE of aria2 from the download directory as well. Now, all you have to do is execute the command and add the download link of the file as a parameter. The correct syntax is:

You can see the above screenshot, showing aria2 in action. It has successfully downloaded the target file and showing various parameters in the command window.

So, aria2 is also a very nice free software to download files from command line in Windows. I like various things about this software, for example, multiple connection per host. This feature of aria2 will help you accelerate the download speed.

Axel is a download accelerator as well as a command line download manager for Windows. It uses multiple connections to download a particular file. Using Axel, you can use multiple mirrors to download a file. Axel works very well over HTTP and FTP protocols to download files. And during downloading, you can see the progress of the downloaded file.

Getting started with Axel is pretty easy. Grab its executable file from the above link and then move it to the any directory of your choice. You can also copy-paste it to any windows path folder such as C:\Windows. After doing so, you can run it very easily using the command prompt. The basic syntax of the Axel command is as shown below.

After running the above command, the file will start downloading. And you can see the download file progress in the command window, as shown in the above screenshot.

Axel is really a very nice command line file downloader that you will find on the internet. I really like the way it downloads the given file and uses cascading lines to display the download file progress and download speed.

Curl is a cross-platform and a free software to download files from command line in Windows. Basically, it is a data transferring software which is also a backbone of thousands of applications and software. It supports a lot of protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, POP3, SMTP, IMAP, SCP and lot more, to transfer data in and out of a device. It is widely used in set top boxes, TV, Routers, Smartphone and in many devices to transfer data. Its binaries are also available for Windows operating system that you can use to easily upload and download files. And while downloading files, you can see various stats such as download speed, upload speed, average speed, time left, time spent, etc.

It’s pretty easy to get started with Curl to download files from command line. Download its Windows binaries from the above link. After that, extract the downloaded folder and locate “Curl.exe” file in the Src folder. Now, copy this file and paste it to the C:\Windows folder. After doing this, you will be able to use Curl from any location on your PC. To use it, open a particular folder where you want to save the downloaded file and open the command prompt in the same folder using the shift + right-click. After that, type the following command and hit the enter to start downloading a file.

So, in this way you can easily download a particular file using Curl in Windows. I really like Curl as it supports a lot of protocols to upload and download file. But, do remember that the link of the file that you will supply to Curl should be a direct link to the file.

Wget is another free software to download files from command line in Windows. This software supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, like protocols to download files. And the best part is it allows you to resume an incomplete download easily. Apart from downloading files, you can also use it to mirror a website for offline browsing and upload files to FTP (authentication required). While downloading a file using Wget, you can see its progress.

It’s pretty easy to download files using Wget. First download its Windows binary file from the above link and then move the downloaded Wget.exe file to the C:\Windows directory. Now, the Wget can be accessed from any location on your PC. To download a file using Wget, open the command prompt in any windows and type the following command.

wget [download file link]

You can use the above command to download any file whose direct link you have. And the downloaded file will be saved in the same directory in which you have open the command prompt.

So, it was the case with the Wget, a free software to download files from command line in Windows. I really like that this command line downloader can even download an entire website with just a few commands.

Nugget

Nugget is a free software specially for Windows to download files. The software can be used via Windows command prompt, but that’s not necessary. It also comes with its own command line interface in which you can copy paste a download link of a file. The best thing about Nugget is that after downloading compressed files or executables, it performs a VirusTotal lookup for those files. So, it also shows the VirusTotal look up stats for the downloaded file along with SHA1 and MD5 hash.

The process of using Nugget is very similar to what I have already shown you from above software. First, grab its EXE from the above link and then you can use it by just double clicking on its interface. Or you can copy-paste its EXE file to C:\Windows folder to use it from the Windows command line. The syntax for downloading a file using Nugget is shown below.

It’s clearly showing in the above screenshot that Nugget has successfully downloaded an EXE file and also included the VirusTotal look up stats.

All in all, I find Nugget to be a very good free software to download files from command line in Windows. As it is still in development, so you can hope for more features in the coming updates.

Closing Thoughts

These are some very good free software to download files from command line in Windows. All of these software work as they are supposed to do. Some of these software are quite simple and only focus on downloading a particular file. Also, I have mentioned some software which are very powerful and offer other features such as download resuming, FTP upload, VirusTotal lookup, etc. So, if you are looking for Command line file downloaders, then this list can come in handy to you.

How can I download a file from the Internet via Command Prompt? [duplicate]

As mentioned in the title I need a command line that allows me to download a file in the background without installing any tool just cmd I found this one but it doesn’t work in the background and Need a confirmation

so how to make the magic happen? and is there another command that i need to add it to the above line like a confirmation !?

1 Answer 1

CMD doesn’t have a built-in download command. You can download a utility like wget, and get the file with

PowerShell, which is built into every version of Windows 7 and above, does have a built-in command for downloading in Invoke-Webrequest

You can invoke this in one line from CMD by using the following PowerShell.exe command line.

Not the answer you’re looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows cmd or ask your own question.

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Download a file from the command line in Windows

As a Linux user, I can’t help but spend most of my time on the command line. Not that the GUI is not efficient, but there are things that are simply faster to do with the keyboard.

Think about copy and paste. Select a text you want to copy, go to the edit menu, click, precisely move down to copy, click, then go to the destination, click where you want to paste, go to edit menu, click, move down to the paste option, then paste. Every time I see someone do this, I die a little inside. Sure you can save some time by right-clicking, copy, right-click, paste. But you can save some more time by pressing, ctrl-c then ctrl-v

My hands are already on the keyboard, and I would rather do the mundane things on the keyboard and not think about them.

One thing I do frequently is download files. They can be zip file, tgz, or jpg. On linux, all I have to do is open the command line, run wget with the file I want to download and it is done.

Straight to the point. But how do you do that when you are on a Windows machine? Let me introduce you to cURL, pronounced curl. (i don’t know why I wrote it the way I did)

curl is a very powerful tool with too many feature. But I just want to download the file on Windows so let’s just learn how to do that.

Open PowerShell. That’s Windows Key + R then type powershell and press enter.

Now run the curl command with the -O option to specify the file output.

Easy right? Now you can download files right from the command line all by simply using your keyboard.

OK. It is time I confess. This is not the curl tool you are using. It’s only an alias. In reality, we are calling the command Invoke-WebRequest . But hey! It works, so we don’t care. You can call it in its native format if you want to.

Either way, now you know how to download a file from the command line.

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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:

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?

20 Answers 20

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

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

From a batch file they are called:

(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.

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:

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

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.

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.