Manually download Windows Subsystem for Linux distro packages

There are several scenarios in which you may not be able (or want) to, install WSL Linux distros via the Microsoft Store. Specifically, you may be running a Windows Server or Long-Term Servicing (LTSC) desktop OS SKU that doesn’t support Microsoft Store, or your corporate network policies and/or admins to not permit Microsoft Store usage in your environment.

In these cases, while WSL itself is available, how do you download and install Linux distros in WSL if you can’t access the store?

Note: Command-line shell environments including Cmd, PowerShell, and Linux/WSL distros are not permitted to run on Windows 10 S Mode. This restriction exists in order to ensure the integrity and safety goals that S Mode delivers: Read this post for more information.

Downloading distributions

If the Microsoft Store app is not available, you can download and manually install Linux distros by clicking these links:

This will cause the .appx packages to download to a folder of your choosing. Follow the installation instructions to install your downloaded distro(s).

Downloading distros via the command line

If you prefer, you can also download your preferred distro(s) via the command line:

Download using PowerShell

To download distros using PowerShell, use the Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet. Here’s a sample instruction to download Ubuntu 16.04.

If the download is taking a long time, turn off the progress bar by setting $ProgressPreference = ‘SilentlyContinue’

Download using curl

Windows 10 Spring 2018 Update (or later) includes the popular curl command-line utility with which you can invoke web requests (i.e. HTTP GET, POST, PUT, etc. commands) from the command line. You can use curl.exe to download the above distros:

In the above example, curl.exe is executed (not just curl ) to ensure that, in PowerShell, the real curl executable is invoked, not the PowerShell curl alias for Invoke-WebRequest

Note: Using curl might be preferable if you have to invoke/script download steps using Cmd shell and/or .bat / .cmd scripts.

Installing your distro

If you’re using Windows 10 you can install your distro with PowerShell. Simply navigate to folder containing the distro downloaded from above, and in that directory run the following command where app_name is the name of your distro .appx file.

If you are using Windows server, or run into problems running the command above you can find the alternate install instructions on the Windows Server documentation page to install the .appx file by changing it to a zip file.

Once your distribution is installed, follow the normal instructions to * Update from WSL 1 to WSL 2 or create a new user account and password.

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.

Is it possible to download using the Windows command line?

Without using any non-standard (Windows included) utilities, is it possible to download using the Windows command line?

The preferred version is Windows XP, but it’s also interesting to know for newer versions.

To further clarify my question:

• It has to be using HTTP
• The file needs to be saved
• Standard clean Windows install, no extra tools

So basically, since everybody is screaming Wget, I want simple Wget functionality, without using Wget.

17 Answers 17

You can write a VBScript and run it from the command line

Create a file downloadfile.vbs and insert the following lines of code:

Run it from the command line as follows:

Starting with Windows 7, I believe there’s one single method that hasn’t been mentioned yet that’s easy:

(Broken into two separate lines with ^ for readability (to avoid scrolling).)

Warning: As pointed out in the comments, the bitsadmin help message starts by saying:

. but another comment reported that it works on Windows 8.

Windows 7 includes PowerShell and there’s pretty much nothing you can’t do with PowerShell.

PowerShell (included with Windows 8 and included with .NET for earlier releases) has this capability. The powershell command allows running arbitrary PowerShell commands from the command line or a .bat file. Thus, the following line is what’s wanted:

I found a way of doing it, but really, just install Wget.

You can use Internet Explorer from a command line (iexplore.exe) and then enter a URL as an argument. So, run:

Whatever the file is, you’ll need to specify it doesn’t need confirmation ahead of time. Lo and behold, it will automatically perform the download. So yes, it is technically possible, but good lord do it in a different way.

Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer) can download files via HTTP. Just enter the URL into the Address bar. Or from the command line, for example, C:\windows\explorer.exe http://somewhere.com/filename.ext .

You get the classic File Download prompt. Unless the file is a type that Windows Explorer knows how to display inline, (.html, .jpg, .gif), in which case you would then need to right-click to save it.

I just tested this on my VMware image of a virgin install of Windows XP 2002 SP1, and it works fine.

You can use (in a standard Windows bat):

It seems to require PowerShell v4.

From the command line:

etc. FTP is included in every Windows version I can remember; probably not in 3.1, maybe not in Windows 95, but certainly everything after that.

@RM: It is going to be rough if you don’t want to download any other tools. There exists a command line Wget for Windows and Wget is designed to do exactly what you’re asking for.