Powershell download file examples

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. By default it will reject 5 redirects and if it continues, the download will stop. Method: This parameter is used to select the types of request submission methods.

Supported methods include:. Proxy: Use a proxy to connect to the Internet and download files. The mentioned parameters are just some of the most important ones. There are more complete and advanced parameters that you can get by marking? Now, after explaining and learning how to use the command, pay attention to the following examples for better learning. By the above command, file1.

In the above example , PowerShell downloads file1. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Follow Following.

Arcane Code Join 3, other followers. Sign me up. There is no visible progress indicator or any way to query the progress mid transfer. It essentially blocks the thread until the download completes or fails. This isn't a major con, however sometimes it is handy to know how far through the transfer you are. WebClient is my preferred option when file downloads are required.

Anything that increases the performance of my scripts is a winner in my books. If you haven't heard of BITS before, check this out. This method proved to be the fastest in my test cases! Extensive integration with Write-Progress gives you a clear indicator of the file size and progress. The -Asynchronous flag can be used to queue transfers asychronously. This method is also incredibly flexible supporting separate credentials for the destination server AND web proxy, if required.

Personally, the biggest benefit to using the Start-BitsTransfer method is the ability to set retry actions on failure and limiting the amount of bandwidth available to a transfer. While BITS is enabled by default on many machines, you can't guarantee it is enabled on all unless you are actively managing this. All we need to do is download each one of them. It allows you to download multiple files simultaneously in the background with the parameter -Asynchronous.

Other advantages of the BitsTransfer cmdlet is it can handle connection interruptions and is aware of your network bandwidth usage. We can start all the download jobs by using the parameter — Asynchronous. Without it, the BitsTransfer cmdlet downloads the first file completely before starting the next download while putting your script on hold in the meantime. You can use the Get-BitTransfer cmdlet to show the progress of the download.

If you want to stop the download job then use the Remove-BitTransfer cmdlet. You can stop a single job based on its JobId or all jobs with:. When using Asynchronous it creates a temp file during the download process.

But to actually use the file you will need to run the following cmdlet:. 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.