Download a file via HTTP from a script in Windows

Question

I want a way to download a file via HTTP given its URL (similar to how wget works). I've seen the answers to this question, but I have two changes to the requirements:

• I'd like it to run on Windows 7 or later (though if it works on Windows XP, that's a bonus).
• I need to be able to do this on a stock machine with nothing but the script, which should be text that could be easily entered on a keyboard or copy/pasted.
• The shorter, the better.

So, essentially, I'd like a .cmd (batch) script, VBScript, or Powershell script that can accomplish the download. It could use COM or invoke IE, but it needs to run without any input, and should behave well when invoked without a display (such as through a telnet session).

Answer 1

Try the Web Client class there is a sample powershell script at the bottom of this page:

$c = new-object system.net.WebClient
$r = new-object system.io.StreamReader $c.OpenRead("http://superuser.com")
echo $r.ReadToEnd()

Answer 2

i would use BITS(primer):

Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is a component of modern
Microsoft Windows operating systems that facilitates prioritized, 
throttled, and asynchronous transfer of files between machines using
idle network bandwidth.

starting with windows7 microsoft advises to use the powershell cmdlets for BITS.

% import-module bitstransfer
% Start-BitsTransfer http://path/to/file C:\Path\for\local\file

you could also use BITS via COM, see here for an example vbscript. and there is 'bitsadmin', a commandline tool to control downloads:

BITSAdmin is a command-line tool that you can use to create download or
upload jobs and monitor their progress.

in windows7 bitsadmin.exe states itself that it is a deprecated tool. nevertheless:

% bitsadmin.exe /transfer "NAME" http://path/to/file C:\Path\for\local\file