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How exactly do Chrome/Firefox/Internet Explorer/Edge's Run/Download work? (i.e.: When I click on Run, what exactly happens? When I'm downloading something and then Stop/Pause it?)

I guess it is downloaded first as a Temp data and then converted to the right data? It would be great to get a full explanation.

Are there any options/configuration to control it by myself?

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It depends on the application and their implementation.

  • Run usually just executes what was downloaded just like what would happen if you double click it. An application might do any number of things priors to allowing this to make sure it's a non malicious, valid file.
  • Download/Stop/Pause uses the default mechanisms of supported protocols to do what it needs to do. For HTTP this usually is a GET request. HTTP 1.1 supports the resume of downloads. It's up to the server delivering the file to implement this. In this case you send a modified request telling the server to give you the file starting at position X.
  • Downloads can use temporary files but don't have to. It depends on the program and sometimes also the size of the download. In most cases you will be able to set your browser to ask where to save a file. It depends on the browser whenever you will be able to define that the temp file should be stored in the final destination, %TEMP%, some cache or at all.
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  • about run: exactly how? e.g. : I started to downloading some .exe , i paused it: so in my pc there is some temp data of my download ? but it is not executable .exe right ? so after i push continue it starts to filling my unfinished .exe to be able to executeable right? After finishing download(Run/Open) it stays as a temp data as an .exe data or something else?
    – Irakli A.
    Mar 18, 2019 at 10:50
  • After you finish a download the file is complete. It's the whole executable. If it was downloaded a temporary file either it's renamed or the content is copied to the final file. How it's called, again, depends on the implementation. In the simplest case it's just handed off to the OS and the OS does what it thinks it should be doing (launching a PDF viewer for a PDF, execute the file for an executable).
    – Seth
    Mar 18, 2019 at 11:05
  • Thanks for clarification, here comes another question related to this topic: is it possible to see or where to search for a source code, what exactly browser is doing during Download/Pause/Stop ?
    – Irakli A.
    Mar 19, 2019 at 8:22
  • It depends on what you are interested in. Wireshark, Process Monitor, an actual debugger are all available tools. Source code availability depends on whenever it's open source or not or whenever or not you can spend that money. Firefox is open source, for Chrome is not (but Chromium is), Microsoft Browsers are closed source. Using the mentioned tools will be complex and will require you to have good technical understanding depending on what you're interested in.
    – Seth
    Mar 19, 2019 at 8:48

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