Download file using PowerShell commandlet

Question

The command is working fine with Windows Server 2012 (PowerShell 4.0), but it is not working with Windows 8 (PowerShell 4.0) for the same.

I want to download a file from an IIS server.

 (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://server12/vdir/v.exe','C:\pqr.exe')

I tried this. It worked fine for me on Windows Server 2012, but on Windows 8 it gave me a method invocation error:

Exception calling "DownloadFile" with "2" argument(s): "An exception occurred during a WebClient request.

You should inspect the inner exception in PowerShell using a try/catch (see here). I suspect the problem is that you don't have permission to write to the root folder on the Windows 8 machine unless you run as administrator. — Mike Zboray
– Mike Zboray, Commented Mar 30, 2015 at 23:18

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-25 16:54:08Z

I'm working on Windows 7 (32 bits), and I got the same error like you, so, I wrote a VBScript script that generates a PowerShell script in order to download this file in the temporary folder and execute it, and it works fine for me.

DownloadPSVBS.vbs

Option Explicit
Dim URL,Ws,ByPassPSFile,PSFile,MyCmd,Result
URL = "http://hackoo.alwaysdata.net/Matrix.mp3"
Set Ws = CreateObject("wscript.Shell")
PSFile = Left(Wscript.ScriptFullName, InstrRev(Wscript.ScriptFullName, ".")) & "ps1"
ByPassPSFile = "PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy bypass -noprofile -file "
MyCmd = "$source = " & DblQuote(URL) & VbCrlF
MyCmd = MyCmd & "$Filename = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($source)" & VbCrlF
MyCmd = MyCmd & "$dest = " & DblQuote("$env:temp\$Filename") & VbCrlF
MyCmd = MyCmd & "$wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient" & VbCrlF
MyCmd = MyCmd & "$wc.DownloadFile($source,$dest)" & VbCrlF
MyCmd = MyCmd & "Start-Process $dest"
Call WriteMyPSFile(MyCmd)
Result = Ws.run(ByPassPSFile & PSFile,0,True)
'**********************************************************************************************
Sub WriteMyPSFile(strText)
Dim fs,ts,PSFile
Const ForWriting = 2
    PSFile = Left(Wscript.ScriptFullName, InstrRev(Wscript.ScriptFullName, ".")) & "ps1"
    Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set ts = fs.OpenTextFile(PSFile,ForWriting,True)
    ts.WriteLine strText
    ts.Close
End Sub
'**********************************************************************************************
Function DblQuote(Str)
    DblQuote = Chr(34) & Str & Chr(34)
End Function
'**********************************************************************************************

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-25 16:52:47Z

0

For downloading a file with PowerShell you can use Invoke-WebRequest:

mkdir c:\download
Invoke-WebRequest http://server12/vdir/v.exe -OutFile c:\download\pqr.exe

Or use it like this:

mkdir C:\download
$a = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$a.DownloadFile("http://server12/vdir/v.exe","c:\download\pqr.exe")

edited Sep 25, 2015 at 16:52

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 30, 2015 at 22:50

Soheil

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3 Comments

KaustubhK Over a year ago

"invoke-webrequest" takes much more time comparatively, and about other way..its working in server 2012 but not in windows 8. tried exact same way u suggested.

Soheil Over a year ago

maby in win8 you don't have root access to write file make directory like download then second parameter must be "c:\download\pqr.exe" just test it

KaustubhK Over a year ago

how to track $a.DownloadFile().. i mean how to check if download is complete or not through powershell. or does $a.downloadfile() returns any value..??

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