Curl - Download or invoke files, ZIP containers from the internet

Download files

Example web content

$url = "https://newsfeed.zeit.de"
$filename = "example.xml"

Download and reveal a file to Downloads

• Downloads is a user-specific folder
• Aborts on failure or reveals in File Explorer.

$env:Downloads = (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).NameSpace('shell:::{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}').Self.Path
if (-not $env:Downloads) {throw "Cannot find Downloads folder!"}
$path = "$env:Downloads\$filename"
 
# download and reveal file
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $path -ErrorAction Stop
explorer "/select,`"$(Resolve-Path $path)`""

Download a file to a specific location

• Create destination if it does not exist yet.

$path = ".\$filename"
New-Item -Path $path -Force -ErrorAction Stop
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $path -ErrorAction Stop

Download a file to Temp

• Temp is a common-user folder
• Aborts on failure.

$path = "$env:Temp\$filename"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $path -ErrorAction Stop

Reveal in File Explorer

explorer "/select,`"$(Resolve-Path $path)`""

Extract zip archive

Example web archive

$url = "https://www.autohotkey.com/download/ahk-v2.zip"
$foldername = "AutoHotkey 2"

Download and extract an archive to Downloads

• Downloads is a user-specific folder.
• Aborts on failure or reveals in File Explorer.

$env:Downloads = (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).NameSpace('shell:::{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}').Self.Path
if (-not $env:Downloads) {throw "Cannot find Downloads folder!"}
$archive = "$env:Downloads\$foldername.zip"
$folder = "$env:Downloads\$foldername"
 
# download, extract and reveal archive
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $archive -ErrorAction Stop
Expand-Archive -Path $archive -DestinationPath $folder -Force -ErrorAction Stop
Invoke-Item -Path $folder

Execute web script

Example web script

$url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yetenol/Setup-Computer/main/script/test.ps1.bat"

Execute remote script

• Download script and run in current console.

Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock ([ScriptBlock]::Create((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url)))

Execute remote script elevated

• Download script and run in new elevated console.

$command = "Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock ([ScriptBlock]::Create((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url)))"
Start-Process wt -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList "PowerShell.exe -NoExit -Command $command"

---

Sources:

Related:

Tags:
File System - Use paths, get meta data, link, download, and encrypt files and folders