Run a powershell command from run.exe

Question

I'm trying to run this command that works perfectly fine, but from the run.exe

(new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("host", "filename.ext");

Tried:

powershell.exe -noexit -Command "(new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile(\"host\", \"filename.ext\");"

But I get this error:

Exception calling "DownloadFile" with "2" argument(s): "An exception occurred during a WebClient request."
At line:1 char:1
+ (new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("host ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebException

host and filename.ext are just placeholders.

Answer 1

Consider using Invoke-WebRequest instead:

powershell.exe -c "Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://server.domain.tld/path/to/file.ext -OutFile C:\path\to\save\download\file.ext"

If you need to use the old method, which is what you attempted above, you have escaped your quotes incorrectly. The download call should look like this:

powershell.exe -noexit -Command "(new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile(`"host`", `"filename.ext`");"

Your problem with the command above is that you are trying to escape your double-quotes with a \\ instead of a ` . The escape character in PowerShell is ` . Of course, you could always avoid the need to escape your string by using a single quote for the DownloadFile parameter instead:

powershell.exe -noexit -Command "(new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('host', 'filename.ext');"

---

Note that in PowerShell, double-quoted strings can have variables and subexpressions run directly in it, and can have escaped characters. Single-quoted strings escape all special characters and thus cannot have variables or subexpressions inserted directly into them. Both single-quoted and double-quoted strings do support Format Strings , however.

Answer 2

This should work:

Powershell.exe -NoExit -Command "& {$wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient; $wc.DownloadFile(`"\\host\"`, `"targetfullpathname.ext"`)}"

A script block is needed to execute multiple commands.

Don't use backticks unless there are special miserable character(s).

Another method is already described by @Bender The Greatest.

Answer 3

This works for me with singlequotes that cmd doesn't interpret like doublequotes.

powershell (new-object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('https://live.sysinternals.com/procmon.exe', 'procmon.exe')

Note that the first parameter is the full address of the file, not just the host.

powershell (new-object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile

OverloadDefinitions
-------------------
void DownloadFile(string address, string fileName)
void DownloadFile(uri address, string fileName)