Instructions for installing wget on Windows to Download Files like Linux

wget is a common command on Linux used to download files to the computer with different protocols. wget present in most linux distros with their respective package managers. But in windows we need to download and install wget by hand.

Command Prompt (CMD) in Windows 10 does not have enough features like Termimal on Linux. To make up for its shortcomings, tools like wget and Cygwin can be installed on Windows to get the most out of Command Prompt.

In this guide, AnonyViet will see how to download, install and set up wget windows 7, 8, 10, server, etc… For more information on how to use wget, see the following instructions.

Install wget on Windows to Download File

The wget command allows you to Download FIle via TCP/IP protocols: FTP, HTTP and HTTPS. If you are a Linux or Mac user, wget is already included in the official distro version. Unfortunately, wget is not available on Windows. To run WGET, you need to download, extract, and install it manually.

Download wget to Windows

Download from Sourceforge

Sourceforge provides support for a wide variety of free and open source projects. wget is one of them. You can download wget versions on Windows from the following links: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/wget/1.11.4-1/

Download from Eternallybored

Eternallybored.org is a website that provides binaries of the GNU project. I recommend downloading wget from Eternallybored because it has x86 and x64 versions, and is updated regularly. You can download wget from the following links:

https://eternallybored.org/misc/wget/

Install wget on Windows

Currently wget supports both Windows 7 and Windows 10, so it is compatible with the latest operating systems. After downloading the wget file, you will get the wget.exe file.

Now we will create the folder wget put it in the path: C:\Program Files\

So we will get the reference C:\Program Files\wget

Now copy the file wget.exe into the folder C:\Program Files\wget

Next, you need to add the path of wget.exe to the environment variable on Windows. This will add the wget file path to the PATH variable used to determine the location of the wget file. Each time you call the wget command, just type wget without having to type the path C:\Program Files\wget\wget.exe. You do the following:

Right click This Computer select Properties select Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System variables.

Look down to find the line path -> Edit -> New type path C:\Program Files\wget

select OK

Now open CMD with administrator rights and type wget. If you see the message wget: missing URL, it is successful.

Now try downloading the file with direct link using wget. The command to download using wget on Windows is

wget địa-chỉ-link-cần-download

For example If you want to download the iso file of Kali Linux using wget, type the command

wget https://cdimage.kali.org/kali-2020.1b/kali-linux-2020.1b-installer-amd64.iso

So we can use the linux wget command on Windows quickly.

How to use wget command

wget has many properties, usually we only use wget on windows to download a certain file. But you don't know that wget also has many cool features like Downloading the entire Website. Below are some wget commands on Windows to help you save time to Download File:

DOWNLOAD A SINGLE FILE

wget http://website.com/file.zip

DOWNLOAD A SINGLE FILE BUT SAVE AS A DIFFERENT NAME

wget ‐‐output-document=newname.html website.com

DOWNLOAD A SPECIFIC FOLDER

wget ‐‐directory-prefix=folder/subfolder website.com/file.zip

CONTINUE DOWNLOADING PREVIOUSLY INTERRUPTED FILES

wget ‐‐continue website.com /file.zip

DOWNLOAD THE NEWER VERSION OF THE FILE

wget ‐‐continue ‐‐timestamping website.com/file.zip

DOWNLOAD MANY WEBSITES

For this parameter, you need to create a list in Notepad or another text editor. Add a new full URL (with http://) on a separate line. Then point wget to the file. In this example, I named the file Filelist.txt and saved it in the wget folder.

wget ‐‐input Filelist.txt

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE WEBSITE

wget ‐‐execute robots=off ‐‐recursive ‐‐no-parent ‐‐continue ‐‐no-clobber http://website.com

You can try to fake these user agent by impersonating Googlebot. Try typing this:

wget –user-agent="Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html)" -r http://website.com

DOWNLOAD A SPECIFIC FILE TYPE FROM A WEBSITE

wget ‐‐level=1 ‐‐recursive ‐‐no-parent ‐‐accept FILETYPE http://website.com / FILETYPE/

For example, change FILETYPE to MP3, MP4, .zip or whatever you like.

DOWNLOAD ALL WEBSITE IMAGES

wget ‐‐directory-prefix=files/pictures ‐‐no-directories ‐‐recursive ‐‐no-clobber ‐‐accept jpg,gif,png,jpeg http://website.com/images/

CHECK A WEBSITE FOR BROKEN LINKS

wget ‐‐output-file=logfile.txt ‐‐recursive ‐‐spider http://website.com

UPLOAD FILES WITHOUT OVERLOADING THE WEB SERVER

wget ‐‐limit-rate=20k ‐‐wait=60 ‐‐random-wait ‐‐mirror http://website.com

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of wget commands and AnonyViet lists them here. Now you are familiar with the tool and how it works, depending on what you use it for!