Using the powershell to download a file

A simple script to download a file:

$url="http://hostname/xxxxFiletoDownload"

$thisir =pwd

$path = $thisdir.toString() "\xxxxFiletoDownload"


$client = new-object System.Net.WebClient

$client.DownloadFile( $url, $path )

Windows Power Shell

As a linux user, I had always been frustrated that I must use a stupid command line to perform some task under windows. Or even worse, there were a lot of tasks I could even perform like that, because the commandline did not have any grep, find, and similar utilities.

This is until I discovered the powershell. Since I have to use windows at work and sometimes I do not even have the possibilty to use cygwin with suitable tools. I really got frustrated. But now that I looked into many of the power shell language, I must admit that it is quite impressive, what one can do with it. I also find it great that the powershell understands both pipes and objects...

I will probably add here many of the useful features I discovered. In someway I think Microsoft understood that they had to become more competitive in order to keep their customers.