After looking at various stackoverflow questions, I found several ways to download a file from a command line without interaction from the user.
The only one that worked for me also works only on Windows 10 natively :
curl -sko %TEMP%\file.txt "https://some.hostname/file.txt"
But installing an external tool like wget/curl is what I want to avoid.
What didn't work for me because of proxy errors :
Command:
bitsadmin.exe /transfer "dljob" "https://some.hostname/file.txt" %TEMP%\file.txt
Error:
DISPLAY: 'dljob' TYPE: DOWNLOAD STATE: ERROR
PRIORITY: NORMAL FILES: 0 / 1 BYTES: 0 / UNKNOWN
Unable to complete transfer.
ERROR FILE: https://some.hostname/file.txt -> E:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\file.txt
ERROR CODE: 0x80190197
ERROR CONTEXT: 0x00000005
Command:
powershell -Command "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('https://some.hostname/file.txt', '%TEMP%\file.txt')"
Error:
Exception calling "DownloadFile" with "2" argument(s): "The remote server returned an error: (407) Proxy Authentication Required."
At line:1 char:1
+ (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('https://some.hostname/file.txt ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebException
Command:
powershell -Command "Invoke-WebRequest 'https://some.hostname/file.txt' -OutFile %TEMP%\file.txt
Error:
Invoke-WebRequest :
Authentication required
You must be authenticated to access this URL.
...
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT; Windows NT 10.0; en-US) WindowsPowerShell/5.1.17763.1007
At line:1 char:1
+ Invoke-WebRequest 'https://some.hostname/file.txt ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-WebRequest], WebException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand