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Our Satellite internet provider gives us "unlimited browsing" between 11pm and 7pm. As we have a very limited bandwidth in the day and the download is reasonably large, other than staying up late is there any way I could schedule the download as to only start at 11pm? I was thinking a PowerShell command might be possible (but I have no idea how to achieve this) or maybe a GUI alternative.

I have tried Windows Task Scheduler but although I could get the browser to open I didn't know how I could make the download start itself.

I am running Windows 8.1

JMatt
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4 Answers4

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I think any decent download manager has this feature... Googling it, the second result I found is free download manager, free and open source, and the feature list mentions "powerful scheduler", so I guess that would do.

m4573r
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I would use a scheduled task. If you must, you can type it into a powershell window, but it will also work from cmd.exe console.

SchTasks /Create /SC DAILY /TN "Late Night Download" /TR “C:\Downloader.ps1” /ST 23:00

or try it's GUI.

taskschd.msc.

Downloader.ps1

Import-Module BitsTransfer
Start-BitsTransfer "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sevenzip/7z920.msi" "C:\Temp\7z920.msi" -Description "Late Night Download" -DisplayName "Unlimited Browsing after 11pm"
Knuckle-Dragger
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  • Sure, you could start a downloader with the items to download already set to go. many downloaders will "resume" when thier program is started back up again, so I wont recommend a specific one. – Psycogeek Dec 20 '13 at 09:34
  • will you explain more the commands you are using, I mainly mean how to customize it to just start all of the scheduled downloads for any download manager – Dasser Basyouni Jan 23 '17 at 17:59
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Here is how I would do it:

  • Create the download in your download manager.
  • While it is still downloading, exit it, don't pause.
  • Schedule it to start after 11pm using scheduled task or any third party software.
jonsca
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usr280492
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You already know how to run the browser when you want (just make sure the browser is pointing at the downloading file, not the web page!)

I suggest you use FireFox as you can set it to automatically save files and not be prompted:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > General > "Saves files to"

Source

For IE, there are a few options listed here on SU

Community
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Dave
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