WGET for Windows

Overview

Wget is a free command-line program from the GNU project that simplifies downloading files from the web. It supports fetching single files or performing full site downloads, and is designed to handle large transfers reliably.

Supported transfer protocols

• HTTPS — secure web requests with SSL/TLS support
• HTTP — standard, unencrypted web transfers
• FTPS — FTP over TLS for encrypted file transfers
• FTP — traditional file transfer protocol

Key capabilities

• Handles HTTP proxies and cookie management, enabling authenticated or proxied downloads
• Can resume interrupted transfers so long downloads do not need to restart from zero
• Keeps connections alive for improved performance with persistent HTTP sessions
• Mirrors directories and whole sites recursively for offline browsing
• Converts absolute links in mirrored pages to relative ones for local viewing

Where it runs

Wget is available on most Unix-like systems (Linux, BSD, macOS) and also runs on Windows. Its portability and minimal dependencies make it suitable for servers, desktop machines, and scripting environments.

Suggested alternative

• VisualWget (free) — a graphical front end for Wget that provides a user-friendly interface for download management and mirroring tasks