MpCmdRun.exe tool can now be used to download files

With the recent update to Windows Defender Microsoft has also updated the MpCMDRun.exe tool which is mostly used by sysadmins for scheduling PC scanning tasks.

MpCmdRun.exe tool that is a part of Windows Defender can now be used to download files from the Internet if the following syntax is used:

Open Command Prompt (CMD) and navigate to the following folder:

Navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\platform\%Windows Defender version%

Replace the Windows Defender version variable with the current version that is installed on the system.

MpCmdRun.exe -DownloadFile -url %file url% -path %local save path%

For example:
MpCmdRun.exe -DownloadFile -url https://get.videolan.org/vlc/3.0.11/win64/vlc-3.0.11-win64.exe -path C:\temp

Once you hit enter, the file will be downloaded in the background to the specified location.

The credit for this discovery goes to Askar who tweeted this neat trick.

You can use C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindows Defenderplatform4.18.2008.9-0MpCmdRun.exe -url <url> -path <local-path> to download your file using Windows defender itself.

— Askar 🇵🇸 (@mohammadaskar2) September 2, 2020