<p>With the recent update to Windows Defender Microsoft has also updated the <strong>MpCMDRun.exe</strong> tool which is mostly used by sysadmins for scheduling PC scanning tasks.</p>
<p>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:</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3884" src="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/pexels-pixabay-270557-1.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" /></p>
<p>Open <strong>Command Prompt (CMD)</strong> and navigate to the following folder:</p>
<p>Navigate to <strong>C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\platform\%Windows Defender version%</strong></p>
<p>Replace the Windows Defender version variable with the current version that is installed on the system.</p>
<p><strong>MpCmdRun.exe -DownloadFile -url %file url% -path %local save path%</strong></p>
<p>For example:<br />
<strong>MpCmdRun.exe -DownloadFile -url https://get.videolan.org/vlc/3.0.11/win64/vlc-3.0.11-win64.exe -path C:\temp</strong></p>
<p>Once you hit enter, the file will be downloaded in the background to the specified location.</p>
<p>The credit for this discovery goes to Askar who tweeted this neat trick.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">You can use C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindows Defenderplatform4.18.2008.9-0MpCmdRun.exe -url <;url>; -path <;local-path>; to download your file using Windows defender itself.</p>
<p>&mdash; Askar ðµð¸ (@mohammadaskar2) <a href="https://twitter.com/mohammadaskar2/status/1301263662628376576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
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