'wget' is not recognized as an internal or external command

# Table of Contents

1. 'wget' is not recognized as an internal or external command
2. Installing the wget command line utility on Windows
3. Installing and using the wget command line utility with Python
4. Install wget using Chocolatey on Windows

# 'wget' is not recognized as an internal or external command

The error "'wget' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file" occurs when the wget package is not installed on Windows. To solve the error, install wget before using the command.

The first option to use wget on Windows is to run the command in PowerShell.

To open PowerShell:

1. Click on the Search bar and type "PowerShell".

2. Click on the "Windows PowerShell" application.

Use the wget command directly in PowerShell.

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wget https://google.com -OutFile out.html

If you need to open PowerShell in a specific folder:

1. Open the folder in a window.
2. Press Shift and right-click in Explorer.

3. Click on "Open PowerShell window here".
4. Run the wget command.

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wget https://google.com -OutFile out.html

The wget command in PowerShell is an alias for the Invoke-WebRequest command.

Alternatively, you can install the wget package.

# Installing the wget command line utility on Windows

To download and install wget on Windows:

1. Download wget.exe by clicking on the following link and clicking on EXE.

If you are unsure whether your computer runs 32-bit or 64-bit:

• Click on the Start button, then click Settings > System > About.
• Look at the value of "System type".

2. Open CMD as an administrator.

3. Use the path command to get the location where we have to copy the wget.exe file.

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path

The screenshot shows that in my case the location is C:\Windows\system32. It will likely be the same for you.

3. Change to the Downloads directory (or to the directory where wget.exe was downloaded).

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cd "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Downloads"

4. Copy the wget.exe file to the C:\Windows\system32 directory (or to your specific PATH if it's different).

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copy "wget.exe" "C:\Windows\system32"

5. Close CMD and reopen it.

6. Now you can use the wget command on Windows.

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wget https://google.com -o out.html

Make sure to restart your shell, otherwise, the wget command won't be available.

# Installing and using the wget command line utility with Python

Open your CMD shell and run the following command to install wget using pip.

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pip install wget

# 👇️ for Python v3
pip3 install wget

# 👇️ If you don't have pip in your PATH environment variable
python -m pip install wget

# 👇️ for Python v3
python3 -m pip install wget

# 👇️ using py alias
py -m pip install wget

# 👇️ If you get a permissions error
pip install wget --user

Now you can run the wget command using the Python executable.

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python -m wget https://google.com -o out.html

py -m wget https://google.com -o out.html

python3 -m wget https://google.com -o out.html

Alternatively, you can use the wget package in a Python script. Here are the contents of a file named main.py that downloads a song using wget.

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import wget

url = 'http://www.futurecrew.com/skaven/song_files/mp3/razorback.mp3'

filename = wget.download(url)
print(filename)

You can run the file with the python main.py command.

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python main.py

Alternatively, you can install wget using Chocolatey.

# Install wget using Chocolatey on Windows

If you have Chocolatey installed:

1. Click on the Search bar and type PowerShell.

2. Right-click on the PowerShell application and click "Run as administrator".

3. Run the following command to install wget.

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choco install wget -y

To install Chocolatey:

1. Open PowerShell as an administrator.

2. Run the following command.

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Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

3. Wait for the command to complete.
4. Type choco to make sure Chocolatey is installed.

Now that you have Chocolatey installed, run the following command to install wget.

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choco install wget -y

Note that your shell should still be run using elevated permissions.

Now you should be able to use the wget command.

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wget https://google.com -o out.html

If you still aren't able to use wget, close your shell and reopen it.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

• The Windows equivalent of the Unix 'tee' command
• The Windows equivalent of the Unix 'pwd' command
• Windows equivalent of the Unix 'tail' command
• How to install and use 'jq' on Windows
• How to install and use 'AWK' on Windows
• rm or mv is not recognized as internal or external command
• 'ping' is not recognized as an internal or external command
• 'vim' is not recognized as an internal or external command