Recommended method for loading a URL via a scheduled task on Windows

Cory_House_26180 0
Viewed 72123

I have a webpage hosted on a Windows box that I need to assure gets loaded at least once/day. My current plan is to create a scheduled task that opens Internet Explorer and hits the URL:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" myurl.com/script_to_run_daily.aspx

This was simple to setup and works fine, but it strikes me as a hack because Internet Explorer actually has to open and hit this URL. I don't need any input back from this page, it simply stores cached data in files when it's hit.

Is there a slicker way of doing this? In case it matters, this is a VB.net site.

Thanks in advance!

scheduling scheduled-tasks internet-explorer windows .net
8 Answers

You can schedule a PowerShell script. PS is pretty powerfull and gives you access to the entire .Net Framework, plus change. Here is an example:

$request = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create("http://www.example.com")
$response = $request.GetResponse()
$response.Close()
user_1059290

Another option is VB Script. For example (save as file.vbs):

sSrcUrl = "http://yourdomain.com/yourfile.aspx"
sDestFolder = "C:\yourfolder\"
sImageFile = "filename.txt"
set oHTTP = WScript.CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
oHTTP.open "GET", sSrcUrl, False
oHTTP.send ""
set oStream = createobject("adodb.stream")
Const adTypeBinary = 1
Const adSaveCreateOverWrite = 2
oStream.type = adTypeBinary
oStream.open
oStream.write oHTTP.responseBody
oStream.savetofile sDestFolder & sImageFile, adSaveCreateOverWrite
set oStream = nothing
set oHTTP = nothing
WScript.Echo "Done..."
user_2113780

As of PowerShell 5.0, curl is an alias for Invoke-WebRequest, so you can create a Scheduled Task as follows:

Action: Start a program
Program/script: powershell
Add arguments: curl http://www.example.com/foo/bar

You can also use Invoke-WebRequest, but curl is more concise.

user_1887400

There are Windows versions of the most common command-line http request tools, such as cURL and wget. You could certainly create a scheduled task that would run one of these. I have also done this from within a Windows Scripting Host script, if you needed to loop or create URL parameters on the fly, or some such.

JacobM_12370

tried with curl on PowerShell 4.0, curl is an alias for Invoke-WebRequest, so you can create a Scheduled Task as follows:

Action: Start a program Program/script: powershell Add arguments: curl http://www.example.com/foo/bar

worked like a charm!

user_100311180

If you are getting "The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send" message while running your PowerShell script then add the following line of code to the top of your script:

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

With the latest support of TLS 1.2 and deprecation of TLS 1.0, 1.1 etc., your PowerShell scripts need this necessary change.

user_55112740
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