Open a URL without using a browser from a batch file

If all you want is to request the URL and if it needs to be done from batch file, without anything outside of the OS, this can help you:

@if (@This==@IsBatch) @then
@echo off
rem **** batch zone *********************************************************

    setlocal enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion

    rem The batch file will delegate all the work to the script engine
    if not "%~1"=="" (
        wscript //E:JScript "%~dpnx0" %1
    )

    rem End of batch file area. Ensure the batch file ends execution
    rem before reaching the JavaScript zone
    exit /b

@end


// **** JavaScript zone *****************************************************
// Instantiate the needed component to make URL queries
var http = WScript.CreateObject('Msxml2.XMLHTTP.6.0');

// Retrieve the URL parameter
var url = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)

// Make the request

http.open("GET", url, false);
http.send();

// All done. Exit
WScript.Quit(0);

It is just a hybrid batch/JavaScript file and is saved as callurl.cmd and called as callurl "http://www.google.es". It will do what you ask for. No error check, no post, just a skeleton.

If it is possible to use something outside of the OS, wget or curl are available as Windows executables and are the best options available.

If you are limited by some kind of security policy, you can get the Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Resource Kit Tools. It includes tinyget and wfetch tools that can do what you need.

You can use Wget or cURL, see How to download files from command line in Windows like wget or curl.

You will then do e.g.:

wget www.google.com

You can use the HH command to open any website.

hh <http://url>

For example,

hh http://shuvankar.com

Though it will not open the website in the browser, but this will open the website in an HTML help window.