I don’t think this means that this is necessarily exactly what curl will look like once this reaches the general windows 10 installation, and I also expect Microsoft to update and upgrade curl as we go along. This is what it looks when you check out the curl version on this windows build: But sure, any powerful and capable tool can of course be abused. curl is quite a capable thing that you truly do not want to get invoked involuntarily. Lots of people mentioned how curl is a “good” new tool to use for malicious downloads of files to windows machines if you manage to run code on someone’s Windows computer. I expect this to increase the number of questions on how to do things with curl. I expect this to accelerate the curl command line use in the world. Installing curl yourself on Windows still requires some skill and knowledge and on places like stackoverflow, there are many questions and users showing how it can be problematic. Once this goes out to the general public, all of a sudden several hundred million users will get a curl command line tool install for them without having to do anything. Having curl shipped by default by the manufacturer of an operating system of course makes a huge difference.

Then we had the known debacle with Microsoft introducing a curl alias to PowerShell that has put some obstacles in the way for users of curl. Users with a little bit of interest and knowledge have been able to run curl on Windows for almost 20 years already.

Running curl on Windows is not new to us. It has been working fine on all Windows versions since at least Windows 95. curl was already existing on WindowsĮver since we started shipping curl, it has been possible to build curl for Windows and run it on Windows. I see this as a pretty huge step in curl’s road to conquer the world. I’ve been away from home since then so I haven’t really had time to sit down and write and explain to you all what this means, so while I’m a bit late, here it comes! On December 19 2017, Microsoft announced that since insider build 17063 of Windows 10, curl is now a default component.

Windows 10 how to install curl