Background Intelligent Transfer Service - Win32 apps
By stevewhims
Archived: 2026-04-02 12:00:15 UTC
In this article
1. Purpose
2. Where applicable
3. Developer audience
4. BITS versions
5. In this section
6. Additional resources
Purpose
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is used by programmers and system administrators to download
files from or upload files to HTTP web servers and SMB file shares. BITS will take the cost of the transfer into
consideration, as well as the network usage so that the user's foreground work has as little impact as possible.
BITS also handles network interruptions, pausing and automatically resuming transfers, even after a reboot. BITS
includes PowerShell cmdlets for creating and managing transfers as well as the BitsAdmin command-line utility.
Note
BITS can be used by Windows to download updates to your local system. If you are an end-user searching for
ways to troubleshoot your BITS installation, see Fix Windows Update Issues.
Where applicable
Use BITS for applications that need to:
Download from or upload files to an HTTP or REST web server or SMB file server.
Automatically resume file transfers after network disconnects and computer restarts.
Preserve the responsiveness of other network applications.
Be mindful of the network cost on e.g. roaming networks
Optionally work with BranchCache to optimize wide area network (WAN) traffic
Developer audience
BITS is a COM interface designed for C and C++ developers that can also be used by .NET developers. UWP
developers should use the Windows.Networking.BackgroundTransfer API and not the BITS API.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/bb968799.aspx
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BITS versions
For complete version history and information on earlier operating system, see What's New.
In this section
Topic Description
About BITS General information about BITS.
Using BITS Procedural guide for developing BITS clients that transfer files between a client and server.
BITS
Reference
Reference information for the BITS programming interfaces. Also contains information about
samples, tools, server settings for upload jobs, and the upload protocol.
Best
Practices
Information to consider when designing an application that uses BITS.
Additional resources
The following are additional resources.
Feedback
Additional resources
Training
Last updated on 05/25/2021
Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/bb968799.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/bb968799.aspx
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