How to start automatic download of a file in Internet Explorer?

I hate when sites complicate download so much and use hacks instead of a good old link.

Dead simple version:

<a href="file.zip">Start automatic download!</a>

It works! In every browser!

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If you want to download a file that is usually displayed inline (such as an image) then HTML5 has a download attribute that forces download of the file. It also allows you to override filename (although there is a better way to do it):

<a href="report-generator.php" download="result.xls">Download</a>

Version with a "thanks" page:

If you want to display "thanks" after download, then use:

<a href="file.zip" 
   onclick="if (event.button==0) 
     setTimeout(function(){document.body.innerHTML='thanks!'},500)">
 Start automatic download!
</a>

Function in that setTimeout might be more advanced and e.g. download full page via AJAX (but don't navigate away from the page — don't touch window.location or activate other links).

The point is that link to download is real, can be copied, dragged, intercepted by download accelerators, gets :visited color, doesn't re-download if page is left open after browser restart, etc.

That's what I use for ImageOptim

SourceForge uses an <iframe> element with the src="" attribute pointing to the file to download.

<iframe width="1" height="1" frameborder="0" src="[File location]"></iframe>

(Side effect: no redirect, no JavaScript, original URL remains unchanged.)