Windows® 7 Resource Kit

Managing BITS

Windows 7 includes Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 3.5. BITS is a file-transfer service designed to transfer files across the Internet using only idle network bandwidth. Unlike standard Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or shared-folder file transfers, BITS does not use all available bandwidth, so you can use BITS to download large files without affecting other network applications. BITS transfers are also very reliable and can continue when users change network connections or restart their computers.

BITS Network Protocol

BITS uses HTTP to transfer files in the same way as a Web browser. However, unlike standard HTTP transfers, BITS transfer speed is carefully throttled. Using the HTTP ...