How to download software without Secure Download Manager (SDM)? How to open .sdx files?

How can I download software without using Microsoft's "Secure Download Manager" (SDM)?

I am trying to download software from the "Microsoft Imagine" education software website, but I've checked out multiple products at once, and now they want me to use a special program to download them.

They only give me a .sdx file and a link to a program (named "Secure Download Manager") which can open it.

How can I avoid using this program?

Answer

1. Open the file using your favorite text editor.


2. Open a new tab in some browser (I'm using Chrome).


3. Paste view-source: into the address bar.


4. Go to your text editor of choice and copy the one and only line in the .sdx file.


5. Paste the copied text (from the file) right behind the text already in the browsers address bar (view-source:) and hit enter (append the URL).


6. In the browser, press Ctrl + F and enter the name of your download (eg. "Visio").


7. Look for a result inside of an HTML tag.


8. You should have the result highlighted inside text looking something like this: http://dl.msdn.com/db/de_visio_pr


9. Copy all the text between the quotation marks(") after the text FileURL= and copy it.


10. Paste it in your prefered text editor and do a replace-all (usually Ctrl + H), replacing all & with &, leaving only the & in the URL behind.


11. Copy and paste the text back into the browser.


12. Hit enter and wait for the download.