diff --git a/base/interactiveutil.jl b/base/interactiveutil.jl
index 7627362cdca0f..184250b0f6b60 100644
--- a/base/interactiveutil.jl
+++ b/base/interactiveutil.jl
@@ -639,12 +639,14 @@ end
 
 downloadcmd = nothing
 if Sys.iswindows()
+    downloadcmd = :powershell
     function download(url::AbstractString, filename::AbstractString)
-        res = ccall((:URLDownloadToFileW,:urlmon),stdcall,Cuint,
-                    (Ptr{Cvoid},Cwstring,Cwstring,Cuint,Ptr{Cvoid}),C_NULL,url,filename,0,C_NULL)
-        if res != 0
-            error("automatic download failed (error: $res): $url")
-        end
+        ps = "C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe"
+        tls12 = "[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12"
+        client = "New-Object System.Net.Webclient"
+        # in the following we escape ' with '' (see https://ss64.com/ps/syntax-esc.html)
+        downloadfile = "($client).DownloadFile('$(replace(url, "'" => "''"))', '$(replace(filename, "'" => "''"))')"
+        run(`$ps -NoProfile -Command "$tls12; $downloadfile"`)
         filename
     end
 else
diff --git a/test/download.jl b/test/download.jl
index e982dbfbcc53f..5fa3eef9597b3 100644
--- a/test/download.jl
+++ b/test/download.jl
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@ mktempdir() do temp_dir
     @test_throws ErrorException download("http://httpbin.org/status/404", missing_file)
     @test !isfile(missing_file)
 
+    # Make sure we properly handle metachar '
+    metachar_file = joinpath(temp_dir, "metachar")
+    download("https://httpbin.org/get?test='^'", metachar_file)
+    metachar_string = read(metachar_file, String)
+    m = match(r"\"url\"\s*:\s*\"(.*)\"", metachar_string)
+    @test m.captures[1] == "https://httpbin.org/get?test='^'"
+
     # Use a TEST-NET (192.0.2.0/24) address which shouldn't be bound
     invalid_host_file = joinpath(temp_dir, "invalid_host")
     @test_throws ErrorException download("http://192.0.2.1", invalid_host_file)