Q:

Automatically download document to user's desktop

There is a MS Word document sitting on a server exposed to the Internet. I have the complete path and parameters to locate the document and get it ready for download. I have looked for an html or php solution so that the word document is automatically downloaded and opened in Word on the user's desktop.

A:

You can prompt the user to download / start the download, but you can't force the user to download (automatically), or open it automatically. It's a question of security.
To download the application, just point the browser to the file. You can even use javascript and window.location if you don't want to do it with a link.

