Download file to client

When a user hits a particular area of the site, I need a text file to be installed in a particular location of their windows directory. The text file is used to populate a menu. Creating an executable to create this file is too messy, initialising the SaveAs option & instructing the user is also undesirable, and I believe client-side scripting (VBScript, JavaScript) won't allow me to access the clients file system (for obvious reasons).

Does anybody know how I can deliver this text file to the client with as little pain as possible?

This may be a stupid answer but can you use a COKKIE?

Just thought that as a COOKIE is a text file stored on the client PC then maybe that would do the job?

Sorry, forgot to mention - I want to avoid using cookies. Thank you.

couldnt you store the info on the server in a DB instead?? and use a cookie to tell which user need which data?