I’ve got a working ESP32 project. It compiles and runs fine. I’ve even got the ElegantOTA working. For an existing PCB which does not yet have OTA capable code loaded, I need to load via the IDE.
Elsewhere I’ve found info on capturing the command which loads the ESP from the status window below the code. The last line in white is: 

C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\tools\esptool_py\2.6.1/esptool.exe –chip esp32 –port COM27 –baud 115200 –before default_reset –after hard_reset write_flash -z –flash_mode dio –flash_freq 80m –flash_size detect 0xe000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\hardware\esp32\1.0.4/tools/partitions/boot_app0.bin 0x1000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\hardware\esp32\1.0.4/tools/sdk/bin/bootloader_qio_80m.bin 0x10000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino_build_494673/RF_Sw_035c.ino.bin 0x8000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino_build_494673/RF_Sw_035c.ino.partitions.bin
esptool.py v2.6
Serial port COM27

Yes, that’s ugly, but WAIT there’s more (ugliness)to come.

C:\>C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\tools\esptool_py\2.6.1/esptool.exe –chip esp32 –port COM27 –baud 115200 –before default_reset –after hard_reset write_flash -z –flash_mode dio –flash_freq 80m –flash_size detect 0xe000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\hardware\esp32\1.0.4/tools/partitions/boot_app0.bin 0x1000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\hardware\esp32\1.0.4/tools/sdk/bin/bootloader_qio_80m.bin 0x10000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino_build_494673/RF_Sw_035c.ino.bin 0x8000 C:\Users\iabar\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino_build_494673/RF_Sw_035c.ino.partitions.bin
esptool.py v2.6
Serial port COM27
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “esptool.py”, line 2959, in <module>
File “esptool.py”, line 2952, in _main
File “esptool.py”, line 2652, in main
File “esptool.py”, line 222, in __init__
File “site-packages\serial\__init__.py”, line 88, in serial_for_url
File “site-packages\serial\serialwin32.py”, line 62, in open
serial.serialutil.SerialException: could not open port ‘COM27’: WindowsError(5, ‘Access is denied.’)
Failed to execute script esptool
C:\>

Win can’t open the Com port. I just did the compile and load, changed no hardware and tried to load from the command line. I’ve tried BOTH the normal command line and also the ADMIN cmd. The Admin gives more errors.

This got WAAAAY to long.
Is there any way to load a BIN file, via USB, to a board? 
Thanks in advance
Barry