Windows Package Manager 1.0 final is out

Microsoft released the first stable version of Windows Package Manager, a tool to install and manage programs efficiently on Windows 10 machines.

Many things have changed since our first look at Winget, wish we published in May 2020.

At its core, it is still a package manager that you may know from other operating systems. Windows users may compare it to program installers such as Ninite, Scoop, or just-install, which offer similar functionality but are maintained by third-parties.

Windows Package Manager 1.0

Windows Package Manager is a command line tool. You may check out Winstall, which is a web GUI for the package manager, if you prefer graphical user interfaces.

Installation is straightforward: the program is distributed with App Installer, which you can download and install from the Microsoft Store. You may also download the latest version from the project's GitHub repository instead and install it that way.

Open a PowerShell terminal window after installation, e.g. by selecting Start, typing PowerShell, and selecting the entry, and run winget to display all available parameters.

The ones that you may be using the most are install, uninstall and search. Winget comes without option to display all available programs that you may install, check out the Community Repo here.

Use winget search to find packages of interest. All packages of the community repo are tagged, and you may search for program names or types to find specific applications to install.

A search for video returns several dozen entries, including popular programs such as PotPlayer, YouTube DL GUI, SMPlayer, VLC Media Player, OpenShot, K-Lite Codec Packs, and more. The community repo hosts more than 1500 different programs at the time.

If you have spotted a package that you would like to install, use winget install to do so. Just look at the name of the package, and add it as a parameter to the command, e.g. winget install OpenShot; this downloads and  installs the OpenShot program on the system.

Install supports parameters to customize the installation, e.g. -h to run the installer in silent mode or -o to create a log file.

Use the upgrade command to check for available upgrades. The command winget upgrade checks for upgrades for all installed programs, even those not installed by the package manager but through other means on the system. Run winget upgrade -all to upgrade all programs with updates at once, or winget upgrade PACKAGENAME to upgrade only the specified package.

The uninstall command finally removes a package from the system. It works just like the install command, but will remove the selected application from the device.

System administrators may download and use policies, and use additional commands and options, including the ability to host private repositories or installing local packages.

A command reference is available on Microsoft's Docs website. Thee you find a tutorial on using a script to install multiple applications in one go using winget.

Closing Words

Winget is a powerful package manager for Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system that gives home users and administrators a new tool at hand to install and manage software programs.

Whether it will play a role in the upcoming Store changes remains to be seen. Microsoft plans to lift restrictions to improve the popularity of its Store.

Now You: have you tried winget? What is your experience?

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