Recently Microsoft surprised its users by providing great relief in the form of a Package Manager – winget. For those of you who are unaware, the Package Manager can help a user to install a program from the operating system command terminal directly, without any help from the installer file. It is already available for Linux users.
Package Manager can help a user to install a program from the operating system command terminal directly, without any help from the installer file.
This package manager of Windows, winget, makes it very convenient for the user to install the required software by applying a single command on Command Prompt or Windows Shell. For example, if you want to install the Microsoft PowerToys, just open the terminal window and run the “winget install Microsoft PowerToys” command. The command would automatically find the PowerToys from the web and install it instantly, without any additional inputs from you.
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Let us discuss how to install the winget on the Windows 10 systems and how to use its functionalities.
How to install Winget Package Manager?
Microsoft has not released a stable version of the winget as of now. However, the preview version is available for download from the GitHub. Winget package manager is expected to directly integrate with the Windows 10 OS in the future updates.
– Download the installer file of Winget from the Github.
– Double-click on the file and select update.
– After the installation is completed, you would find this window.
You must remember that since it is a preview version, there might be few bugs in it. You have to be prepared for that.
How to use the Windows Package Manager?
Windows package manager – winget, can be used on both the Command Prompt and the Windows Power Shell. In this guide, we would use the Command Prompt to run the winget.
Run the Command Prompt as administrator and type the winget command. You would see the detailed information of different commands that winget offers.
Let us check the common commands of the winget.
- Install
Install command is used to install the application that the user wants. For example, if users want to install the WhatsApp for Windows, they would have to type this command winget install WhatsApp. After this, just hit enter, and the command would automatically search for the WhatsApp application on the web and install it on your system.
- Show
Show command can be used in two ways. Firstly, show command can be used to get details of a specific application, no matter whether it is installed on your system or not. For example, type winget show powertoys and terminal would display the full available information of the Windows PowerToys application.
In a second way, type winget show on the command terminal, and it would show the details of all the applications installed on your device.
- Source
Winget source command comes with the sub-commands like add, list, update, remove, and reset to manage the sources of the application. An application source provides the data for the user to discover and install the app.
- Hash
Hash command can be used to hash the installer files
- Validate
Validate command is used for validating a manifest file.
Final Words
Though currently in an unstable version, the Windows package manager, winget, is of great help, especially to the developers and programmers.
Microsoft would surely like to add more functionalities in it to make it more powerful. And other than that, to make it more user friendly, they would also try to add Graphical User Interface. That would make it popular very quickly. Who knows, winget could also become the better alternative to Microsoft Store.
To install the Windows package manager – winget, either join the Windows Insider Program or download the installer file from the official Microsoft’s Github page.
Windows package manager is the program that helps you to install the applications of your choice directly from the terminal window instead of installing them using the installer file.
As of now, Windows 10 with version 1709 and above are eligible to get Windows Package Manager.
Peter is an Electrical Engineer whose primary interest is tinkering with his computer. He is passionate about Windows 10 Platform and enjoys writing tips and tutorials about it.
