winget is a Microsoft command line tool to install and update applications on the Windows Operating System – effectively Microsoft’s take on Chocolatey.
This blog post is intended for those wanting to get started with winget as a quick start or reference guide.
Installing winget
To get started with winget we must first install it.
winget can be downloaded from Github as an MSIX Bundle here: Releases · microsoft/winget-cli · GitHub or by following the guidance in the following link to either join the Insider program or to sign up to receive winget via the Windows store: GitHub – microsoft/winget-cli: Windows Package Manager CLI (aka winget)
If you choose to install manually you will need to keep your version updated manually. The store app will update itself.
Check winget is installed
To confirm that winget is installed and see what version is running we can run the command winget –version
List all installed packages
To list all installed packages run winget list
This will show also show you on the far right column if there are any newer available packages for install.
Check which applications can be upgraded
To check which applications can be upgraded with winget type winget upgrade
Upgrade an application
To upgrade one of the available applications type winget upgrade “nameofapp“, for example winget upgade “Cisco Webex Meetings”
Upgrade all applications
To upgrade all installed applications type winget upgrade –all
Install a new application
To install a new application using winget, you will want to first try and find the application you’re looking for. You could either generate a list of all applications using winget install. This will return all apps that you could possibly install using winget.
Or if you know what you are looking for you can search with winget search appname
Now that I know the name of the app that I’d like to install, I can do so using winget install appname
Notice that I didn’t have to put the fill name in.
Change your winget settings
There are also a list of settings with winget that you can change. A full documented list can be found here: https://aka.ms/winget-command-help
Lets say you want to change the progress bar to a rainbow..
First type winget settings. This will open the winget settings file located at “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\settings.json” in your preferred editor – in my case VS code.
You can then add the code block between the first and last curly brackets, save the file, and the changes will take effect on the next use of winget.
