Intro to WinGet: Microsofts package manager for Windows [Video]

Add, remove, and manage Windows applications from the command line using WinGet, Microsoft’s open source package manager.

Credit: TndmAgency_Yuliia Zatula/Shutterstock

In the Linux world, package managers catalog and install the software available in a given Linux distribution. Until recently, Microsoft Windows software management wasn’t that centralized. There was a system for adding or removing components for Windows itself, but not for third-party apps. And while we do have the Microsoft Store as an app-management solution, it’s a proprietary system that’s aimed mainly at consumers, not developers or admins.

WinGetis a Microsoft-authored and -managed open source system for cataloging and managing software installations in Windows. It’s meant to provide the closest thing we have to an official package management system for Windows that’s not also a proprietary solution (like the Microsoft Store), focused on one aspect of the Microsoft ecosystem (like NuGet, which is chiefly for .NET components), or a third-party offering (like Chocolatey …