Winget

Winget, short for Windows Package Manager, is a command-line tool for Windows that enables discovery, installation, upgrading, and removal of software. It is developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows App Installer and is distributed as an open-source project. The client was announced in 2020 to provide a native, scriptable way to manage applications on Windows and is designed for use by system administrators, developers, and power users.

Winget operates by using manifests stored in repositories. The primary public source is the winget-pkgs community repository, which contains package manifests describing how to install software. Users can add additional sources with the winget source add command. The default source is the Microsoft-hosted repository. Winget can integrate with enterprise deployment processes and can export or import lists of installed programs.

Common commands include: winget search <query> to discover software; winget install <package> to install; winget upgrade to upgrade installed packages; winget upgrade --all to upgrade all; winget list to view installed packages; winget uninstall <package> to remove. Other commands include winget show to view details and winget source to manage repositories.

Security and licensing: Winget is open-source under a permissive license (MIT) and is maintained by Microsoft with community involvement. It is delivered with the Windows App Installer and is available on supported Windows 10 and Windows 11 versions.

Limitations and reception: The catalog is not yet as exhaustive as some third-party managers, and not every Windows application has a manifest available. Packages come from maintainers and can vary in update frequency and reliability. Nonetheless, winget has seen widespread adoption for personal use and IT administration and continues to evolve with additional features and sources.