Here is how you can use Microsoft’s new Package Manager ‘Winget’ to install Software in Windows

Microsoft has its very own Windows Store based on the same idea – a central hub for all your Windows applications. It was introduced in 2012 and has improved considerably, now also being the source of updates for many Windows applications. However, it never really took off the way Microsoft intended it to. Instead, people still relied on other software repositories (package manager) which allowed them to quickly download software from the terminal. Package managers like Chocolatey, Ninite, Scoop, and more.

Now, Microsoft has finally decided to release its very own Package Manager called winget which is a command-line package manager that allows you to quickly download an application from a wide range of Windows applications.

What is winget?

Primarily targeted to developers, the winget command-line tool enables developers to discover, install, upgrade, remove and configure applications on Windows 10 computers. This tool is the client interface to the Windows Package Manager service.

The winget tool hasn’t hit release for the general public yet, but there are several ways you can download it – we have covered a whole guide on how you can install winget on your PC. The only thing you need is to have Windows 10, version 1709 (10.0.16299) or later installed on your PC.

Use winget to download Software

1. Open the Command Prompt by pressing the Start button and searching for cmd.
   Note: Downloading certain applications might require you to use an elevated Command Prompt (run as administrator). You can refer to our guide over here to find out how to do that.
2. Once you have opened it, type winget and press Enter. If you see an error that says ‘winget’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file, it means that the tool isn’t installed. You can refer to our guide over here. Instead, if you see the following screen, it means that it is installed and you can use it to download your favorite Windows packages.

Once you have verified that winget is properly installed, here is how you can use it,

• Search for a tool
  To search for a particular tool to see if it is available on winget, you can use this command and replace the <appname> with the name of an app.

winget search <appname>

• Show Details for a tool
  To show details for a particular tool to see if it is available on winget, you can use this command and replace the <appname> with the name of an app.

• winget show <appname>

• Install a tool
  To install a particular tool, you can use this command and replace the <appname> with the name of an app.

winget install <appname>

• Help
  To see a list of the available commands and options, type the following command,

winget –help

Currently in the Preview version, here is the list of commands that is supported by winget, according to Microsoft.

There are also some parameters available, that you can use with your commands to change their behavior.