Finally, a package manager for Windows: winget

For years, Linux developers have had package managers like apt and yum, while Windows installations mostly meant downloading installers manually.

This has finally started to change during Build 2020 when Microsoft introduced the preview of the new Windows Package Manager, also known as winget.

The idea is simple: install and manage applications directly from the command line.

For example:

winget install powershell
winget install vscode

This makes developer workstation setups much easier, especially when scripting or automating installations.

You can also search for packages:

winget search vscode

And list installed packages:

winget list

One interesting detail is that the Windows Package Manager project was released as open source from the beginning. The code is availble in the GitHub repo.

Packages are described using YAML manifests stored in a public GitHub repository, which means software vendors and the community can contribute packages directly.

For developers and sysadmins working with multiple environments, this finally brings a more Linux-like package management workflow to Windows.

It is still early preview software at this stage, but the direction looks promising, especially for automated workstation provisioning and developer onboarding.