Microsoft has a new Windows Package Manager that lets you install applications from the command line. Mehedi Hassan’s winstall provides an easy web app you can use to quickly and easily install your favorite Windows applications in a few clicks.
How This Works: winstall and winget Explained
Microsoft’s Windows Package Manager, also named “winget,” lets you quickly download and install one or more applications with a single command. It’s a lot like a Linux package manager. As of early November 2020, the Windows Package Manager is still in preview form and is not yet included in Windows 10. However, it will one day be stable and built into Windows 10.
That’s great news, but most people don’t want to use the command line, preferring to install their apps using a graphical interface. That’s what winstall, a third-party application, does. Created by Mehedi Hassan, winstall is a web-based interface that lets you choose your favorite applications in a browser. The website then gives you the command that will automatically install your selected apps with winget. You don’t need to know how winget works or write the command yourself.
It’s a lot like Ninite, but it uses the Windows Package Manager.
Here’s one reason winstall is great: You don’t have to install any extra software. It’s a website that generates a command that works with the Windows Package Manager. You can see exactly what it’s doing on your computer. In the future, there will likely be other graphical interfaces for the Windows Package Manager. winstall is just the first popular one.