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Use the winget tool to install and manage applications

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The winget command line tool enables users to discover, install, upgrade, remove and configure applications on Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers. This tool is the client interface to the Windows Package Manager service.

Install winget

Windows Package Manager winget command-line tool is bundled with Windows 11 and modern versions of Windows 10 by default as the App Installer.

If you are running an earlier version of Windows and the App Installer is not installed, you can get App Installer from the Microsoft Store. If it's already installed, make sure it is updated with the latest version.

App Installer includes the production version of the winget tool.

Note

The winget command line tool is only supported on Windows 10 1709 (build 16299) or later at this time.

Install winget preview version [Developers Only]

To try the latest Windows Package Manager features, install the latest preview build of the winget command line tool in one of the following ways:

Administrator considerations

Installer behavior can be different depending on whether you are running winget with administrator privileges.

  • When running winget without administrator privileges, some applications may require elevation to install. When the installer runs, Windows will prompt you to elevate. If you choose not to elevate, the application will fail to install.

  • When running winget in an Administrator Command Prompt, you will not see elevation prompts if the application requires it. Always use caution when running your command prompt as an administrator, and only install applications you trust.

Use winget

After App Installer is installed, you can run winget by typing 'winget' from a Command Prompt.

One of the most common usage scenarios is to search for and install a favorite tool.

  1. To search for a tool, type winget search <appname>.

  2. After you have confirmed that the tool you want is available, you can install the tool by typing winget install <appname>. The winget tool will launch the installer and install the application on your PC. winget commandline

  3. In addition to install and search, winget provides a number of other commands that enable you to show details on applications, change sources, and validate packages. To get a complete list of commands, type: winget --help. winget help

Some users have reported issues with the client not being on their PATH.

Commands

The current preview of the winget tool supports the following commands.

Command Description
install Installs the specified application.
show Displays details for the specified application.
source Adds, removes, and updates the Windows Package Manager repositories accessed by the winget tool.
search Searches for an application.
list Display installed packages.
upgrade Upgrades the given package.
uninstall Uninstalls the given package.
hash Generates the SHA256 hash for the installer.
validate Validates a manifest file for submission to the Windows Package Manager repository.
settings Open settings.
features Shows the status of experimental features.
export Exports a list of the installed packages.
import Installs all the packages in a file.

Options

The winget tool supports the following options.

Option Description
-v, --version Returns the current version of winget.
--info Provides you with all detailed information on winget, including the links to the license, privacy statement, and configured group policies.
-?, --help Shows additional help for winget.

Supported installer formats

The winget tool supports the following types of installers:

  • EXE (with Silent and SilentWithProgress flags)
  • INNO
  • NULLSOFT
  • MSI
  • APPX
  • MSIX
  • BURN

Scripting winget

You can author batch scripts and PowerShell scripts to install multiple applications.

@echo off  
Echo Install Powertoys and Terminal  
REM Powertoys  
winget install Microsoft.Powertoys  
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 Echo Powertoys installed successfully.  
REM Terminal  
winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal  
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 Echo Terminal installed successfully.   %ERRORLEVEL%

Note

When scripted, winget will launch the applications in the specified order. When an installer returns success or failure, winget will launch the next installer. If an installer launches another process, it is possible that it will return to winget prematurely. This will cause winget to install the next installer before the previous installer has completed.

Debugging and troubleshooting

winget provides logging to help diagnose issues. For troubleshooting and details on logging, see Debugging and troubleshooting.

Missing tools

If the community repository does not include your tool or application, please submit a package to our repository. By adding your favorite tool, it will be available to you and everyone else.

Customize winget settings

You can configure the winget command line experience by modifying the settings.json file. For more information, see https://aka.ms/winget-settings. Note that the settings are still in an experimental state and not yet finalized for the preview version of the tool.

Open source details

The winget tool is open source software available on GitHub in the repo https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/. The source for building the client is located in the src folder.

The source for winget is contained in a Visual Studio 2019 C++ solution. To build the solution correctly, install the latest Visual Studio with the C++ workload.

We encourage you to contribute to the winget source on GitHub. You must first agree to and sign the Microsoft CLA.

Troubleshooting

The winget-cli repo maintains a list of common issues and common errors, along with recommendations on how to resolve: