ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
I guess we all at one time or another wonder whether all our apps are up to date. Many apps do an auto update check, but often only when you start them, which means that apps you use only rarely need updating next time you use them. I have always been wary of third-party apps that claim to keep your apps updated, I treat them with the same suspicion I treat driver updater tools.
Whilst wondering whether I had any apps that needed updating I came across the Windows Package Manager, which does just that.
Introducing the Windows Package Manager
The Windows Package Manager has been part of Windows 11 since its first release, it's also included in later versions of Windows 10. At the moment it only exists as a command line tool, though I have no doubt that a GUI version will be available eventually. For those of us used to command line tools the package manager is a breeze to use, because there is only one command; winget - but with a ton of options.
The package manager is quite powerful and flexible, entering the winget --help command will bring up the main options. You can list installed packages, export a list, display the details of a specific package, validate a package manifest, repair an installed package, etc. etc.
At this point it's worth stating what a package actually is. For our purposes a package is an app. Microsoft Edge is a package, 7-Zip is a package, VLC Media Player is a package. The Windows Package Manager can manage packages for over 1500 packages (apps), although there are some apps that don't (yet) exist as a package that the package manager can manage, so not every app can be managed at the moment.
Upgrading installed packages
This is the only feature of the package manager that I'm going to talk about here. Partly because it's the only feature I have fully explored so far, but mainly because it's probably the only feature I will use. It is possible to use the package manager to install and uninstall packages (apps) but I don't see myself moving away from the traditional install/uninstall tools just yet.
Since it's a command line tool it's invoked either from the command prompt, the Windows terminal, or from a PowerShell session. It looks and feels the same no matter what tool you use.
The place to start is to see whether any of your installed packages (apps) have updates available. To do that you enter the command winget upgrade. Her's that display on my system...
The Name column on the left of course names the package. The ID column contains the ID you must use if you want to upgrade individual packages. The two version columns show the version you have installed and the version that's available. The source column shows where the new package will come from. At the moment all packages come from winget but the tool allows for other repositories to be included in the future.
You can see that I have upgrades available for 14 packages.
Let's start by just upgrading a single package and I'll use the 7-Zip app to show that. Remember, you need to use the ID shown above (7zip.7zip) when identifying packages to winget, so the command I'll use is winget upgrade --id 7zip.7zip....
It took a minute or two to download the new package and about as long again to install it. But that's it, job done!
Whilst wondering whether I had any apps that needed updating I came across the Windows Package Manager, which does just that.
Introducing the Windows Package Manager
The Windows Package Manager has been part of Windows 11 since its first release, it's also included in later versions of Windows 10. At the moment it only exists as a command line tool, though I have no doubt that a GUI version will be available eventually. For those of us used to command line tools the package manager is a breeze to use, because there is only one command; winget - but with a ton of options.
The package manager is quite powerful and flexible, entering the winget --help command will bring up the main options. You can list installed packages, export a list, display the details of a specific package, validate a package manifest, repair an installed package, etc. etc.
At this point it's worth stating what a package actually is. For our purposes a package is an app. Microsoft Edge is a package, 7-Zip is a package, VLC Media Player is a package. The Windows Package Manager can manage packages for over 1500 packages (apps), although there are some apps that don't (yet) exist as a package that the package manager can manage, so not every app can be managed at the moment.
Upgrading installed packages
This is the only feature of the package manager that I'm going to talk about here. Partly because it's the only feature I have fully explored so far, but mainly because it's probably the only feature I will use. It is possible to use the package manager to install and uninstall packages (apps) but I don't see myself moving away from the traditional install/uninstall tools just yet.
Since it's a command line tool it's invoked either from the command prompt, the Windows terminal, or from a PowerShell session. It looks and feels the same no matter what tool you use.
The place to start is to see whether any of your installed packages (apps) have updates available. To do that you enter the command winget upgrade. Her's that display on my system...
Code:
Windows PowerShell
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PS C:\Users\ubuys> winget upgrade
Name Id Version Available Source
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7-Zip 23.01 (x64) 7zip.7zip 23.01 24.09 winget
Audacity 3.6.1 Audacity.Audacity 3.6.1 3.7.0 winget
CPUID HWMonitor 1.53 CPUID.HWMonitor 1.53 1.55 winget
TeamViewer TeamViewer.TeamViewer 15.53.6 15.60.3 winget
VLC media player VideoLAN.VLC 3.0.20 3.0.21 winget
calibre 64bit calibre.calibre 7.9.0 7.22.0 winget
Bonjour Apple.Bonjour 3.0.0.10 3.1.0.1 winget
Microsoft Edge Microsoft.Edge 131.0.2903.70 131.0.2903.86 winget
SyncBackPro x64 2BrightSparks.SyncBackPro 10.2.147.0 11.3.62.0 winget
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistribut… Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x86 14.40.33810.0 14.42.34433.0 winget
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistribut… Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64 14.40.33810.0 14.42.34433.0 winget
Opera Stable 115.0.5322.68 Opera.Opera 115.0.5322.68 115.0.5322.77 winget
Microsoft Teams Microsoft.Teams 24135.300.2876.2873 24295.605.3225.8804 winget
Dev Home Microsoft.DevHome 0.1900.687.0 0.1901.687.0 winget
14 upgrades available.
PS C:\Users\ubuys>You can see that I have upgrades available for 14 packages.
Let's start by just upgrading a single package and I'll use the 7-Zip app to show that. Remember, you need to use the ID shown above (7zip.7zip) when identifying packages to winget, so the command I'll use is winget upgrade --id 7zip.7zip....
Code:
PS C:\Users\ubuys> winget upgrade --id 7zip.7zip
Found 7-Zip [7zip.7zip] Version 24.09
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for, nor does it grant any licenses to, third-party packages.
Downloading https://7-zip.org/a/7z2409-x64.exe
██████████████████████████████ 1.56 MB / 1.56 MB
Successfully verified installer hash
Starting package install...
The installer will request to run as administrator, expect a prompt.
Successfully installed
