# WinGet 41 Hacker News commenters recommended WinGet and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Built-in Windows command-line package manager that installs and updates software reliably and is praised for scripted setups. Critics say it lacks authenticity checks and is less polished than apt. ## Why people recommend it - Command-line installs without hunting download links (7 comments): "Winget is getting better support on Windows apps. The other day I tried to download the latest version of ImageMagick but all the links on the official site were bad. I tried Winget and it had it!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47719931)) "Most build tools and compilers can be installed via the command line on windows." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47023593)) "installed the needed tools quite quickly via winget and I was up and running" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47024760)) - Reliable and quick to use (7 comments): "yaml definitions compiled to sqlite sounds pretty similar to winget, which is scaling very well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46429473)) "Using Onedrive and winget are native and available on ANY Windows 11 machine and they WORK." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48540953)) "Winget works well, especially since this is already a terminal program." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47401418)) - Repeatable setups from config files (6 comments): ""winget configure" is pretty great in Windows - you can store your personal .config file on GitHub and use it whenever you set up a new PC" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47843100)) "Use an autounattend.xml, the mass graves, and a WinGet JSON to customise an online image." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48676065)) "a dev edition of windows using Winget config to strip all the bloat out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48450512)) - Searchable repositories you can extend (4 comments): "WinGet has the ability to add repositories, just like any other package manager." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47725798)) "There's actually a package manager built in now with WinGet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47455782)) "I get a lot of mileage out of package repository search" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46453649)) ## What people warn about - Weak publisher and authenticity checks (3 comments): "Neither WinGet nor Homebrew packages/formulae provide authenticity checks. They have integrity checks for file transfer. That's it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47019034)) "MS decided to look at all good practices in package repository management and don't do them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47995356)) "anyone can publish an update to a package as long as it passes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47017829)) - Less user friendly than apt (2 comments): "it's sadly not as user friendly as apt" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46497488)) "Winget is not upto mark like apt and other unix package managers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479217)) - Unreliable, not a real package manager (2 comments): "WinGet is not only unreliable, it is but one step removed from Remote Code Execution as a Service." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47019092)) "It is not a package manager. It's basically MajorGeeks as a mediocre CLI." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47720586)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Nix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nix.md): 378 recommend - [Homebrew](https://hackerapproved.com/p/homebrew.md): 271 recommend - [npm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/npm.md): 161 recommend - [pnpm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pnpm.md): 124 recommend - [Cargo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cargo.md): 123 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "WinGet", https://hackerapproved.com/p/winget/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).