WinGet
Hacker ApprovedRanked 9 of 35 package managers by recommenders
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.
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.
49 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 41
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 41 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Command-line installs without hunting download links
“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!”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “CPUid Compromised” “Most build tools and compilers can be installed via the command line on windows.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “installed the needed tools quite quickly via winget and I was up and running”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” - Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March”
- Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “CPUid Compromised”
- Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “CPUid Compromised”
- Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program”
Reliable and quick to use
“yaml definitions compiled to sqlite sounds pretty similar to winget, which is scaling very well”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Package managers keep using Git as a database, it never works out” “Using Onedrive and winget are native and available on ANY Windows 11 machine and they WORK.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything” “Winget works well, especially since this is already a terminal program.”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Lazycut: A simple terminal video trimmer using FFmpeg” - Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “The Case for Nushell (2023)”
- Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Executable installer will stop being released with Python 3.16”
- Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
- Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “GOG's new owner can't stand Windows either: 'It's such poor-quality software '”
Repeatable setups from config files
“"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”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman” “Use an autounattend.xml, the mass graves, and a WinGet JSON to customise an online image.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Windows 10 quietly gets one more year of support and updates” “a dev edition of windows using Winget config to strip all the bloat out”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Apple WWDC 2026 Livestream” - Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “The New Collabora Office for Desktop”
- Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance”
- Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft admits almost all major Windows 11 core features are broken”
Searchable repositories you can extend
“WinGet has the ability to add repositories, just like any other package manager.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “CPUid Compromised” “There's actually a package manager built in now with WinGet”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “The Reason Windows Hate Is Exploding: It's the End of Personal Computing [video]” “I get a lot of mileage out of package repository search”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “Blog: PyPI in 2025: A Year in Review” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak publisher and authenticity checks
“Neither WinGet nor Homebrew packages/formulae provide authenticity checks. They have integrity checks for file transfer. That's it.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “7zip.com Is Serving Malware” “MS decided to look at all good practices in package repository management and don't do them”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Executable installer will stop being released with Python 3.16” “anyone can publish an update to a package as long as it passes”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “7zip.com Is Serving Malware” Less user friendly than apt
“it's sadly not as user friendly as apt”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Why Microsoft Store Discontinued Support for Office Apps” “Winget is not upto mark like apt and other unix package managers”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Get your Windows license refund” Unreliable, not a real package manager
“WinGet is not only unreliable, it is but one step removed from Remote Code Execution as a Service.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “7zip.com Is Serving Malware” “It is not a package manager. It's basically MajorGeeks as a mediocre CLI.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “CPUid Compromised”
Other package managers people recommend
The four most recommended other package managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 35 package managers, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 55 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Chocolatey, Winget, and Scoop are all good options for installing software.”
“Winget is not upto mark like apt and other unix package managers”
“the best way is installing with a cli”
“Use an autounattend.xml, the mass graves, and a WinGet JSON to customise an online image.”
“Using Onedrive and winget are native and available on ANY Windows 11 machine and they WORK.”
“a dev edition of windows using Winget config to strip all the bloat out”
“I can also now run and install over cmd with choco, scoop and winget.”
“MS decided to look at all good practices in package repository management and don't do them”
“leaning into winget/store is the right call”
“"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”
“WinGet has the ability to add repositories, just like any other package manager.”
“I love the winget CLI in this situation.”
“It is not a package manager. It's basically MajorGeeks as a mediocre CLI.”
“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!”
“this is an advantage of using `winget` for installing things”
“There's actually a package manager built in now with WinGet”
“Winget works well, especially since this is already a terminal program.”
“pretty low effort and reliable”
“installed the needed tools quite quickly via winget and I was up and running”
“Nowadays you can also use winget for it.”
“Most build tools and compilers can be installed via the command line on windows.”
“WinGet is not only unreliable, it is but one step removed from Remote Code Execution as a Service.”
“Neither WinGet nor Homebrew packages/formulae provide authenticity checks. They have integrity checks for file transfer. That's it.”
“anyone can publish an update to a package as long as it passes”
“those tools do so for me and if something doesn't match they show an error”
“you can install a lot of kosher software, which is almost as good as having it preinstalled”
“I find them pretty handy as I have become quite used to managing my Linux installations”
“I can manage my apps from it via the winget CLI and winget.config files”
“These days there is Winget which I'd rather use than either of those.”
“installing via winget which installs the EXE directly without the winGUP updater service”
“I think these days updates through the OS package manager is a better option”
“I use a package manager that checks the hash of the downloaded installer against what's recorded in the package listing for that version.”
“I'm glad Microsoft invested more in the CLI with Windows Terminal, OpenSSH in the default install, winget, PowerShell, etc.”
“Built in WinGet is chefs kiss”
“Windows has improved markedly recently with `winget`”
“it's sadly not as user friendly as apt”
“I get a lot of mileage out of package repository search”
“yaml definitions compiled to sqlite sounds pretty similar to winget, which is scaling very well”
“winget & automation with it using DSC from a simple yaml file”
“winget (which can be automated with a simple yaml file”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.