How to Use WINGET on Windows 11

If you are new to Windows OS and don’t know anything about WINGET then this is the best article for you. Here is everything you need to know about Windows Package Manager. You will learn how you can install and manage Windows Package Manager in Windows 11.

Table of Contents

What is Windows Package Manager?

Windows Package Manager is a command-line tool that you can use to find, download, install and update applications in Windows 11. You can install or delete anything with this WINGET command in Windows 10 & 11. The tool is installed by default in Windows OS so you don’t need to download and install it externally.

How to Install the WINGET (Windows Package Manager)

If it is not installed, you can install it manually from Microsoft Store.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Store from the Start menu or search for it using Windows Search.

Step 2: In the App Store, search for App Installer.

Step 3: In-App Installer, click on the Get button to install it. If it shows an update button then you have to update it.

Step 4: If you don’t have an internet connection then you can download and install offline package manager using this GitHub page.

Step 5: Go to the GitHub page and then select the latest version.

Step 6: Find and download .msixbundle file to download the offline installer.

Step 7: Once finished, double click on it to install the app. Once installed, reboot your PC and it’s done.

Use WINGET, the Windows Package Manager in Windows 11

Now if you have installed the Windows Package Manager tool, you have to learn how to run widget commands.

Follow these steps to run the Winget command.

Step 1: First you have to open the command prompt tool as an administrator. To open it, open the start menu with the Windows button on your keyboard and then search for CMD.

Step 2: Find and click on the Run as administrator button in the right sidebar. Click on the Yes button to confirm.

Step 3: To start Winget command lime tool, just type the “Winget” command and press enter.

Once done, you can enter commands to install, delete or update an app. Here is a list of Winget commands.

Install – Installs the given package
Show – Shows information about a package
Source – Manage sources of packages
Search – Find and show basic info of packages
List – Display installed packages
Upgrade – Upgrades the given package
Uninstall – Uninstalls the given package
Hash – Helper to hash installer files
Validate – Validates a manifest file
Settings – Open settings or set administrator settings
Features – Shows the status of experimental features
Export – Exports a list of the installed packages
Import – Imports all the packages in a file

You can also check which version of Windows Package Manager you are using in CMD.

– – version: Display version
– – info: Display general info

If you want to know more about the winget tool and its usage, use this command and press enter.

winget search -?

How to Search for Apps in the Winget

You can also search for Apps in Windows 11 using this winget tool. You can find any app very quickly using the winget command-line tool.

Here are the steps to search for any app using winget.

Step 1: First you have to open the command prompt tool as an administrator. To open it, open the start menu with the Windows button on your keyboard and then search for CMD.

Step 2: Find and click on the Run as administrator button in the right sidebar. Click on the Yes button to confirm.

Step 3: To start Winget command lime tool, just type the “Winget” command and press enter.

Step 4: To find the app, type the following command and press enter.

winget search <App_name>

Replace ‘<App_ name>’ with the app you want to search.

Example:

If you want to search for Edge then use winget search Edge command and press enter.

You have to check the source agreement before using the tool winget tool. Once done, the tool will search for the app you entered automatically in the background.

If it shows an error then you enter the wrong app name or id.

You can also use -q or –query to search for the app packages related to your search term. Like: winget search -q Edge

If the app name has spaces then you have to enter the app name with spaces too in the tool.

Like: winget search “Mozzila Firefox”

Filter Search Results in Winget

You can also filter the search results in the winget tool. As you can see, Winget shows all the apps or IDs or tags related to your search term. Now you have to filter out your app from the search. It is very hard to find the app from the hundreds of search results.

To solve this issue, Winget comes with search filter options to find the app you are searching for quickly.

You can run this command in the CMD tool to list all the search parameters.

winget search -?

Now here you have to type the filter name. Winget supports multiple search filters. Here are they:

–id: Filter results by id
–name: Filter results by name
–tag: Filter results by tag
–command: Filter results by command
-n or –count: Show only the specified number of results
-s or –source: Find package using the specified source
-e or–exact: Find package using exact match

Filter Search Results by Name

Above we shared how many search filters are available with Winget. Here is how you can search by name with the Winget tool.

winget search –name <App Name>

Example: winget search –name Edge

This command will only search your app name with the name field.

When you run this command, it will show all the results with the Edge name field.

Filter Search Results by ID

Just like the name, you can search the app with the ID field. Each and every app has a unique ID so it is very easy to find the app with the ID field.

If you want to find the packages by the app ID, use this command:

winget search –ID <App_ID>

winget search –ID = <App_ID>

Example: winget search –ID = 9WZDNCRFJ140

Replace App_ID with your app ID name. You can find the app ID on the official manufacturer’s website.

If the app name contains spaces then you can use a full stop.

winget search –ID Google.Chrome

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