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I know that sounds a weird request. But I was installing a bunch of packages in Ubuntu yesterday, using apt-get and I started wondering if anyone had adapted it or produced anything similar for Windows.

What I mean is a) an package manager / installer for Windows. And b) a repository of free-software packages in a compatible format.

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Oct 29 '11 at 18:27

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5 Answers

up vote 15 down vote accepted

You could try win-get. It's an open source clone of apt-get for windows with a fairly sizable application repository.

I've used it on several previous workstations to get software installed quickly and maintain version of heavily developed applications. It works well.

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Cool, that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. – interstar Nov 13 '08 at 0:57
though the list of apps isn't appearing at the moment :-( – interstar Nov 13 '08 at 0:58
Awesome. There isn't by chance wemerge or waludis by chance? wentoo? – Kent Fredric Nov 13 '08 at 1:00
List still not appears as on Jan 27, 2009 (check a couple of weeks ago, too). dang. – Michael Paulukonis Jan 27 '09 at 14:38
Try this one instead: win-get.sourceforge.net it looks very active – Jeremiah Peschka Jan 29 '09 at 12:29
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up vote 13 down vote

I found the following based on the wikipedia entry for package management system and a blog entry:

  • Cygwin: for open source tools that run on the cygwin platform
  • AppSnap: Gui tool, last released February 2008, last checkin October 2008. It did install the latest version of several software packages for me. Includes programming tools for Perl, Java, .NET, Ruby, C++, etc. App seems slightly buggy on Windows 7.
  • Windows-Get: A command line tool based on apt-get. Great idea, seemed to be last updated in 2007. I didn't have much success with it.
  • AppUpdater: Gui tool last released November 2009 and under active development as of Jan 2010. Detected several apps that were already installed on my system. I had to run as admin to get this to work on Windows 7. Also has a command line tool.
  • GetIt: Gui tool that has some support for using AppSnap and AppUpdater if they are installed. Has some support for autodiscovery of repositories. Interface is a little clunky, making it hard to tell what is already installed. Supports upgrades, but doesn't seem to support removal of packages.
  • QWinApt: Looks out of date, haven't tried it.
  • WinAptic: Looks out of date, haven't tried it.
  • WinLibre: Very professional looking but with a VERY limited number of pacakges (around 20) when I installed the minimal version. The project seems to be recently open sourced, the packages are quite out of date. Much of the development conversation seems to be in French.
  • ZeroInstall: This is a multiplatform installer that is not quite yet supported on windows, though the maintainers seem open to having a windows version and it may just be a matter of compiling it for windows. I haven't tried this one yet. It seems to be geared around security and isolating installs in a separate environment from the admin account of a system.
  • WPKG:
  • Unattended:
  • InstallPad:
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0install is now supported on Windows too: 0install.de/downloads/?lang=en – Thomas Leonard May 29 '11 at 12:27
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up vote 9 down vote

Not exactly a package manager, but http://ninite.com/ is a handy way to bulk install a lot of free apps on a new PC.

If you keep the installer exe and run it again it will update all the apps it installed too.

Update: the new non-free Ninite Updater will update apps that you didn't initially install with Ninite. As will the free File Hippo Updater but it won't download and install the apps automatically for you.

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+1 for ninite, it's AWESOME! – sascha Feb 1 '10 at 6:15
Not exactly answering the question, but really cool ! – Julien Nicoulaud May 16 '10 at 13:26
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up vote 6 down vote

There is also CoApp

And chocolatey

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+1 for chocolatey – SethO Sep 9 '11 at 1:15
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up vote 5 down vote

here is a new one: Npackd

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