Anything like the Debian Package Manager for Windows?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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• QWinApt: Looks out of date, haven't tried it.
• WinAptic: Looks out of date, haven't tried it.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 The project seems to be recently open sourced, the packages are quite out of date.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:

Answer 3

here is a new one: Npackd

Answer 4

There is also CoApp

And chocolatey

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

The closest I've ever seen to a functional, up-to-date package manager for Windows is Portable Apps. Everything else looks and sounds cool but the authors inevitably lose interest over time. The folks over at Portable Apps advertise it as something you can run from USB thumbdrives, but I've tried that and found the apps to be very sluggish even on high-performance thumbdrives, which is probably why few people do that (if you do, then you're like me and in the minority of all Windows users). What I do is put Portable Apps and my data on a second physical internal hard drive and then add shortcuts to the Start menu and desktop manually to launch those applications directly. If I install a new OS on the primary hard drive, most of my applications are already available and ready to run (minus the shortcuts). And, of course, I do mirrored backups of the data and applications drive. As an added bonus, Windows runs smooth as silk too - probably because the applications aren't bloating the registry via installers.

The only annoying thing about Portable Apps is the splash screen for each app. You can shut it off by setting up an INI file per app and it only has to be done one time per app, but it is annoying.

I have a monthly reminder pop up to help me remember to run the Portable Apps launcher, which has an auto-update facility built into it. All of my Portable Apps are updated at one time and within a few minutes. Then I go back to whatever I was doing.

The advantage of using Portable Apps this way becomes clear during an OS migration.

What I've described isn't really how the authors intend for their software to be used, but it works and I think it works pretty darn well.