A packaging manager for windows

Finally, came across a packaging manger for windows, where I can easily install windows software, the way its meant to be, unobtrusive and smooth.

Chocolatey is not the fanciest tool out there, but the one for which I  long felt a need and while you can argue that docker does that much fancier, but on a dev box, this is a tool that just works.

Just like apt-get , rpm or dpkg in Linux/Mac OS, finally came across a handy tool in windows.

Installation is a breeze (just open up cmd in administrative mode) and you just need to paste the following and sit back.

@"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"

Remember to close the console and you are all set.

In a new command window, you can now see the chocolatey:

choco -? to see all the options which chocolatey provides.

Here’s a sample install:

And its a breeze, as I mentioned.

While the software is free (but close sourced), it also has enterprise options (for multiple machine automated installation options), its still has a lot of potential to be an indispensable tool. Microsoft, pay heed!