If you ever find yourself struggling to locate and install software on Windows, spending time searching the internet, navigating websites, registering, downloading, and then installing applications, or if you simply want to automate the process of creating a package of apps for your new machine or to share with friends and family, look no further. WingetUI is the tool you need to simplify software management on Windows.
In other operation system already has that facility, like apt, rpm, pacman and many others in Linux ecosystem and Homebrew in MacOS that manage and facility the process to install some softwares from internet, in secure and uncomplicated way. In Windows, we already have the winget tool, but WingetUI facilitate the process a lot.
Let's detail where to get and use that incredible tool.
WingetUI
The oficial site WingetUI - Martí Climent (marticliment.com)
And you can access the GitHub repository in
marticliment/WingetUI: WingetUI: The Graphical Interface for your package managers (github.com)
Note: The WingetUI app will be renamed to UniGetUI soon, nothing to worry about, but be advised.
Download
Get it from main site or from github repository, like:
Main Windows
When you installed WingetUI you have an simple interface like that:
Install App
You could install any app/software in "Discover Packages" tab with this easy 3 steps.
Search the app by the name in search bar
Select the app from the source you desire, in example, from chocolatey or winget
Click the button "Install selected packages".
After that, the software begins to install, you can see the installation process at the botton of the windows, if you click on it you could see the installations details; in some cases, a popup windows shows to you confirm or allow to install the app.
Uninstall App
To uninstall your apps, go to "Installed Packages" tab and you can easily do it in 2 steps:
locate and select the app/software you want to uninstall
click on button "Uninstall selected packages".
Update the Apps
The WingetUI check the installed packages of your system and show the apps with new versions available to install, just go to "Software Updates" tab:
select all packages that you want to update
click the "Update selected packages" button
The system check for updates every 10 minutes; you could put an extended period, like every 8 hours.
To do that, go in "Settings" tab and "General preferences".
Make a List of Apps
One off best resource in WingetUI tool is to create a bundle of packages of your preference; this is useful when you want to install a new windows system, to share whith your friends and family or simple to your organization.
Let's create a bundle to exemplify the process. Suppose I want to create a bundle with Extra tools, go to the "Package Bundles" tab.
My bundle is empty now, but the logic is using the "Discover Packages" tab to search an app, select it, add to the bundle, and repeat the process until you get all the packages you want in your bundle.
Do the same process you know to search an app, but now choose the "Add selection to bundle" button.
After that, go back to "Package Bundles" tab, you can know see the package you added.
If the packages not showing, try to verify if anything is writing in search bar and clear it. If you still cannot see the app you added, try to use the "Clear selection" and "Select all" option to reset the view state.
When you select all the packages you want, choose the "Save bundle as" button and named the file with the extension, for exemple:
WingetUI-GeekVoice-Extras.json
When you open the WingetUI is necessary to "Open existing bundle" if you want to add more app to it.
If you want to create a new bundle, just click the "New bundle" button, repeat the process, search, select and "add selection to bundle", after all apps you want, just save the bundle with the new name.
Conclusion
WingetUI is not a new tool, you could use the winget, chocolatey, scoop terminal tools and so on to install the apps, but WingetUI facilitate the process, and already coming with the chocolatey installed.
When installing apps I have a personal preference to use the msstore and winget sources and chocolatey as final choice, I try to use the Microsoft oficial resources first and community after that to compatibly fears. But is not a rule, be free and do what you prefer.
If you use a Windows system controlled by your company or school/university, try to install the "Scoop" package manager support, because it work in user space, not interfering or require windows permission elevation. This configuration is in "Settings" tab and in "Package Managers" section.
