Windows package management with Chocolatey

For most of us, using software is an everyday activity. Many of us use lots of different packages of software, especially those that does not come pre-installed, like notepad++, chrome or firefox, ebook managers, your favorite video player, etc. Installing that software every time you get a new computer or keeping all those packages up-to-date can be a challenge. Being a Windows user for most of my life, I've accepted the tedious, risky business of finding, installing and not getting viruses from Windows software. Not until I started using Linux did I realize that it can be easier and safer. Linux uses package management, that changes from distribution, but the popular Debian based Linux uses apt-get to install software from the command line. Installing software can be as easy as apt-get install firefox, and updating all software on the computing can be done with apt-get update. Really easy right?

Well, I still use Windows a lot, and installating and managing software on Windows can be be much easier using chocolatey. Chocolatey is a Windows command line tool to manage software, including searching, installing, updataing and removing.

Installation is a cinch. Copy and paste this code into a windows command line access by searching for cmd in the windows start. If possible, run as administrator (cmd, right-click, run as administrator)

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin

I typically just search the chocolatey website for the package I want to install and type that into the command line. The example I want to share is my favorite ebook manager, calibre. One of the reasons I enjoy chocolatey with calibre is because calibre is updated a lot, and to keep up with them, you have to go download the calibre exe, and follow the prompts for the installation. Or a simple command will do it all! The -y is a flag to indicate yes to eliminate the need to confirm the installation.

choco install calibre -y

Updating calibre is as easy as this

choco update calibre -y

Multiple packages can be installed by leaving a space between the names

choco install notepadplusplus googlechrome atom 7zip

And to update all the packages that were install with chocolatey, this command will take care of it all

choco upgrade all -y

I think chocolatey is a really neat, useful package that has saved me a lot of time, and I hope it helps alleviate some of your windows woes.