Hello, how are you? Today we’re going to talk a bit about the package management system. That system, also known as a package manager, is a collection of tools that serve to automate the process of installing, updating, configuring and removing software packages. This term is intimately associated with GNU/Linux systems. Because they rely heavily on package managers. As we mentioned at the beginning, this term is intimately associated with Linux, as it is the main method for installing and uninstalling applications. However, it is possible to install a package manager on Windows. We are talking about Chocolatey. This software management and automation system is based on PowerShell and is able to work with different software installers for Windows systems such as MSI, NSIS, InnoSetup, installation binaries and compressed files (ZIP). Sounds great, doesn’t it? So, we’re going to see how to install and use Chocolatey in Windows 10.
Installing Chocolatey.
Chocolatey behaves just like any other package manager. Additionally, it simply handles all aspects of software administration. In other words, installation, configuration, updating, and uninstallation. In addition, this manager is that it allows you to install and maintain both free and open-source software and proprietary software that requires licenses. On the other hand, the download process is safe since the packages in the Chocolatey repository use automation scripts that download the software from official distribution sites. Now, to download and install the package manager, you need to open a PowerShell with administrative privileges. With this in mind, press the Win+X combination:
Once inside the PowerShell you have to add the following text:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
By running this script, the console will connect to Chocolatey’s website. Then, it will download the latest compressed version, unzip it and install it. All this automatically.
It can be seen that the installation route was in C:\ProgramData\chocolatey In the same way, the subdirectory lib is used for the packages.
First steps with Chocolatey
We have seen that the installation process is very simple. To access the help manager, simply run the following command from the PowerShell or any CMD:
choco /?
To search for packages, just use the search subcommand:
In the previous box, we did a search for open-source software. But there is also the availability of proprietary software:
On the other hand, you can access the Chocolatey package repository and search for available programs. To install the program just add the install parameter. It is always necessary to confirm the installation. Let’s try with Notepad++
If you want to answer yes automatically, you must add the -and option. Additionally, check the installation, looking for Notepad++ in Windows programs.
Other basic chocolatey commands.
To uninstall a package, simply use the uninstall subcommand. For example:
choco uninstall firefox
To update a package, run the subcommand upgrade:
choco upgrade firefox
To update all packages, add the keyword all -y:
choco upgrade all -y
We have finally seen how to install chocolatey in Windows 10. Thanks to this tool, it is possible to manage the software of a set of Windows systems in an automated and unattended way. This is it, for now, check our post about Apache in Windows 10.
