Traditionally, installing software on Windows means visiting the developer's official website or a trusted mirror site. But there's another option: using package managers like Winget, Chocolatey, or Scoop. The catch is that these tools lack a graphical interface and rely on the command line. Enter the WingetUI application, an application that bridges this gap by providing a complete interface for all three platforms, with support for downloading, installing, and updating packages.
Any user who enjoys a Linux distribution knows that you can install applications using the official distro stores, package managers like Synaptic, or terminal tools such as apt or nala. In the case of Windows, Microsoft offers a store that almost nobody uses, but there are far more interesting alternatives.
On one hand, we have Winget, Microsoft's open-source "Windows Package Manager"; then there's Chocolatey (which we have already explored), and finally Scoop. The only issue with these managers is their lack of a graphical interface, but the WingetUI project solves that with an intuitive and user-friendly design.
WingetUI, an Interface for the Best Windows Package Managers
The program was updated recently and uses a traditional installer that doesn't exceed 60 megabytes. The first launch of WingetUI may take a while because of index generation, but it shouldn't take more than two or three minutes. Still, the program requires a secondary adjustment in its configuration: in the "Administrator privileges preferences" section, I recommend elevating privileges for installations from all three managers; otherwise, unexpected errors might appear, especially with Chocolatey.
The rest is a matter of returning to the "Discover packages" section and searching for the desired software. All the classics are there, from 7-Zip and WinRAR to Firefox and Winamp, but we're talking about thousands of packages. Some of them have quite strange names, and on more than one occasion we'll need the help of the "Show package details" function to confirm whether it's what we want or not. The "Installed packages" tab shows the complete list of software installed with WingetUI, while "Updates" will report all available updates.
WingetUI receives updates quite frequently, but it still has pending details like its incomplete translation into Spanish. However, its current state is more than acceptable, and it definitely deserves a test.
Official website and download: Click here.
