Microsoft has announced the release of the first stable version of Windows Package Manager, a command line tool that lets users quickly find and download apps from central repositories. The company has also introduced a new open-source tool in preview to make it easier to submit packages to its community repository.
The software gaint first launched the Windows Package Manager at its annual Build developer conference last year, and the team has constantly been adding new features and improvements since then. Currently, more than 1,400 packages are available on the official GitHub repository, and it will be interesting to see if more Windows 10 users will now leverage the open-source tool to download and install applications.
“We started a journey to build a native package manager for Windows 10 when we announced the Windows Package Manager preview at Microsoft Build 2020. We released the project on GitHub as an open-source collaborative effort and the community engagement has been wonderful to experience!” said Demitrius Nelon, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft.
Microsoft has detailed a couple of ways to install Windows Package Manager 1.0. The new stable version is already available for Windows Insiders and people who have joined the Windows Package Manager Insider group. If you wish to install the update manually, you can find the package on the GitHub releases page. The company also plans to ship the new version of the Windows Package Manager as an automatic update through the Microsoft Store on all PCs Windows 10 version 1809 or newer.
If you haven’t tried it yet, you can download the App Installer on your PC from the Microsoft Store. Also, be sure to check out our dedicated step-by-step guide for additional information on using the Windows 10 package manager.
