How to Install winget on Windows 10 and Start Using It

Where winget comes from and when it is already there

winget arrives as part of App Installer (package Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller), a small Store component that Windows 10 version 1709 and later and every Windows 11 include by default. Since it is a per-user MSIX package, no separate setup and no admin rights are involved — updating App Installer in the Store updates winget along with it. Open a terminal and run winget --version: a version number means everything is already in place.

The message “winget is not recognized” shows up on three typical occasions: App Installer has never been updated on an older Windows 10 build, the Store itself has been removed (common on LTSC and LTSB editions), or the current terminal window predates the installation and simply needs to be reopened. Each case has its own fix, and none of them requires anything beyond the Store or the official GitHub releases.

• winget --version — the first check: prints the version if winget is alive
• Microsoft Store → search for App Installer → Update — the standard fix on Home and Pro
• GitHub: microsoft/winget-cli/releases — the msixbundle for systems without a Store
• winget source update — refreshes the package index after installation
• winget --info — shows version, package and source state at a glance

Installing or repairing winget step by step

On a normal Windows 10 or 11 machine, open the Microsoft Store, search for App Installer (publisher Microsoft Corporation) and click Update or Install; a minute later winget works in any new terminal window. If the Store itself misbehaves, run wsreset from the Run dialog — it clears the Store cache, and after the reset the app shows up in the list again.

On LTSC and LTSB editions, download from github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/releases: the latest Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle plus the dependency packages listed on the release page (Microsoft.VCLibs and the UI.Xaml package). Install them with Add-AppxPackage — one call per file, dependencies first, then the bundle; admin rights are not required. Add-AppxPackage works per user, so run it in the account that will use winget.

First commands and daily use

Start with winget search followed by a word — search notepad, search 7zip — to see matching packages with their IDs. Install with winget install plus the ID, adding -e for an exact match: winget install --id 7zip.7zip -e. The first command against the msstore source asks you to accept the source agreement once — answer Yes, or add --accept-source-agreements to your scripts.

From there, winget list shows everything installed, winget upgrade lists apps with available updates, and winget uninstall removes them. App Installer keeps receiving updates through the Store on Windows 10, so winget improves without any manual setup. A weekly winget upgrade is a good habit: it also updates App Installer itself whenever a new version ships.

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