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Windows software management is a tedious business. If you want to download a particular program, you have to find the relevant website, then the download link, save the file locally, grab any other components the program might need, and install everything in the right order. You\u2019ll need to start again for every new program. And they\u2019ll all have their own procedures for updating, or uninstalling.<\/p>\n
What if you could automate all of this, though? Manage downloads, updates and everything else, just with a few keypresses? That\u2019s the aim of\u00a0Chocolatey<\/a>, a tool which brings Linux-like package management to the PC.<\/p>\n The program comes in the form of a PowerShell-based command line tool. And yes, we know, that\u2019s less than ideal, but don\u2019t let it put you off just yet. Chocolately doesn\u2019t require any PowerShell knowledge to use; if you use the command line occasionally then you\u2019ll be able to try out.<\/p>\n Getting started is simple, as there\u2019s nothing for you to download. Just paste the text below into a command prompt (copy it to the clipboard, launch cmd.exe, right-click in the window, select Paste) and press Enter. The Chocolatey code should download automatically, while status messages keep you up-to-date with the installation process. And when it\u2019s done, close and reopen the command window and you\u2019re ready to go.<\/p>\n Installing programs is now as simple as using the \u201ccinst\u201d command. Would you like a copy of Skype, for instance? Type \u201ccinst skype\u201d (less the quotes), press Enter, and Chocolatey will handle the rest. Or try \u201ccinst keepas\u201d to install KeePass Password Manager, \u201ccinst procexp\u201d for Process Explorer, \u201ccinst gimp\u201d for the GIMP image editor, and more. (Enter \u201cclist\u201d at the command line for the full list of packages, or use \u201cclist | clip\u201d to copy the list to the clipboard).<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t just a matter of downloading an installation file and leaving you to do the rest, either. If a program needs something else installing before it\u2019ll work, Chocolatey will grab that first. And as long as the application allows it, installation is silent \u2013 there\u2019s no working your way through some tedious setup program.<\/p>\n Better still, Chocolatey can also handle updates for you. So if you need the latest version of Firefox, just enter \u201cchocolatey update firefox\u201d (or \u201ccup firefox\u201d for short) and it\u2019ll be downloaded and installed.<\/p>\n Or, if you really want to save time, using \u201ccup all\u201d will check everything you\u2019ve installed via Chocolatey and update it to the latest version.<\/p>\n Plainly the command line approach here is still a hassle, but the key is that it\u2019s scriptable, and that brings some very interesting opportunities.<\/p>\n If you want to set up a PC to your specifications, then you could create a batch file with the appropriate \u201ccinst\u201d commands (as you\u2019ve seen, they\u2019re not exactly complicated). Once\u00a0Chocolatey<\/a>\u00a0is installed on the target system, run the batch file and all the programs you need will be downloaded and installed. Add another shortcut to run updates \u2013 or maybe a batch file which you have Task Scheduler run once a day \u2013 and suddenly your software maintenance has become a whole lot easier.<\/p>\n Photo Credit:<\/strong>\u00a0Yellowj<\/a>\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n Windows software management is a tedious business. If you want to download a particular program, you have to find the relevant website, then the download link, save the file locally, grab any other components the program might need, and install everything in the right order. You\u2019ll need to start again for every new program. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-647723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command \u201ciex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString(\u2018http:\/\/chocolatey.org\/install.ps1\u2032))\u201d && SET PATH=%PATH%;%systemdrive%\\chocolatey\\bin<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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