https://github.com/Microsoft/winget-pkgs
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In Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windowsmicrosoft
winget-pkgs
Developer Tools2020–2026
microsoft / winget-pkgs
winget-pkgs
The Microsoft community Windows Package Manager manifest repository
30Distinct people
35Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
11.3KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
The Microsoft community Windows Package Manager manifest repository
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- microsoft/winget-cli · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- appget/appget.packages · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 12:01:02 AM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year35 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2020-05-19 16:19:43 UTC to 2026-04-10 16:31:43 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Windows Package Manager Community Repository
This repository contains the manifest files for the Windows Package Manager default source. You are highly encouraged to submit manifests for your favorite application.
ImportantAt this time installers must be MSIX, MSI, APPX, MSIXBundle, APPXBundle, or .exe application installers. Font files (.ttf, .ttc, .otf, .otc, and .fnt) are also supported, although we are not currently accepting community submissions for these yet. Script-based installers are not currently supported.
The Windows Package Manager is an open source client designed for command-line usage. If you are interested in exploring private repositories offering private WinGet package hosting, see private repositories.
Documentation
Please check the overview for detailed topics. Common topics for the WinGet Community repository are available below:
Authoring a manifest
Testing a manifest
First-time contributor checklist
Submitting a manifest
Requesting a new package
Requesting a new package version
Contributing
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.
When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all Microsoft repositories using our CLA.
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct.
See the Code of Conduct FAQ or
contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments. More information is available in our Contributing document.
To avoid doubt, you may not make any Submissions linking to third-party materials if such Submission is prohibited by the applicable third party and/or otherwise violates such third party's rights.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
9 sourcesSorry, it is Windows that is lagging behind. As a Linux user I find myself insecure running applications from the web. Distribution maintained packages is the way to go. And package managers has GUI shells - last time I used it was Ubuntu Software Center [1] on Ubuntu 9.10. Looks like these days it is Ubuntu Snap [2].
Windows finally catching up with winget [3], already GUI shells by 3rd party developers [4], some day may be part of the installation. I do not know why it took so long, there is no Chrome both on Steam Store and Microsoft Store. Looks like Microsoft tried to bend developers [5], but what's with Valve?
Searching and downloading of installers, keeping them is such a crappy experience. On Linux is 1000% better.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Software_Center
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap_(package_manager)
[3]
Read the rest
This is really hurting Microsoft's ecosystem, I'm trying to add the latest version of QuickLook [0] to the winget package manager at the moment but because the msi installer isn't signed my pull request is doomed to failure[1].
If Microsoft want Windows to be an awesome developer platform this kind of friction with the tooling helps no-one.
[0] https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook
[1] https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/pull/1241
In Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is hurting independent developersIt looks like MS doesn't copy the source code but they uses a bit similar yaml format.
I also agree he should credited more.
https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli
https://github.com/appget/appget
https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/blob/master/manifes...
https://github.com/appget/appget.packages/blob/master/manife...
In Microsoft copied new Windows Package Manager from rival AppGet, claims developerNot disagreeing with you, but I think it's better to make it a little bit more clear what exactly was copied. Reading the article mentioned in the OP, the main selling point for appget seems to be that the packages are written in yaml:
> Do you want to know how Microsoft WinGet works? go read the article (https://keivan.io/appget-what-chocolatey-wasnt/)
But that alone doesn't particularly strike me as a completely novel approach on its own. Looking at package definitions for firefox across various package managers, you can notice that they all look somewhat similar to some degree. Though one could argue that appget and winget looks more similar than others, I'm not sure this is wholesale copying without digging into more details. But again, I'm not trying to argue that it's not, and I also agree the OP should've received more credit.
appg
Read the rest
et: https://github.com/appget/appget.packages/blob/master/manife...
winget: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/blob/master/manifes...
scoop: https://github.com/lukesampson/scoop-extras/blob/master/buck...
homebrew cask: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/...
That being said, the fake interview process explained in the article is totally unacceptable and deserves some explanations from MS.
... this thing literally just downloads .exe files and then executes them. There's no dependency management.
Look at the firefox "package": https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/blob/master/manifes...
There isn't even any uninstall functionality.
This is a package manager as much as a piece of cardboard is a swiss army knife.
Even if you say "but it's a preview", there's just no where to go when your starting point is "execute some arbitrary binary". The point of packages is to be declarative as much as possible.
In Windows Package Manager PreviewUse with Windows Package Manager Community repo
https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs
In Windows Package Manager (Winget)I found the issue I think Microsoft is going to actually foul up poorly here, which I... went ahead and filed an issue on: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/issues/288
In short, a Microsoft employee added AdoptOpenJDK 8 to the repo. ...Java 8? ...In 2020? Another user has opened a PR to add what looks like the FSF's OpenJDK 14 to the repo. So are we supporting 8 or 14? Are users who want to "winget install openjdk" going to get 8 or 14, Adopt or FSF?
I doubt Microsoft is willing to pick winners or losers or opinionate on the authority of third party package sources, and hence, the dream of "winget install powertoys" will probably only reliably do what it should for Microsoft tools.
In Windows Package Manager PreviewThis[1] is the repository from which it pulls. It sounds like third-party repos are a planned feature.
Basically, every package is a yaml file like this:
Id: string # publisher.package format
Publisher: string # the name of the publisher
Name: string # the name of the application
Version: string # version numbering format
License: string # the open source license or copyright
InstallerType: string # enumeration of supported installer types (exe, msi, msix)
Installers:
- Arch: string # enumeration of supported architectures
URL: string # path to download installation file
Sha256: string # SHA256 calculated from installer
# ManifestVersion: 0.1.0
Doesn't look like there is field for dependencies of a package, but this is also a 0.1.0 release.
[1]: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs
In Windows Package Manager Preview