Got some new toy? Or just rebooted after installing Windows again? Here are 3 ways to get your applications going again and get rid of those pesky pre-installed apps.
Chocolatey!
The sane way to manage software on Windows
One thing that’s great about Linux, Mac OS, Android and other operating systems is the way applications can be found and updated in 1 central place.
Chocolatey is your apt-get for Windows. You can simply search for software from within your command line. The package is automatically downloaded, installed without prompts, Yes- and No-buttons and without installing all those toolbars and crapware.
Install Chocolatey
Requirements
- Windows 7+ / Windows Server 2003+
- PowerShell v2+
- .NET Framework 4+ (the installation will attempt to install .NET 4.0 if you do not have it installed)
Installation is easy. Just a PowerShell one-liner. Mind, this is a PowerShell script downloaded from a remote source. So, we need to allow this using Set-ExecutionPolicy.
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force;iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
Install package
choco install <package name>
Update package
Ready installing all applications? Let’s get up-to-date.
choco upgrade <package name>
And now let’s update all of them.
choco upgrade all
Uninstall package
choco uninstall <package name>
Tip: Don’t like confirming every question? Add -fy to the end of each command. This will auto-confirm every prompt.
Windows Optional Features
Every Windows installation comes with built-in features. Some features need to be enabled explicitly. You can do this by using the GUI. But this involves clicking…
Install Optional Features
Then we just install the feature using:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName <FeatureName>
Uninstall Optional Features
Uninstalling is obvious now…
Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName <FeatureName>
AppxPackage
Do you like Candy Crush? Oh!?! You do? Well… euhm… You could uninstall the built-in Calculator app 🙂
Get-AppxPackage <package name> | Remove-AppxPackage
Here are some examples I use. Cheers!
function Install-Modules{### Downloading and installing PowerShell modulesInstall-Module -Name AzureAD}function Install-WindowsOptionalFeatures {### Installing optional Windows FeaturesEnable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName TelnetClientEnable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux}function Install-Choco {### Downloading and installing some ChocoInvoke-Expression ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))}function Install-Programs {################ Office applicationschoco install googlechrome -fychoco install firefox -fychoco install winrar -fychoco install notepadplusplus.install -fychoco install vlc -fychoco install office365proplus -fychoco install microsoft-teams -fychoco install vscode -fy## choco install spotify -fychoco install sharex -fychoco install adobereader -fychoco install audacity -fy################ Toolingchoco install jre8 -fychoco install malwarebytes -fychoco install python3 -fychoco install windirstat -fychoco install autoruns -fychoco install teamviewer -fychoco install rdm -fychoco install filezilla -fychoco install wireshark -fychoco install logmein-rescue-console-desktop -fychoco install virtualbox -fychoco install curl -fychoco install procexp -fychoco install speccy -fychoco install putty.install -fy## choco install rsat -fychoco install intel-xtu -fychoco install cinebench -fychoco install advanced-ip-scanner -fychoco install nmap -fy################ Cloud toolingchoco install microsoftazurestorageexplorer -fychoco install azurepowershell -fy}