How to quickly install apps on Windows 10

After a format or the first start of a new PC with Windows 10, the most annoying procedure is undoubtedly the installation of all the favorite apps: we must in fact visit all the sites one by one, download the installers and proceed with the installation, thus wasting a good hour just to make the computer functional as desired. With Windows 10, however, it is possible to try a very simple trick that will speed up this procedure to the maximum, installing all the most used programs with a single mouse click, in a totally automated way.

Let’s see together in this guide how to quickly install apps on Windows 10 using advanced package management tools such as wininstall and a site from which it is possible create simple scripts with your favorite programs, which we can run on any newly formatted or booted computer to speed up installation.

READ ALSO -> Download Updates of programs, apps and software installed on your PC

Install all programs with one click

In order to create the self-installing scripts for the programs we will first have to add a component to the Windows 10 operating system called winget, which allows you to download the packages and install them on the system without going through the graphical interface we are all used to. After installing winget we will show you the site where you can generate the scripts to be launched to quickly install the desired apps.

Preliminary operations

As mentioned in the introduction, in order to speed up the installation of the apps we will have to download a component for the Windows 10 operating system, developed by Microsoft itself: winget O Windows Package Manager, which we can get from the official website.

This tool is officially developed by Microsoft under an open source license, but at the moment it is not available in the stable releases of Windows 10 for this reason we have to install it manually. To proceed with the installation, press on the latest available version of the tool, scroll down the page and download the package that ends with the extension appxbundle. At the end of the download, double-click on the package and press the button Update. At the end of the installation we advise you to restart your PC, so that the changes take effect.

Alternatively we can also subscribe to the Windows Insider program (ie the testing version of Windows 10) and thus obtain all the new versions of Windows Package Manager; to proceed we advise you to read our guide How to activate Windows 10 Insider Build to get the latest features first.

Create and install scripted apps

Now that the Windows Package Manager is updated to the latest version available, we can proceed with creating the script to quickly install the new apps. The site that allows you to create scripts is winstall, accessible from the official website.

The page contains the most famous programs currently in use on PC (including Chrome, Zoom, Skype, Spotify, Microsoft Teams, GIMP, Firefox, Steam, VLC and many others) and can all be inserted in a single script, so as to quickly install apps on Windows 10. To proceed, press the + icon next to the apps we want to install and, as soon as ready, press the button at the bottom Generate script.

In the new window that will open we will get the script to be able to install all the apps we have selected, via Command Prompt. For this test we decided to create a “Navigaweb script” with all the apps that you should have right away on all PCs to start working or having fun; the script is as follows:

winget install Google.Chrome  && winget install Zoom.Zoom  && winget install GIMP.GIMP  && winget install Notepad++.Notepad++  && winget install Spotify.Spotify  && winget install Valve.Steam  && winget install LibreOffice.LibreOffice  && winget install WhatsApp.WhatsApp  && winget install Telegram.TelegramDesktop  && winget install Microsoft.Skype  && winget install VideoLAN.VLC  && winget install Adobe.AdobeAcrobatReaderDC  && winget install 7zip.7zip  && winget install TeamViewer.TeamViewer  && winget install DominikReichl.KeePass  && winget install voidtools.Everything 

The script will allow you to immediately install the following programs on Windows 10: Google Chrome, Zoom, GIMP, Notepad ++, Spotify, Steam, LibreOffice, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, VLC, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, 7-Zip, TeamViewer, KeePass and Everything . To proceed, open the Start menu at the bottom left, look for the command cmd, we open the command prompt, copy the command present at the top and press Enter on the keyboard to confirm.

If we prefer to use PowerShell come prompt from which to launch the command, we create the desired script on the winstall site, then activate the switch Show PowerShell Script to view the modified command. Below we can find the Navigaweb script in PowerShell format.

winget install Google.Chrome  ; winget install Zoom.Zoom  ; winget install GIMP.GIMP  ; winget install Notepad++.Notepad++  ; winget install Spotify.Spotify  ; winget install Valve.Steam  ; winget install LibreOffice.LibreOffice  ; winget install WhatsApp.WhatsApp  ; winget install Telegram.TelegramDesktop  ; winget install Microsoft.Skype  ; winget install VideoLAN.VLC  ; winget install Adobe.AdobeAcrobatReaderDC  ; winget install 7zip.7zip  ; winget install TeamViewer.TeamViewer  ; winget install DominikReichl.KeePass  ; winget install voidtools.Everything

If, on the other hand, we want to automate the installation of programs as much as possible, we can also download a BAT file, which you just need to double-click to start the installation. The download of the BAT file is available from the summary page of the script (once created), just press the button Download .bat. If we have never started a BAT file on our computer before, we invite you to learn more by reading the guide How to create a BAT (Batch) file on Windows to perform quick operations.

Conclusions

Just like on Linux, Windows 10 is also preparing for the adoption of a Package Manager, which will allow users to independently download the apps they need without having to open a thousand download sites every time! Even if the functionality is still experimental we can already exploit it by installing the latest version of the Windows Package Manager and using a complete and functional site such as winstall, which offers updated versions of all major applications used on computers.

We don’t know which apps to download on our Windows 10 PC? We can find the right inspiration by reading our articles Best Windows programs to download for free e 30 Most Useful Programs for Windows.