Install and Update All Your Windows Apps at the Same Time Using the Chocolate GUI.
Windows: The phrase “package manager” sounds a little ominous, but if you’re smart, you’ve already used it to equip your Windows PC with all the basic features : Ninite . The site couldn’t be simpler. You choose the programs you want, it creates one setup file for everything, and double-clicking on it installs everything you choose right away.
After that, you are on your own.
If you need another helping hand to ensure your favorite apps are kept up to date – or you need a much larger catalog of user-supported packages (apps) – consider Chocolatey . No, no goodies, no command line app installer. Well. It seems, as it were, something like. You will want to try the chocolate GUI because it gives you a wonderful GUI to install and manage your applications that is much easier to navigate than typing on the command line.
We’ve discussed Chocolatey before , but we haven’t talked about it in a while (or a useful GUI add-on). Here’s a quick rundown on how to get started. First, click the Windows Start button and type Command. When the command prompt appears in the results, right-click it and select “Run as administrator”. Then copy this text , paste it into the command line and press Enter.
Once you’ve done that, Chocolatey will start installing. It does not take a lot of time. When a bunch of text scrolls and a finished chocolate bar appears, type this and hit Enter:
choco install chocolateygui
Another text will pass and you will be prompted to press “y” at some point to confirm that you want to proceed with the installation. After completing the Chocolatey GUI installation, your screen should look something like this:
You should then be able to invoke the Chocolatey GUI by finding the recently installed program in the Windows Start Menu. When it boots up, you will see all the applications that you have installed on your computer so far (via the Chocolately GUI, so just … Chocolately GUI). To see what else is available, click chocolate in the left sidebar. And to make it look nicer, click the icon in the upper right corner that looks like a grid of four windows:
By default, the apps you see are sorted by popularity. Double-click something to see a description of what it is, or right-click to open a menu where you can start installing an application you are familiar with. You should be able to “reinstall” applications that are already on your system without messing up anything. And when you do, or when you install new applications through the Chocolatey GUI, they will appear in your This PC list. You will also be able to see if there are any new versions of your apps available and update them accordingly – all with one click.