I was today years old when I learned that winget is a thing for windows.
I powered up my ancient Lenovo ideapad FLEX 4 (so old, it cannot run Windows 11) today, and looked to see what updates where waiting. There were plenty in the Microsoft Store plus some in Windows Update. I only use this machine for running my vinyl cutter and laser engraver, so there is not much on it.
Due to the tiny SSD hard drive, I do have WinDirStat installed. It is a nice tool that will show you what is using up all your hard drive space.

I went to the WinDirStat website to look for updates:
My version was quite behind, so I was abouty to download the installer then I noticed this:
You may also install it with:
WinDirStat – Downloads
- 📦 winget install -e –id WinDirStat.WinDirStat (or use winget upgrade subsequently)
- 📦 scoop install extras/windirstat (requires scoop bucket add extras)
I am pretty sure I have used winget before to install some developer thing, but was unaware that it was used by other apps.
Typing “winget upgrade” showed me that it recognized several things on my PC:
C:\Users\alspl>winget upgrade
Name Id Version Available Source
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WinMerge 2.16.18.0 x64 WinMerge.WinMerge 2.16.18.0 2.16.44.0 winget
Windows PC Health Check Microsoft.WindowsPCHealthCheck 3.6.2204.08001 3.7.2204.15001 winget
Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server Microsoft.msodbcsql.17 17.7.2.1 17.10.6.1 winget
Microsoft Visual Studio Code Microsoft.VisualStudioCode 1.91.1 1.96.4 winget
Visual Studio Community 2022 Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.Community 17.4.1 17.12.3 winget
Dropbox Dropbox.Dropbox 216.4.4420 217.3.4243 winget
Google Chrome Google.Chrome.EXE 131.0.6778.267 132.0.6834.111 winget
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributa… Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x86 14.31.31103.0 14.42.34433.0 winget
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributa… Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64 14.40.33810.0 14.42.34433.0 winget
Slack SlackTechnologies.Slack 4.39.93 4.42.115 winget
Lenovo Service Bridge Lenovo.ServiceBridge 5.0.2.9 5.0.2.17 winget
App Installer Microsoft.AppInstaller 1.23.1911.0 1.24.25200.0 winget
Dev Home Microsoft.DevHome 0.1900.687.0 0.1901.687.0 winget
13 upgrades available.
I tried “winget upgrade WinMerge.WinMerge” and saw it kick off and download the installer, then launch it. Very cool! It even has a spinning cursor while downloading :)

There is a “winget upgrade – all” option that should do all of them. The installers may pop up an authorization box you have to click on, so they are not fully automated, but still neat.
Did I do something on this computer years ago to install winget, or is it on any Windows 10/11 system just waiting to be used? Give “winget upgrade” a try on your PC and let me know if it works…
I have some upgrading to do.
Until next time…