My favorite Windows 11 tool’s latest update means there’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be using it

Winget goes from strength to strength with version 1.7

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

What you need to know

Slowly, but surely, I’m converting friends and colleagues to using theWindows Package Manageras the preferred way to manage software on a Windows 11 PC. Recent updates have continued to make it better and better, but this latest one should be the tipping point for holdouts.

After recently getting theability to upgrade itself, version 1.7 of Windows Package Manager is here, with one feature in particular that I’ve been craving. If the software you’re installing requires a system reboot upon completion, it’s now possible to just do that, rather than having to step outside of the terminal environment to do it yourself.

By adding the flag–allow-rebootto your command, if a system reboot is required it’ll just, well, happen. It sounds like a small change, but if you live inside Windows Package Manager, as I do, it’s yet another quality of life upgrade that makes software management ever more seamless.

One of the other big new features is the ability to enable Windows Features if those are required as a dependency for the package you’re installing. Again, another time saving quality of life improvement that just makes your life easier.

The full list of new features reads as follows:

There is also a substantial list of changes that I recommend checking out on theGitHub pageif you’re interested. There’s a lot!

Windows Package Manager really is the best way to manage software on Windows 11

I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but Windows Package Manager really is the best way to manage software on a Windows 11 PC. Even my colleagues here at Windows Central are starting to get into using it.

Get the Windows Central Newsletter

All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.

I like and use Linux regularly, so for me, it comes as second nature to use the terminal to supercharge installing, maintaining and removing software. But the sheer brilliance of Windows Package Manager is that it doesn’t rely on repositories in the sense Linux might. Its repository contains manifests, and these tell your system where on the web to go out and grab the software. You’re installing from source, the same as you would by downloading in your web browser, only faster.

I spend all day at the keyboard typing, and it’s less of a break from my workflow to just hammer out a few short lines of text in the terminal and go back on my merry way, than have to open the Microsoft Store or countless websites looking for what I need. Oh, and the Windows Package Manager can also pull from the Microsoft Store, too, so there’s that.

The terminal can be scary, but it really doesn’t have to be. After a short learning curve, I promise you’ll be wondering how you ever lived without it. I’ve also written a guide onhow to use the Windows Package Managerto get you started.

Richard Devine is a Managing Editor at Windows Central with over a decade of experience. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you’ll find him steering the site’s coverage of all manner of PC hardware and reviews. Find him on Mastodon atmstdn.social/@richdevine