Chocolatey is how every Windows users should install softwares

I didn’t think of this when I was using Windows daily, but downloading anything on Windows is a pain. And using a package manager like Chocolatey to install software is way better.

Chocolatey #

Installation #

The Chocolatey team already has a wonderful documentations for installing it:

But for the people who are petrified by documentations, here is a great YouTube video on installing Chocolatey by Hitesh Choudhary

Basic usage #

Open your PowerShell in Administrative mode. then run choco

For example, to install Firefox, simple run:

choco install firefox

Finding softwares #

Go to the Chocolatey Community Packages page to search.

Or you can simply search like such:

choco find QUERY

Help #

Remember RTFM stands for Read That Friendly Manual. If you need any help, try the manual.

choco help

Why Chocolatey? #

Save your time #

Let’s say you want to install Firefox, you no longer have to go the the official Download, download the file, run it and click through everything to get it set up, just use this in your PowerShell:

choco install firefox

What happens to the terms and conditions? No one ever reads the terms and conditions and everyone always keep clicking yes to all the prompts. Chocolatey knows that and you only have to select yes once using the command above.

That’s not a lot of time? #

Normal users aren’t installing new softwares all the time, it’s only the devs are regularly installing new things on their machine. So it’s not really saving a lot of time for the regular users who already have their system set up.

But if you are installing a lot of softwares at once (let’s say you are on a new Windows machine and want all the softwares you had):

You can simply use a line to install the different softwares that you want. For example:

choco install firefox zoom mpv 7zip inkscape brave

Security #

And if you are using Google, you run the risks of getting malwares if you are not careful enough. Because for whatever reason, Google does not vet their ads. There’s a high chance of getting malwares disguised as the softwares that you want.

How normal Windows users install softwares #

Now that you know how to install software the easy way, let’s think of how everyone else install softwares.

1. Search online

2. Find your software

3. Click yes to all the T&C

Most Windows users already grew accustomed to all these steps. And wouldn’t think there’s a problem to any of these.

Installing softwares this way is simply inefficient and insecure. The solution to this is using a package manager. On whichever Linux distro, they have their own package manager (their own version of Chocolatey), you can simply type in one line to search and/or install software.