Pint: a complete package manager in a single PowerShell script

Pint is a simple package manager which can download, install, and update the portable editions of VLC, LibreOffice, 7-Zip, SumatraPDF and many other popular Windows applications. It’s a familiar idea, but what’s different about Pint is that it’s all done in a single PowerShell script.

This makes for an ultra-lightweight download (under 18KB), and "installation" should be as simple as unzipping the core files.

The reality was a little different for us, with Pint.cmd displaying a "path not found" error on its first launch. We checked the path, created a missing "apps" folder below the main folder (\pint and \pint\apps) and the issue was fixed.

Entering pint at an elevated command line then displayed the available commands.

Entering pint search listed all supported applications.

We entered pint install vlc, and the script automatically downloaded some dependencies (including 7-zip), found the VLC link, downloaded and unpacked the file to pint\apps\vlc.

We repeated the process to download and "install" a few other applications (these are the portable builds, so they’re not interfering with your system).

Entering the command pint outdated checked for updates to any of our pint-managed apps, and downloaded and installed them as required.

It’s relatively easy to extend Pint with your favorite applications, because everything the script needs is stored in a plain text packages.ini file. Here are a couple of examples grabbed from the latest version.

[hxd]
dist = http://mh-nexus.de/downloads/HxDen.zip

[everything]
dist = http://www.voidtools.com/
link = .zip, x86
link64 = .zip, x64

If the download always uses the same file name, all you have to do is add its link and application name.

If the file name changes with the version number, simply direct Pint to the download page, give it some text found in the link, and it’ll find the right URL for you.

Pint isn’t the most powerful package manager around, but it does a good basic job, and because it’s just a script, is relatively easy to play with and explore. Give it a try.

Pint is an open source script for Windows 7 and later.