Windows Package Manager (Winget) update adds new experimental features

The Windows Package Manager -- also known as Winget -- is an open source tool designed to make it easier to install software on Windows 10 and Windows 11, by automating and speeding up the process. If you’ve used a package manager in a Linux distro you’ll know what to expect.

Microsoft has now released a new preview build with a number of a fixes and improvements. It has also enabled a raft of experimental features in the build.

Windows Package Manager 1.3.432-preview is the first development build since the Windows Package Manager 1.2 release candidate and will be made available to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel and Windows Package Manager Insiders.

The full list of changes in the new release is as follows:

• Add Package Dependencies to index. by @hackean-msft in #1667
• Update windows-package-manager-release-roadmap.md by @opsetech in #1770
• Bug fix: PackageTrackingCatalog and SQLiteIndexUpdate by @hackean-msft in #1780
• Update TSG with more information about a known issue by @ashpatil-msft in #1785
• Added argument to control whether to upgrade packages if they have "unknown" versions by @jedieaston in #1765
• First drafted client cmdlets from Hackathon 221 by @denelon in #1760
• Fix some build warnings by @lechacon in #1794
• Fix Typo in upgrade.md by @floh96 in #1822
• Add support for UnsupportedOSArchitectures manifest element by @lechacon in #1807
• Added check for maximum size of downloaded file names by @jedieaston in #1842
• Fix DLL load error in WinGetUtil by @lechacon in #1844
• Update localization strings by @JohnMcPMS in #1845
• Add comments for localization by @lechacon in #1847
• Moved "Installing Dependencies" message to only print if there are dependencies to install. by @jedieaston in #1851
• Adds experiment to know if PATH is common issue. by @Lewiscowles1986 in #1841
• Check FS feature flags instead of checking for NTFS by @sredna in #1859
• Add titles to 1.1 schema for ExpectedReturnCode and UnsupportedOSArchitecture by @ryfu-msft in #1862
• Split pipeline build job into x86 and x64 by @lechacon in #1852
• Allow upgrades in packages that register a different installer type by @lechacon in #1796
• Add a default user agent to REST source calls by @JohnMcPMS in #1839
• Add upgrade functionality in Com api by @yao-msft in #1853
• Print the upgrade table during upgrade --all by @jedieaston in #1866
• Add support for markets by @lechacon in #1806
• [ImgBot] Optimize images by @vedantmgoyal2009 in #1871
• Fix crash that can occur when failure pointers are null by @JohnMcPMS in #1880
• Added extra check for valid arguments in upgrade. by @jedieaston in #1874
• Add InstallerErrorCode to COM interface by @JohnMcPMS in #1926
• Update gif animation for winget install wingetcreate by @ryfu-msft in #1931
• Bump version to 1.3 by @JohnMcPMS in #1933

Photo Credit: Kiselev Andrey Valerevich / Shutterstock