Windows: If there's one thing I miss about Linux, it's being able to install any program in seconds with a quick command. Chocolatey brings that convenience to Windows, with over 300 popular programs in its database.


From VLC to Launchy to Skype and tons of other apps, Chocolatey puts all of your favorite Windows programs right at your fingertips. With just a few keystrokes, you can have a program up and running on your system without ever needing to open a browser, double-click on an installer, or go through any menus. To install Chocolatey, just run the following command in a Command Prompt:

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('http://bit.ly/psChocInstall'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%systemdrive%\chocolatey\bin


Then, you can search the chocolatey database for any program using the clist command. For example, clist windirstat will let you know whether WinDirStat is in Chocolatey's database (it is), after which you can install it by typing in cinst windirstat . You may need to say "Yes" to a UAC prompt, but that's all it takes—you'll have WinDirStat up and running on your system in no time. You can even install multiple programs at once, or use Chocolatey in your favorite alternate shell like Cygwin.

I did get a 404 error with one or two packages, but most worked just fine. And, hopefully, if it becomes more popular, we'll see even more packages in its repository (though the list they have is pretty solid). To see it in action, check out the video above, or head to Chcolatey's home page below to read more.

Chocolatey