Winget Configure to Manage Windows Server 2025 apps and PowerShell Desired State

There is no question that winget will completely change how we manage and configure Windows Server apps and components. It will also help developers and IT professionals with desired state configurations. With the release of Windows Server 2025, Microsoft has included winget by default, and you can easily use it to manage and install apps on your Windows Server environment. Let’s look at winget commands and winget configure to use for Windows Server management and PowerShell desired state configuration.

Winget is included by default in Windows Server 2025

Winget is automatically included with Windows Server 2025. So, you don’t have to jump through hoops to install it in earlier Windows Server versions.

I think it is a great move by Microsoft to give admins and developers what they need to manage and configure Windows Server from the command line and give us an out-of-the-box package manager like we have had in Linux for years.

Winget commands to configure your Windows Server

You can use many commands with winget to configure your Windows Server.

Viewing parameters

To see the commands that are included and parameters you can use, just enter the following command into a Windows Terminal prompt:

winget

Viewing your version of Winget you have installed

Discovering software that needs to be updated

One of the first basic commands you will use with winget is the following command to upgrade all software:

winget upgrade

You will need to accept the agreement.

You should then see the packages that can be upgraded using winget.

Running the winget upgrade –all command

Now that we know what packages can be updated, we can run the command:

winget upgrade --all

This will begin the process of upgrading all packages that have upgrades available.

Configuring your winget settings

You can also configure your winget settings using the configuration file to customize the look and feel of your winget application, including things like the look of the progress bar, etc. To open your winget settings file you just type the following:

winget settings

Installing software like Visual Studio Code

To demonstrate just how easy it is to install tools and utilities you might need, you can install VSCode using the following command line command:

winget install vscode

Winget configure for PowerShell Desired State configuration

With Winget’s integration into Windows Server, you now have support for infrastructure as code (IaC) through PowerShell’s Desired State Configuration (DSC). This will allow for automating and codifying server setups to make configurations consistent across environments.

In this case, Winget is used as the orchestrator for DSC. It enhances DSC by allowing for configurations to be applied on demand. This is a great feature that beneficial for development scenarios and IT professionals using automation.

A sample configuration file from the Microsoft DevHome repository:

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://aka.ms/configuration-dsc-schema/0.2

##########################################################################################################
# This configuration will install the tools necessary to get started with Python development on Windows  #
# Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/python/beginners                                  #
#                                                                                                        #
# This will:                                                                                             #
#     * Enable Developer Mode                                                                            #
#     * Install GitHub Desktop                                                                           #
#     * Install Python                                                                                   #
#     * Install Visual Studio Code                                                                       #
#                                                                                                        #
##########################################################################################################

properties:
  resources:
    - resource: Microsoft.Windows.Developer/DeveloperMode
      id: Enable
      directives:
        description: Enable Developer Mode
        allowPrerelease: true
      settings:
        Ensure: Present
    - resource: Microsoft.WinGet.DSC/WinGetPackage
      id: Python 3.12
      directives:
        description: Install Python 3.12
        allowPrerelease: true
      settings:
        id: Python.Python.3.12
        source: winget
    - resource: Microsoft.WinGet.DSC/WinGetPackage
      id: GitHub Desktop
      directives:
        description: Install GitHub Desktop
        allowPrerelease: true
      settings:
        id: GitHub.GitHubDesktop
        source: winget
    - resource: Microsoft.WinGet.DSC/WinGetPackage
      id: VisualStudio Code
      directives:
        description: Install Visual Studio Code
        allowPrerelease: true
      settings:
        id: Microsoft.VisualStudioCode
        source: winget
  configurationVersion: 0.2.0

You can run the configuration of the YAML file by the command:

winget configure

You can also simply pass in a configuration file URL such as the URL for the sample YAML configuration above:

winget configure https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/devhome/main/docs/sampleConfigurations/Templates/Introduction/Python3.12/configuration.dsc.yaml

You will need to confirm the configuration operation to continue.

After a couple of minutes, the winget configure command completes successfully. We can see the packages that have been installed on the Windows Server 2025 instance.

Wrapping up

The winget configure and other winget commands are great new tools that can be used natively in Windows Server 2025. These commands will help take configuration of future generations of Windows server to the next level and provide developers and IT professionals easy built-in tools for configuration. The commands we have listed above provide the basics of working with Winget on Windows Server. Let me know in the comments if you are looking forward to using winget in your configuration management workflows on Windows Server 2025.