How to Search for Apps in Windows Package Manager

Windows Package Manager (also known as Winget) is an amazing command line tool to search and install apps on Windows 11 and 10. Unlike traditional ways to download a setup file and install the app, Winget allows you to quickly search for a package and install it with a simple command.

So in this article, we bring you a tutorial on how to search for apps in Windows Package Manager. It shows apps from both the Winget repository and the Microsoft Store. Here’s how it works:

Search and Install Apps Using Winget

• Go ahead and install Windows Package Manager on your Windows PC. If it’s already installed, move to the next step.
• Now, to search for apps in Windows Package Manager, use the search command, as shown below. For example, I searched for Firefox.

winget search appname

• The Windows Package Manager looked for Firefox in the Winget repository, Microsoft Store, and displayed the results matching the search keyword.

• Now, to view details of a particular package, we can run the view command. You can find the unique “app_id” from the “Id” column.

winget view app_id

• Now to install the app, simply run the install command. That’s it.

winget install app_id

How to Update Apps Using Winget

Now, if you want to search for installed apps using Winget, the below command will list all the installed apps on your system. Then, you can choose the ones you wish to update.

winget list

Finally, if you want to update all the existing apps on your Windows 10 or 11 PC, you can run the below command.

winget update --all

This is all you have to do to search for apps in Windows Package Manager using the Winget tool. I am increasingly using Winget over Microsoft Store to quickly find apps and install them. Managing the packages and upgrading them is also quite effortless with Winget.

If you wish to learn how to uninstall apps using Windows Package Manager, follow the tutorial we have linked here. This will allow you to debloat your PC and make the system perform much better. If you have any questions, let us know in the comment section below.