For the past couple of years I’ve been learning — and using — the Microsoft package manager, Winget, It helps me keep my PC apps updated. Just recently, I’ve learned to exploit Winget include unknown syntax to broaden its coverage. Basically, this will “upgrade packages even if their current version cannot be determined.” That quote comes from the upgrade command section of the MS Winget documentation.

How to Exploit Winget Include Unknown Syntax

First, that syntax couldn’t be simpler: just add the string
--include-unknown
to the usual invocation for winget . For the record that’s
winget upgrade --all
. This tells the program to apply upgrades for all packages with known versions. You can see this at work in the lead-in graphic for this story, in fact. Chrome shows up when unknowns are included, but not otherwise. (Compare top and bottom sections, or view the image full sized by clicking the following thumbnail.)

The difference between the unadorned “all” version of Winget upgrade and the one with unknowns included applies in large part to applications like Kindle, Chrome, Firefox, and more, which apparently do not report their current version numbers either consistently or well to Winget during its initial survey phase.

This addition to the command finds those things and attempts to upgrade them. Certain apps — most notably Teams — will not work with this tool because of version mismatches (and the prudent decision not to overwrite versions outside the same version tree). But this does improve its overall coverage. That lowers the number of apps and applications I must update manually. To me — and to you, too, I bet — that’s a good thing!

Note: Winget works in PowerShell with equal facility for both Windows 10 and Windows 11. It’s become one of my go-to tools for keeping my small fleet of PCs (currently numbered 12, with 2 going off to college with my son soon) up to date.

Lately, I’ve been using the Winget PowerShell applet to assist with updating my Windows 10 and 11 PCs. Thanks to Martin Brinkmann at Ghacks, I’ve found a GUI front end for that tool. Indeed, the aptly-named WingetUI offers useful update capability.

Winget.UI does other things, too. It let you explore all 3460 packages under its purview (“Discover Software” tab). It also shows a complete list of all packages already installed on your PC (“Installed applications”). On first blush, Winget.UI looks like a good tool. Its GitHub page provides the lead-in graphic for this story.

“Available updates” quickly identifies and provides ready access to item-by-item update launch. [Click image for full-size view.]

What WingetUI Offers Useful Update Capability Means

To update an item from the Software Updates tab in Winget.UI (shown above), simply double-click its corresponding Winget entry under the “Installation source” heading. Personally, I find this prefereable to the winget upgrade --all command. Why? Because it provides item-by-item control. That lets me skip elements (such as MS Teams), which experience has taught me isn’t really amenable to winget updates.

The double-clicking takes a little getting used to, but by and large the update function works well. It worked well for third-party packages, including Kindle, Python 2, and Revo Uninstaller. It hit errors on some built-in MS components, such as the WADK and Edge Runtime. Based on prior history, I didn’t even try the Teams components.

Good, But Not Perfect

I’ll need to spend more time with WingetUI to fully understand and appreciate its foibles and strengths. For now, it’s much like other update tools I use: good — indeed, pretty helpful — but by no means either great or perfect. Perhaps that’s just the way that update tools work here in Windows World!

[Note: Nochmals Danke schoen to Mr. Brinkmann for an interesting find.]