How do I install WinGet on Windows Server 2019?

Question

I'm trying to install WinGet on a Windows Server 2019 (Standard Edition, Version 1809, Build 17763), but I can't get it to work...

When trying the "install directly" link from this blog post I get the following link ms-appinstaller:?source=https://aka.ms/getwinget which my browser doesn't understand because I don't have the App Installer.

So I downloaded the Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.appxbundle from the GitHub releases page mentioned in the same blog post (which should contain both the App Installer and WinGet). Because my system doesn't get .appxbundle files I tried installing it using Powershell:

Add-AppxPackage ".\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.appxbundle"

But it complains that it misses Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop:

Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CF3, Package failed updates, 
dependency or conflict validation.
Windows cannot install package Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_1.11.11451.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe 
because this package depends on a framework that could not be found. Provide the framework 
"Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop" published by "CN=Microsoft Corporation, O=Microsoft 
Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US", with neutral or x64 processor architecture and 
minimum version 14.0.29231.0, along with this package to install. The frameworks with name
"Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop" currently installed

Apparently, this is a "C++ Runtime framework packages for Desktop Bridge" that can also be downloaded as an appx; installing it first and then installing the DesktopAppInstaller/WinGet bundle goes without errors:

Add-AppxPackage ".\Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx"
Add-AppxPackage ".\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.appxbundle"

However, at this point I seem to have the App Installer (as it now recognises the .appx/.appxbundle files), but not the WinGet client, because when I run it from a command prompt it tells me:

'winget' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

How can I get WinGet to work on a Windows Server 2019 machine?

Mitzimitzie

For anyone else with the same problem, I just stumbled onto this thread: github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/issues/144 – Mitzimitzie

Answer 1

Actually, there is a workaround for installing this. Referencing one of the comments for winget issue #1861 we can see that all we have to do is download VCLibs, Microsoft.UI.XAML.2.8.6, install it using Add-AppxPackage, download Microsoft.DesktopInstaller and install that as well in order to run winget on a server.

Below is a slightly (not much) modified version of the comment referenced in #1861. It's modified to permit it to download the latest version of winget no matter what.

# Install VCLibs
Add-AppxPackage 'https://aka.ms/Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx'

# Install Microsoft.UI.Xaml (latest) from NuGet
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/package/Microsoft.UI.Xaml/ -OutFile .\microsoft.ui.xaml.zip
Expand-Archive .\microsoft.ui.xaml.zip
Add-AppxPackage .\microsoft.ui.xaml\tools\AppX\x64\Release\Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.8.appx

# Install the latest release of Microsoft.DesktopInstaller from GitHub
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/releases/latest/download/Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle -OutFile .\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle
Add-AppxPackage .\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle

If you're looking to use this, just ensure to run it in an empty directory.

Gassing

To use it today you have to update the dependencies.. So update the code looking for latest version also in the nuget (nuget.org/api/v2/package/Microsoft.UI.Xaml/latest) or replace the version with the latest. – Heptameter

@MarcoOrtali Thanks so much for that. Noted and updated accordingly. – Gassing

Answer 2

The above workaround almost did it. I had to fix permissions:

TAKEOWN /F "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_1.19.10173.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe" /R /A /D Y
ICACLS "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_1.19.10173.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe" /grant Administrators:F /T

and also add to shell path. Within an existing Powershell instance:

$ResolveWingetPath = Resolve-Path "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_*_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe"
    if ($ResolveWingetPath){
           $WingetPath = $ResolveWingetPath[-1].Path
    }
$ENV:PATH += ";$WingetPath"

Congregational

Answer 3

Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2022 aren't supported. It may be possible to install the Windows Package Manager, but the dependencies aren't included in those SKUs.

https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/issues/754#issuecomment-902798802

edited:2024/03/26

The Microsoft.WinGet.Client PowerShell module has a Repair-WinGetPackageManager cmdlet which should bootstrap WinGet and its dependencies. The CLI App Execution Alias isn't supported on Windows Server 2019 though. With PowerShell 7 the majority of the other cmdlets will work even without WinGet installed, but a couple still call the CLI under the hood.

Catharine

Answer 4

The better variant of @Jonathan's script - in case we don't know exactly version of DesktopAppInstaller:

$folderMask = "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_*"
$folders = Get-ChildItem -Path $folderMask -Directory | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "*_x64_*" }
foreach ($folder in $folders) {
    $folderPath = $folder.FullName
    TAKEOWN /F $folderPath /R /A /D Y
    ICACLS $folderPath /grant Administrators:F /T
}

Insociable

Answer 5

Above steps were very helpful but for me it worked as below. I had to update the versions for Microsoft.UI.Xaml and for my WIndows Server 2019 VM in Azure I had to also install VC++ x64 executable.

if (-not (Get-PackageProvider -Name NuGet) -or (Get-PackageProvider -Name NuGet).version -lt 2.8.5.201 ) {

    try {

        Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -MinimumVersion 2.8.5.201 -Confirm:$False -Force

    }

    catch {

        Write-Error -Message $_.Exception

    }

}



try {
    winget --version 
}

catch
 {

 # Install VC++ x64 executable

    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe -OutFile .\vc_redist.x64.exe
    Start-Process .\vc_redist.x64.exe /S -NoNewWindow -Wait -PassThru


    # Install Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.8.6 from NuGet

    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/package/Microsoft.UI.Xaml/2.8.6 -OutFile .\microsoft.ui.xaml.2.8.6.zip

    Expand-Archive .\microsoft.ui.xaml.2.8.6.zip -Force

    Add-AppxPackage .\microsoft.ui.xaml.2.8.6\tools\AppX\x64\Release\Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.8.appx

   

    # Install the latest release of Microsoft.DesktopInstaller from GitHub

    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/releases/latest/download/Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle -OutFile .\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle

    Add-AppxPackage .\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle

    $ResolveWingetPath = Resolve-Path "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_*_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe"
    if ($ResolveWingetPath){
           $WingetPath = $ResolveWingetPath[-1].Path
           $ENV:PATH += ";$WingetPath"
    }   
}

Dissemblance