How to install Windows software with Chocolatey

Chocolatey is a free package manager for Windows. Instead of hunting for installers, you run one command and it fetches the program from the developer's official source, checks it, and installs it — and later updates everything at once.

Install Chocolatey

Open PowerShell as Administrator (right-click Start › Terminal (Admin)) and run the official install command from chocolatey.org:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; \
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = 3072; \
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Close and reopen the terminal when it finishes.

Install and manage programs

• choco search vlc — find a package
• choco install vlc -y — install it
• choco upgrade all -y — update every installed program
• choco uninstall vlc — remove it
• choco list --local-only — see what's installed

Every program on this site shows its exact choco install command on its page, so you can copy and paste it.

Is it safe?

Chocolatey packages point at the developer's official download. Still, prefer well-known packages with many downloads, and keep Windows Security turned on — it scans installers as they run.