One of the most frustrating parts of reviewing PCs is having to install my apps all over again to get into my workflow, and then in many cases having to individually set them up as well. It gets really tiring and cumbersome. You don't have to be a PC reviewer to understand that struggle, though — anyone who's had to reset a Windows PC or bought a new laptop knows how long it can take to get everything ready.

Thankfully, there's a way to make things easier for yourself, and it's actually built right into Windows 11 (or 10). It's called the Windows Package Manager, or winget, and not only does it allow you to install apps using a command line, but it also makes it easier to export and import an entire list of apps, making it that much easier to get up and running on a new PC. This may not cover every app on your PC, but it has a pretty big library already, and it keeps growing.

Create a list of apps you want to install

Backing up your installed apps

First off, in order to install all your apps in one go on a new PC, you need to create a list of those apps that you then want to install on a new PC. Here's how it goes:

1. Right-click the Start menu icon and choose Terminal. (In some versions of Windows, this may say Windows Terminal).
2. To export your list of currently installed apps, you'll need to use the winget export -o output.json command, replacing output with the path to the backup file you want to create. For example, it might look like this

   winget export -o C:\Users\joaoc\Documents\MyApps.json

   This will export your file to the root of the C drive.

When you export the file, you may see some apps that say they require a license agreement to be installed. That means we'll need a special argument when installing the apps later. You'll also see which apps aren't available to be installed from your current sources, meaning you have to install them manually. For Microsoft Store apps, it's possible they can't be backed up if you didn't isntall them using Windows Package Manager.

Editing the app list

Now, not every app on your PC is necessarily essential for you to install on every new machine, but you can't back up only selected apps easily. However, what you can do is edit the list of apps afterwards to remove anything you don't want to install on your new PC. To do this:

1. Navigate to the folder where you stored your backup file.
2. Right-click the file and choose Open with > Notepad (you can choose another plain text editor if you prefer).
3. The file will look something like this: The list will be divided into two big segments, one for apps from the Microsoft Store (at the top) and the other for apps installed from the winget repository. You can go through the packages to see what you need to keep or not.
4. To remove a package you don't want to install, simply locate the correct name and delete the brackets that contain it, as well as all the text inside them, as seen below.
5. Repeat this for all the apps you don't want to back up.

With the list ready, you now have to store the backup file in a location you can access on your new PC. You can put it on a flash drive or back it up to OneDrive so it can be accessed over the internet.

How to install all your apps in one go

Importing the file

With everything ready, you can now install all your apps on your new PC easily. First, ensure you have access to the backup file on your new PC. Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to where your backup file, right-click it, and select Copy as path.
2. Right-click the Start menu icon and choose Terminal.
3. Enter the following command, replacing <import-file> with the text copied in step 1:

   winget import <import-file> --accept-license-agreements --disable-interactivity

   The --accept-license-agreements argument will automatically accept the license agreements for apps that require them so you don't have to sit by the computer accepting each one. Meanwhile, --disable-interactivity disables any steps that require user interaction in the installer. Any apps that are already installed and up to date will be skipped.

Wait for the process to finish, and all your apps should now be installed.

Another option for installing multiple apps

Ninite also helps

If you don't want to back up your own apps and you just have a set of apps you know you're going to install, another great tool is Ninite. This is a program that lets you download and install multiple apps in one go, though the library of available apps is much smaller here. Still, Ninite can install things like Google Chrome, Discord, Steam, and other apps in one go. All you need to do is go to the Ninite website and choose the apps you want to install, then run the custom installer created for you. Ninite will install all the selected apps for you in one go.

Get up and running faster

These steps will make it much easier to set up a new PC or do a clean install of Windows. The good news is you should only need to export your app list once, and if you back it up in the OneDrive, you can always restore on any PC with the same Microsoft account easily. I've found these tools to be very helpful, and hopefully, you can save some time with them, too.