| Windows Management Framework 5.0 Preview [1] contains early versions of Microsoft's OneGet and PowerShellGet. OneGet can install applications from repositories, using any number of providers. The preview version comes with a version of Chocolatey [2] built in managed code (C#) instead of PowerShell, but it supports the same Chocolatey gallery (a repository of software packages) and protocol. PowerShellGet [3] can install PowerShell modules (e.g. make new Cmdlets available on the PowerShell command line). The modules can be delivered as scripts or as compiled .NET assemblies. By default PowerShellGet is configured to use a (closed preview) repository [4], which makes it not very usable, but it's interesting to know what direction it is headed. As a more practical alternative to PowerShellGet, have a look at PSGet [4], a PowerShell module for installing PowerShell modules, with its own dedicated repository. Hopefully Microsoft's PowerShellGet will support PSGet as a provider in the future as well, the names are certainly confusing. Desired State Configuration (DSC) [6] is a new (Windows 8.1) capability to configure Windows using a declarative syntax extension of PowerShell v4. It can set registry keys, create files and directories, enable Windows Features, and more. DSC 'resources' are PowerShell modules, so DSC's capabilities can be extended, see this GitHub repository [5] for examples. Alternatively, have a look at Boxstarter [7]. It can do installation and configuration, and you can host your 'starter script' online and launch it with a single command. Boxstarter will take care of all Windows restarts that might be necessary along the way. [1]: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4407... [2]: https://chocolatey.org/ [3]: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2014/05/20/settin... [4]: https://msconfiggallery.cloudapp.net/ [5]: http://psget.net/ [6]: https://github.com/powershellorg/dsc [7]: http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2013/08/30/i... [8]: http://boxstarter.org/ Be aware that, although most modern package solutions for Windows are using NuGet as a packaging format, using NuGet.exe directly (the application) and with nuget.org (the website) is meant for managing software development dependencies, not installing/updating end-user applications or command-line utilities. |