WingetUpgradeAll.ps1

Overview

WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 is a PowerShell script that simplifies software management using the Windows Package Manager (winget). It provides four operations:

1. List — Display all upgradeable programs available via winget.
2. Save — Save the IDs of upgradeable programs to a file, excluding specified exceptions.
3. Upgrade — Upgrade programs from a previously saved list, excluding exceptions.
4. Upgrade-all — List live and upgrade everything in one step, excluding exceptions.

When the Microsoft.WinGet.Client PowerShell module is installed, the script uses it to enumerate upgradeable packages — this is robust and locale-independent. Otherwise it falls back to parsing winget upgrade text output. The upgrades themselves always run through the winget CLI, and failures are detected via the process exit code (not exceptions).

Requirements

• Windows with the Windows Package Manager (winget) installed (ships with App Installer from the Microsoft Store).
• PowerShell 5.1 or later (PowerShell 7+ recommended).
• (Optional, recommended) the Microsoft.WinGet.Client module for robust package enumeration:

  Install-Module Microsoft.WinGet.Client -Scope CurrentUser

Usage

Open a PowerShell terminal and run the script with a command and any optional parameters.

Syntax

.\WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 <list|save|upgrade|upgrade-all> [options]

The command is a positional value — type it directly (e.g. .\WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 list), not the literal word command.

Note: If your execution policy blocks scripts, run with powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 list.

Commands

Command	Description
list	Lists all upgradeable programs.
save	Saves upgradeable program IDs to a file, excluding exceptions.
upgrade	Upgrades programs from the saved list, excluding exceptions.
upgrade-all	Lists live and upgrades everything, excluding exceptions.

Options

Option	Description	Default
-listPath <path>	File to save (save) or read (upgrade) program IDs.	$PSScriptRoot\UpgradeablePrograms.txt
-exceptionsPath <path>	File of program IDs to exclude.	$PSScriptRoot\PermanentUpgradeExceptions.txt
-logPath <path>	Error log file.	$PSScriptRoot\WingetUpgradeErrors.log
-Source <winget|msstore>	Restrict to a single winget source.	(all sources)
-Interactive	Run upgrades interactively instead of silently.	(silent)
-WhatIf	Show what would be upgraded without performing any upgrades.	(off)

The save → upgrade workflow

save and upgrade are two halves of one workflow:

1. Run save to capture the current upgradeable IDs to a file (review/edit it if you like).
2. Run upgrade later to apply exactly that list.

If you just want to upgrade everything available right now without an intermediate file, use upgrade-all.

Exceptions / list file format

Both the exceptions file and the saved list file are plain text, one program ID per line. Blank lines and lines beginning with # are ignored, so you can annotate entries:

# Pinned — manage manually
Mozilla.Firefox

# Breaks our plugin; skip for now
Notepad++.Notepad++

Examples

1. List upgradeable programs

.\WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 list

2. Save upgradeable programs (excluding exceptions)

.\WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 save -listPath "C:\Path\To\UpgradeablePrograms.txt" -exceptionsPath "C:\Path\To\Exceptions.txt"

3. Upgrade from a saved list

.\WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 upgrade -listPath "C:\Path\To\UpgradeablePrograms.txt"

4. Upgrade everything now, winget source only, dry run

.\WingetUpgradeAll.ps1 upgrade-all -Source winget -WhatIf

Notes

• Upgrades run silently by default with package and source agreements accepted; use -Interactive to override.
• The script logs errors to WingetUpgradeErrors.log in the script directory (configurable via -logPath).
• It exits with code 1 if any upgrade fails, winget is missing, or the saved list can't be found — useful for Task Scheduler / CI.
• Use meaningful paths for -listPath and -exceptionsPath to avoid overwriting important files.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the version history.

License

This script is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. Use it at your own risk.