appsRefresh

A multithreaded PowerShell script designed to automate bulk software installation and updates on Windows using Windows Package Manager (winget) driven by a simple CSV manifest.

🌟 Key Features

• Parallel Status Checks: Scans installed applications and available repository updates concurrently across multiple background workers.
• Safe Sequential Execution: Runs winget installation and upgrade setups one at a time to prevent resource contention or installer conflicts.
• Interactive Live Dashboard: Features a real-time terminal UI displaying task progress bars (Check, Action, and Total), timer metrics (Elapsed & ETA), live status updates per app, and a bottom panel streaming output directly from winget.
• Automatic Administrator Elevation: Prompts for required UAC administrator rights seamlessly at launch.
• Automatic Retry Mechanism: Handles transient network/installer glitches by automatically retrying failed installations up to a configurable threshold.
• Detailed Audit Logging: Outputs operational events and detailed error stream capture to appsRefresh.log.

📋 Requirements

• Windows 10 / 11 or Windows Server 2019/2022
• PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7+
• Windows Package Manager (winget) (installed via App Installer from the Microsoft Store)
• Administrator privileges (the script handles auto-elevation if required)

🚀 Quick Start

1. File Structure

Keep the script and your CSV list in the same folder:

📁 appsRefresh/
├── 📄 appsRefresh.ps1
└── 📊 apps.csv

2. Configure apps.csv

Create or edit apps.csv. The file must contain a header with the column AppID:

AppID
Git.Git
7zip.7zip
Google.Chrome
VideoLAN.VLC
Microsoft.VisualStudioCode

Tip: You can find exact package IDs using winget search <appname>.

3. Run the Script

Open PowerShell and run the script:

.\appsRefresh.ps1

If launched without Administrator privileges, the script will request UAC elevation automatically.

⚙️ Parameters & Usage

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
-CsvPath	string	.\apps.csv	Path to the target CSV file containing the AppID list.
-CheckWorkers	int	2	Number of parallel worker threads used during the check phase.
-ActionRetries	int	2	Number of automatic retries attempted for failed installs/upgrades.

Examples

Custom CSV Path:

.\appsRefresh.ps1 -CsvPath "C:\Deployment\software.csv"

Faster Parallel Checks:

.\appsRefresh.ps1 -CheckWorkers 4

Custom Retries & Worker Settings:

.\appsRefresh.ps1 -CsvPath ".\my_apps.csv" -CheckWorkers 4 -ActionRetries 3

🛠️ How It Works

1. Pre-Flight Inspection: Validates environment requirements (winget existence, CSV existence, header format) and previews the target application list.
2. Parallel Check Phase: Launches $CheckWorkers background threads to execute non-destructive winget list and winget show commands to identify installed versions vs. available updates.
3. Sequential Action Phase: Filters applications that need action (Install or Update) and queues them into a sequential pipeline execution engine.
4. Live Terminal UI: Renders a custom live console dashboard showing progress percentages, elapsed time (EL), estimated time remaining (ETA), and active task states.
5. Final Summary Report: Displays a detailed breakdown of results (Total evaluated, Up to date, Newly installed, Updated, Failed).

🔍 Troubleshooting

• Error 0x8a15000f (winget source error): If winget fails to resolve sources, register the default source package manually:

  Add-AppxPackage -RegisterByFamilyName -MainPackage Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe

• Execution Policy Restriction: If script execution is disabled on your system, launch with:

  powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\appsRefresh.ps1