Client Verbosity Settings

Relevant area(s)

• WinGet CLI

Description of the new feature / enhancement

This is about controlling how much output WinGet itself prints to the console — not the output produced by an installer that WinGet invokes, and not the diagnostic log files.

Today WinGet prints a fixed amount of progress and status to the console. Users should be able to choose a verbosity level for WinGet's own console output, for example:

• silent / quiet — minimal or no console output (useful for scripting and clean CI logs)
• default — today's behavior
• verbose — additional detail about what WinGet is doing

Accessibility is a specific motivator: animated progress bars and spinners don't work well with screen readers, so a quieter/plain output mode improves the experience for those users.

Proposed technical implementation details

• A setting and/or CLI argument to select WinGet's console output verbosity (e.g. quiet / default / verbose).
• Keep these axes distinct so this issue stays focused:
  • This issue: the amount of WinGet's own console output.
  • Installer output is separate — WinGet doesn't control what an installer writes.
  • Diagnostic log level and progress / no-progress control are tracked in #4508.
  • Output format (JSON / structured) is tracked in #184.
• Include a mode that emits screen-reader-friendly output (no reliance on ANSI progress animations); relates to the existing --disable-interactivity argument and the progressBar setting.

Updated with GitHub Copilot.

Start by reviewing the WinGet CLI entry points for --disable-interactivity and the progressBar setting, along with the scope boundaries in #4508 and #184. Done means defining and implementing a clear quiet, default, verbose, and screen-reader-friendly behavior for WinGet's own console output without changing installer output, diagnostic logs, or structured output.