microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli

Exclude "remove only" installers from `upgrade --all`, by default.

Open
#3,130 5 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Issue-Feature
Dominant language
C++
Stars
26.4k
Forks
1.8k
Avg merge
1d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
15

Description

Description of the new feature / enhancement

In rare cases software will provide a "remove only" "installer". E.g. see Speedfan below ...

PS ...Sda\Code> winget upgrade --include-unknown --all
Name                             Id                     Version Available Source
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IrfanView 4.60 (32-bit)          IrfanSkiljan.IrfanView 4.60    4.62      winget
SpeedFan (remove only)           Almico.SpeedFan        Unknown 4.52      winget
WinDirStat 1.1.2                 WinDirStat.WinDirStat  Unknown 1.1.2     winget
Microsoft .NET SDK 6.0.310 (x64) Microsoft.DotNet.SDK.6 6.0.310 6.0.407   winget
5 upgrades available.

... I suggest these, by default, should be separately listed above and not included for execution in an --all upgrade.

The new package pinning feature makes working around this problem easy ...

PS ...Sda\Code> winget pin add Speedfan
Found SpeedFan [Almico.SpeedFan]
Pin added successfully

... however, that is a workaround.

Proposed technical implementation details

No response

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the winget upgrade --include-unknown --all output with a remove-only installer such as Almico.SpeedFan, then trace the upgrade-all selection and display flow. Done means remove-only installers are listed separately and are excluded from execution by default, while the existing workaround and upgrade behavior remain understandable.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.