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How Chocolatey made me lazy (and efficient)
Let’s talk about hot chocolate
No, not about the Starbucks Steamed milk with vanilla- and mocha-flavoured syrups. Topped with sweetened whipped cream and chocolate-flavoured drizzle Hot Chocolate. But about the other hot chocolate: Chocolatey…
What is Chocolatey?
Chocolatey is a decentralised package manager for Windows. You can compare this with apt-get (for Debian) or yum (for Centos and Fedora).
It is built on the open-source NuGet infrastructure and uses PowerShell as its focus to deliver packages.
© Chocolatey.com
Why do I use it?
Three weeks ago, I was first introduced to Chocolatey. Since then I’m practically sold to this free product. Why? Because it makes me work much more efficiently. I initially used it to install my new laptops, but now I’m exploring the possibilities of it to create a private repository for our own packages.
Sounds great! How do I start?
Using Chocolatey is easy. The complete how to install can be found on this page, https://chocolatey.org/install but the commands below should be enough for the quick install.
- Open an administrative PowerShell console.
- Copy/ paste the following command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force;
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
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3. Press “Enter” and you are done.
Packages
The system works with packages or a package server. You can find the community packages on the public Chocolatey repository: https://chocolatey.org/packages
Command: Choco eat
That’s not a real command, I know. The real command to install packages is
| Choco install <your package> -y |
Note: the parameter -y allows you to install the packages using auto settings, and auto accepting licenses.
© Chocolatey.com
To update your packages, use:
| Choco upgrade <your package> -y |
Commonly used packages
During the installation of my two new laptops, I installed the following packages, just using Choco. After one hour and two espressos, both laptops were completely installed, and that with just a few command lines.
Core packages
| Package name | Install command | Site |
| 7-Zip | choco install 7zip -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/7zip |
| CCleaner | choco install ccleaner -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/ccleaner |
| FileZilla | choco install filezilla -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/filezilla |
| Google Chrome | choco install googlechrome -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/GoogleChrome |
| Mozilla Firefox | choco install firefox -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/Firefox |
| Notepad++ | choco install notepadplusplus -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/notepadplusplus |
| Putty | choco install putty -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/putty |
| VLC media player | choco install vlc -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/vlc |
Developer packages
| Package name | Install command | Site |
| GIT | choco install git -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/git |
| Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable Package | choco install vcredist2012 -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/vcredist2012 |
| SQL Server Management Studio | choco install sql-server-management-studio -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/sql-server-management-studio |
| Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3 | choco install visualstudio2015community -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/VisualStudio2015Community |
| Visual Studio 2017 Community | choco install visualstudio2017community -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/VisualStudio2017Community |
| Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise | choco install visualstudio2017enterprise -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/visualstudio2017enterprise |
| Visual Studio Code | choco install vscode -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/vscode |
| Visual Studio Code PowerShell Extension | choco install vscode-powershell -y | https://chocolatey.org/packages/vscode-powershell |
Conclusion
Chocolatey speeds up the installation of your new machines with a few clicks and commands.
But that’s not it. If you want, you can create your own (private) package repository. Meaning you or your organisation, can roll out their own packages and implement their own application lifecycle.
If that’s not enough? Its free, fast, reliable and the time you normally spend on clicking “I agree”, “Next, Next”, “Finish”, you can use to write great new code, or get some more coffee!
