Easy Steps To Install and Use Scoop on Windows 10/11

This guide intends to show you how to Install and Use Scoop on Windows. Scoop is a command-line package manager for Windows which makes it easier to install and use common programs and tools. Scoop includes support for a wide variety of Windows software, as well as favorites from the Unix world. It addresses many of the common pain points with Windows’ software ecosystem, compared to the package manager models of Unix systems.

Now follow the guide steps below on the Orcacore website to Set up Windows Scoop Package Manager.

Table of Contents

Steps To Install and Use Scoop on Windows

To Set up Windows Scoop Package Manager, you must log in to your Windows Client and follow the steps below.

Here we use Windows 10 with administrator privileges.

1. Install Windows Scoop Package Manager

First, you need to open your PowerShell as an administrator. Then, you need to run the command below in your PowerShell to set your execution policy to RemoteSigned.

This will ensure you can run the PowerShell scripts you wrote or downloaded from the Internet.

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Confirm the execution policy change, by pressing y.

At this point, you can download the scoop installer and install it by using the command below:

Invoke-Expression "& {$(Invoke-RestMethod get.scoop.sh)} -RunAsAdmin"

You can verify your installation by using the command below to display a list of available commands for Scoop on Windows:

scoop -h

2. How To Use Windows Scoop Package Manager?

At this point, we want to show you the usage of Scoop on Windows to install, update, install multiple versions of a package, and switch between package versions.

Search Packages with Scoop

Scoop lets you search packages available to install with the bucket command.

The bucket command lists all repositories (or buckets) containing Scoop packages. These buckets are like the package repositories used in Linux that contain a list of available packages and their dependencies.

To list the available buckets, run the command below:

scoop bucket list

The output below indicates that the main bucket contains 1185 packages you can install.

Each Scoop bucket has manifest files, which are updated periodically to add new packages and remove old ones. These files describe how to install a package and its dependencies.

To find a specific package, you can use the following syntax:

scoop search package-name

For example, search for the 7-zip:

scoop search 7zip

For more information about 7-zip, you can follow this guide on How To Install 7-zip on Windows.

Install a Package with Scoop

Now you can easily install your founded package by using the following Scoop command on Windows:

scoop install 7zip

Output
...
'7zip' (22.01) was installed successfully!

To verify your 7-zip installation, you can use the command below:

7z

Also, you can use the scoop command to install multiple packages on Windows. For example:

scoop install 7zip nodejs

Update Packages with Windows Scoop Package Manager

Scoop lets you get the latest features or bug fixes by running the update command:

scoop update

You will get the following output:

Output
Scoop uses Git to update itself. Run 'scoop install git' and try again.

So you need to install git first, then re-run the update command:

# scoop install git
# scoop update

Update Packages with Windows Scoop Package Manager

Next, verify that your Scoop is updated on your Windows:

scoop status

Output
Scoop is up to date.
Everything is ok!

To update a specific package, you can use the following syntax:

scoop update package-name

If you want to update your all packages, you can use the command below:

scoop update *

Add Extra buckets and Install Multiple Versions of a Package with Scoop

As you saw before, scoop installs packages from the bucket. If you want to install packages from other buckets besides the main one, you must configure Scoop to know about the bucket on Windows.

First, run the following command to list the known available buckets:

scoop bucket known

Here we want to add the Java bucket by using the command below:

scoop bucket add java

Output
Checking repo... OK
The java bucket was added successfully.

At this point, you can install packages from the Java bucket. For example, we install OpenJDK by using the scoop command from the Java bucket:

scoop install openjdk

This will install the latest version of OpenJDK (v19 at this time of writing).

Output
'openjdk' (19.0.2-7) was installed successfully!

Note: You can install a different version of OpenJDK by specifying the version. This command allows multiple versions of Java to be installed on your system.

For example:

scoop install openjdk17

Output
'openjdk17' (17.0.2-8) was installed successfully!

Switch Between Package Versions with Scoop Package Manager

Now that you have different versions of Java installed on your system, you may want to switch between them. Let’s see how t do it.

You can use the reset command to switch between your package versions.

For example, to switch to your Java 17, you can run the command below:

scoop reset openjdk17

Output
Resetting openjdk17 (17.0.2-8).
Linking ~\scoop\apps\openjdk17\current => ~\scoop\apps\openjdk17\17.0.2-8

To see which Java version is being used, check the version:

java --version

Output
openjdk 17.0.2 2022-01-18
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.2+8-86)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0.2+8-86, mixed mode, sharing)

If you want to switch back to the latest version of Java, you can use the command below:

scoop reset openjdk

Output
Resetting openjdk (19.0.2-7).
Linking ~\scoop\apps\openjdk\current => ~\scoop\apps\openjdk\19.0.2-7

Verify your Java version:

java --version

Output
openjdk 19.0.2 2023-01-17
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 19.0.2+7-44)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 19.0.2+7-44, mixed mode, sharing)

As you can see from the output, Java switched back to the latest version.

For more information, you can visit the Scoop website.

Conclusion

At this point, you have learned to Install Scoop on Windows and Use it on your Windows machine such as install, update, install multiple versions of a package, and switch between package versions.

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