upgrade command (winget)

The upgrade command of the winget tool upgrades the specified application. Optionally, you may use the list command to identify the application you want to upgrade.

The upgrade command requires that you specify the exact string to upgrade. If there is any ambiguity, you will be prompted to further filter the upgrade command to an exact application.

Aliases

The following aliases are available for this command:

• update

Usage

winget upgrade [[-q] \<query> ...] [\<options>]

Arguments

The following arguments are available.

Argument	Description
-q,--query	The query used to search for an app.

Note

The query argument is positional. Wild-card style syntax is not supported. This is most often the string of characters you expect to help find the package you are upgrading.

Options

The options allow you to customize the upgrade experience to meet your needs.

Option	Description
-m, --manifest	Must be followed by the path to the manifest (YAML) file. You can use the manifest to run the upgrade experience from a local YAML file.
--id	Limits the upgrade to the ID of the application.
--name	Limits the search to the name of the application.
--moniker	Limits the search to the moniker listed for the application.
-v, --version	Enables you to specify an exact version to upgrade. If not specified, latest will upgrade the highest versioned application.
-s, --source	Restricts the search to the source name provided. Must be followed by the source name.
-e, --exact	Uses the exact string in the query, including checking for case-sensitivity. It will not use the default behavior of a substring.
-i, --interactive	Runs the installer in interactive mode. The default experience shows installer progress.
-h, --silent	Runs the installer in silent mode. This suppresses all UI. The default experience shows installer progress.
--purge	Deletes all files and directories in the package directory (portable)
-o, --log	Directs the logging to a log file. You must provide a path to a file that you have the write rights to.
--custom	Arguments to be passed on to the installer in addition to the defaults.
--override	A string that will be passed directly to the installer.
-l, --location	Location to upgrade to (if supported).
--scope	Select installed package scope filter (user or machine).
a, --architecture	Select the architecture to install.
--installer-type	Select the installer type to upgrade. See supported installer types for WinGet client.
--locale	Specifies which locale to use (BCP47 format).
--ignore-security-hash	Ignore the installer hash check failure. Not recommended.
--ignore-local-archive-malware-scan	Ignore the malware scan performed as part of installing an archive type package from local manifest.
--accept-package-agreements	Used to accept the license agreement, and avoid the prompt.
--accept-source-agreements	Used to accept the source license agreement, and avoid the prompt.
--header	Optional Windows-Package-Manager REST source HTTP header.
-r, --recurse, --all	Updates all available packages to the latest application.
-u, --unknown, --include-unknown	Upgrade packages even if their current version cannot be determined.
--pinned,--include-pinned	Upgrade packages even if they have a non-blocking pin.
--uninstall-previous	Uninstall the previous version of the package during upgrade. Behavior will depend on the individual package. Some installers are designed to install new versions side-by-side. Some installers include a manifest that specifies “uninstallPrevious” so earlier versions are uninstalled without needing to use this command flag. In this case, using the winget upgrade --uninstall-previous command will tell WinGet to uninstall the previous version regardless of what is in the package manifest. If the package manifest does not include “uninstallPrevious” and the --uninstall-previous flag is not used, then the default behavior for the installer will apply.
--force	Direct run the command and continue with non security related issues.
-?,--help	Shows help about the selected command.
--wait	Prompts the user to press any key before exiting.
--logs,--open-logs	Open the default logs location.
--verbose, --verbose-logs	Used to override the logging setting and create a verbose log.
--disable-interactivity	Disable interactive prompts.

Example queries

The following example upgrades a specific version of an application.

winget upgrade powertoys --version 0.15.2

The following example upgrades an application from its ID.

winget upgrade --id Microsoft.PowerToys

The following example shows upgrading all apps

winget upgrade --all

Using upgrade

To identify which apps are in need of an update, simply use upgrade without any arguments to show all available upgrades.

In the example below, you will see winget upgrade shows the user which apps have an available update. From the available updates, the user identifies that an update is available for JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh and uses upgrade to update the application.

Using list and upgrade

To search for an available update for a specific app, use to the list command. Once you have identified that a update is available for your specific app, use upgrade to install the latest.

The example below shows the list command being used to identify that an update is available for Microsoft.WindowsTerminalPreview. The user then uses upgrade to update the application.

upgrade --all

upgrade --all will identify all the applications with upgrades available. When you run winget upgrade --all the Windows Package Manager will look for all applications that have updates available and attempt to install the updates.

Note

Some applications do not provide a version. They are always latest. Because the Windows Package Manager cannot identify if there is a newer version of the app, an upgrade will not be possible.

upgrade --uninstall-previous

upgrade --uninstall-previous will uninstall the previous version prior to installing the newer version of the package. When using --uninstall-previous, the behavior will depend on the individual package. Some installers are designed to install new versions side-by-side while other installers include a manifest that specifies uninstallPrevious as their default upgrade behavior (so earlier versions are uninstalled without needing to use the command flag).

If the package manifest does not include uninstallPrevious as the upgrade behavior and the --uninstall-previous flag is not used with the upgrade command, then the default behavior for the installer will apply.