The simple package installer for Windows
just-install is a simple program which automates software installation on Windows. Unlike the
alternatives, we strive to do one
simple thing and do it well: download a setup.exe
and install it, without bothering the user.
To see the list of available packages head over to http://just-install.it.
Run this command in a command prompt, as an Administrator:
msiexec.exe /i http://go.just-install.it
If you would like a more traditional means of installation then download just-install.msi and double click the file to install it yourself.
If you would like to automatically install programs when just-install.exe
is launched, use the
customizer here.
If you want to try the next upcoming version of just-install, then run the following:
msiexec.exe /i http://unstable.just-install.it
To install a package:
just-install firefox
You can also use the just-install customizer to install a package without using the command line or installing just-install.
To view a list of available packages:
just-install list
To update the list of available packages:
just-install update
To forcibly re-download an installer and re-run it:
just-install -f firefox
To force installation of a package for a specific architecture (use "x86" or "x86_64"):
just-install -a x86 go
In case you are lost, help is always few keystrokes away:
just-install --help
To contribute a new package, see here.
To work on just-install itself, you will need to install and set-up:
- exeproxy (this simplifies adding the necessary exes to your path by placing aliases in C:\Shims)
- The Go compiler
- Python 2.7
- WiX Toolset
TIP: You can install these dependencies with just-install itself by running:
just-install exeproxy go python27 wix
Once you have done so, run:
set PATH="%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Shims;%CD%"
python build.py
This will produce just-install.exe
in the current working directory.
I needed something to automate software installation on Windows VMs at my workplace. The alternatives at that time required either too much work to bootstrap themselves, were too slow, buggy or didn't include the software I wanted. I needed something that could be installed with one, memorable command, was self-contained, and could be launched from an unattended setup script.
- Chocolatey's biggest sin is it requires PowerShell on the target system. This makes it ridiculously difficult to install on some operating systems: on Windows XP it is a multi-stage ordeal where you first have to install .NET 2.0, then install PowerShell, then .NET 4 and after that you can finally install Chocolatey itself.
- Ninite is great but it's closed source and there's no obvious way to add a custom package.
- Npackd is probably the most promising of the bunch, but the last time I tried it, it wanted to do some funny stuff such as handling un-installations and it had a tendency to move files around with subsequent re-installations of the same package.
I wanted something simple, something that would download an installer and run it silently. That's why I wrote just-install. You can find a complete rationale on my blog post
The cube icon is derived from the one available from Ionicons.