Please note: because we must run the Microsoft Store sysprep will be impossible. Then the Task Sequence can continue and use winget to install any applications that you want with the additional benefit that the Microsoft Store apps are also now up to date. In order to use winget as part of a Task Sequence I’ve made a small PowerShell script to trigger the Microsoft Store updater and wait until winget is the correct version before exiting. That said, for most common packages that you’d install in a business environment it works well. Winget is good and I’d recommend it but some bugs when installing certain packages still remain - for example at the time of writing the Ubisoft.Connect package won’t install even though it did a few weeks ago when I last installed it. Even if you download the winget package from github and install it via PowerShell, the Microsoft Store will still need to run and sync for it to work - take it from me I have spent this past week testing this out thoroughly. It is not a functional part of Windows 10 or 11 version 21H2 or 22H2 after the initial OS install - the Microsoft Store app updater needs to run and make it available for use. Winget is Microsoft’s package manager for Windows 10 and 11. You could also set up a scheduled task to run regularly to keep third-party software up-to-date when the PC is deployed out in the field.

Instead of downloading the offline installer, finding the silent install command and then going through the steps of adding it to MDT, you can use a package manager to retrieve the application, install it and you’re done.

It’s also easier for you as the image admin. Using a package manager during initial deployment or image creation can be useful for deploying applications that are updated frequently like Adobe Reader or Google Chrome. I like both for a variety of reasons and have been testing them out as a way to modernize the install software whilst still using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). Microsoft has created winget and Chocolatey is a third-party package manager for Windows.

Chocolatey windows install