devopsmi/just-install

The humble package installer for Windows

Just Install

The simple package installer for Windows

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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.

Installation

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

Usage

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

Development

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did you make this?

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.

What's wrong with the alternatives?

• 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

Credits

The cube icon is derived from the one available from Ionicons.