Managing a development environment is its own skill. If you have ever typed node and gotten this back, you know the feeling:
$ node
node: The term 'node' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program.
Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
Frustrating, right? This kind of failure usually comes from a messy PATH: the binary was never added, or the entry is malformed. People call it a polluted development environment. The usual advice is to reinstall the app, or even the OS. That rarely fixes the root cause, and eventually you give up on tweaking anything.
Reinstalling is not the only fix, and usually not the best one. The durable answer is a package manager: apt or yum on Linux, Brew on macOS, Chocolatey or WinGet on Windows—and, here, Scoop.
Why Scoop?
Windows already has Chocolatey and WinGet. Chocolatey is the veteran; WinGet is Microsoft’s own. The comparison below is admittedly biased:
<table> <thead> <tr> <th></th> <th>Winget</th> <th>Chocolatey</th> <th>Scoop</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Centralized?</td> <td>Yes (Microsoft Store)</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Paid features?</td> <td>No</td> <td>Yes</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Package count (as of 2022/12/19)</td> <td>3966 (fromwinget search "" and counting lines)</td>
<td>9521</td>
<td>37793 (official + third-party sources; duplicates possible)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Publishing method</td>
<td>Write a manifest and submit manually</td>
<td>Write a manifest and submit manually</td>
<td>Write a manifest and fetch from a bucket; no manual submission</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Updating your own package</td>
<td>Manual</td>
<td>GitHub Actions auto-update</td>
<td>GitHub Actions auto-update</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Custom install scripts?</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Scoop is fully open source, publishing a package is simple (add a JSON file and submit it on GitHub), and it is the most extensible of the three—hooks such as post_install can run scripts before or after installation. That is why Scoop is a reasonable pick over Chocolatey and WinGet.
Installation
Time to install. The official command is below; don’t run it just yet.
> Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
> irm get.scoop.sh | iex
One caveat: the install script pulls Scoop’s latest source from GitHub, so if GitHub is blocked or slow where you are, you may need a workaround.
Fast and convenient, yes. But if your C: drive is tight, don’t use that one-liner: the default install location is on C:. To choose your own directories:
> irm get.scoop.sh -outfile 'install.ps1'
> .\install.ps1 -ScoopDir 'D:/.scoop' -ScoopGlobalDir 'D:/.scoop-global'
ScoopDir and ScoopGlobalDir can be any two different directories. When the script finishes, run scoop in a terminal:
If you see that, it worked. Before installing software, learn two basic concepts.
Manifests and buckets
Scoop gets package information from manifests and buckets. A bucket is a collection of manifests; a manifest contains a package’s metadata—URL, name, version, description, and so on. By default Scoop pulls the official Main bucket to your machine, which contains many open-source tools. You can add other buckets later. When you run scoop install foo, Scoop searches these buckets for a matching manifest, gets the download link, and installs the package.
Usage
Node
Let’s build a Node environment with the version manager fnm. Why not n, nvm, or nvs? fnm does fuzzy matching—pass a major version and it installs—and it is a young, active project.
> scoop install fnm
Installing 'fnm' (1.31.1) [64bit] from main bucket
fnm-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip (4.5 MB) [==================================================================] 100%
Checking hash of fnm-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip ... ok.
Extracting fnm-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip ... done.
Linking D:.scoop\apps\fnm\current => D:.scoop\apps\fnm\1.31.1
Creating shim for 'fnm'.
'fnm' (1.31.1) was installed successfully!
> fnm install --lts # Install the LTS version of Node
Installing Node v18.12.1 (x64)
> fnm default 18 # Use the latest version
Installing is not enough. Open PowerShell and run:
> notepad $PROFILE
In the Notepad window, add:
fnm env --use-on-cd | Out-String | Invoke-Expression
Now the Node environment is ready.
Rust
Rust is similarly short:
> scoop install rustup-msvc
Go
No ceremony:
> scoop install go
Other tools
Sometimes the tool you want isn’t in Main. Run scoop install osulazer and you’ll get Couldn't find manifest for 'osulazer'. Search for it:
osulazer lives in the Games bucket. Run:
> scoop bucket add games
> scoop install osulazer
The two commands in the search result are, in order, add the bucket and install the package. Run the first, then the second.
Fonts
Scoop can even install fonts. They live in the nerd-fonts bucket:
> scoop bucket add nerd-fonts
Install fonts globally, e.g. scoop install FiraCode-NF -g.
Tools I use
Finally, here are the buckets and packages I use:
> scoop bucket list
Name Source Updated Manifests
---- ------ ------- ---------
destiny https://github.com/so1ve/destiny.git 2022/12/14 4:29:35 6
dorado https://github.com/chawyehsu/dorado.git 2022/12/19 8:11:45 227
extras https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Extras 2022/12/19 16:27:47 1752
games https://github.com/Calinou/scoop-games 2022/12/19 16:28:28 247
java https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Java 2022/12/17 16:18:12 253
main https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Main 2022/12/19 16:28:35 1129
nerd-fonts https://github.com/matthewjberger/scoop-nerd-fonts 2022/12/14 5:12:47 209
siku https://github.com/amorphobia/siku.git 2022/12/17 0:39:11 57
versions https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Versions 2022/12/19 16:35:38 400
> scoop list
Installed apps:
Name Version Source Updated Info
---- ------- ------ ------- ----
7zip 22.01 main 2022-11-05 12:02:09
adb 33.0.3 main 2022-11-05 12:02:11
ag 2.2.5 main 2022-11-05 12:02:16
aria2 1.36.0-1 main 2022-11-05 12:13:39
bat 0.22.1 main 2022-11-05 12:13:41
bazel 5.3.2 main 2022-11-05 12:17:02
bottom 0.6.8 main 2022-11-05 12:17:12
broot 1.16.2 main 2022-11-05 12:19:34
busybox 4784-g5507c8744 main 2022-11-14 10:04:28
cheat 4.4.0 main 2022-11-14 10:04:41
clink 1.4.0 main 2022-11-14 10:04:43
cloc 1.94 main 2022-11-05 12:22:03
cloudflared 2022.10.3 main 2022-11-05 12:41:57
cmake 3.24.3 main 2022-11-05 12:49:00
curlie 1.6.9 main 2022-11-05 12:49:38
dark 3.11.2 main 2022-11-05 12:53:24
delta 0.14.0 main 2022-11-05 12:53:27
deta 1.3.3-beta main 2022-11-05 13:06:14
docker 20.10.21 main 2022-11-05 13:06:28
docker-compose 2.12.2 main 2022-11-05 13:12:24
dockercompletion 1.2010.1.211002 extras 2022-11-05 13:06:32
duf 0.8.1 main 2022-11-05 13:12:40
dust 0.8.3 main 2022-11-05 13:12:58
dvm 1.8.6 destiny 2022-11-05 12:53:39
fd 8.5.2 main 2022-11-05 13:13:10
ffmpeg 5.1.2 main 2022-11-05 13:55:42
FiraCode-NF 2.2.2 nerd-fonts 2022-11-05 13:59:22
fnm 1.31.1 main 2022-11-05 14:00:09
fzf 0.35.0 main 2022-11-14 10:04:45
gh 2.20.0 main 2022-11-14 10:04:49
gitui 0.21.0 main 2022-11-15 21:05:10
go 1.19.3 main 2022-11-05 14:03:45
gow 0.8.0 main 2022-11-05 14:08:06
gpg 2.3.8 main 2022-11-05 14:10:58
gping 1.4.0 main 2022-11-05 14:11:04
gradle 7.5.1 main 2022-11-05 14:14:25
gsudo 2.0.2 main 2022-11-14 10:05:01
helix 22.08.1 main 2022-11-05 14:18:02
hexyl 0.10.0 main 2022-11-05 14:18:10
hub 2.14.2 main 2022-11-05 14:19:08
hugo-extended 0.105.0 main 2022-11-05 14:21:41
hyperfine 1.15.0 main 2022-11-05 14:22:08
jid 0.7.6 main 2022-11-05 14:22:30
jq 1.6 main 2022-11-05 14:23:32
just 1.8.0 main 2022-11-05 14:23:46
lazygit 0.36.0 extras 2022-11-15 21:05:21
llvm 15.0.4 main 2022-11-05 16:31:03
lsd 0.23.1 main 2022-11-05 16:31:08
make 4.4 main 2022-11-05 16:31:19
mingit 2.38.1.windows.1 main 2022-11-05 11:46:47
mingw-nuwen 18.0 main 2022-11-05 16:36:36
msys2 2022-09-04 main 2022-11-05 16:37:24
neofetch 7.1.0 main 2022-11-05 16:37:26
neovide 0.10.3 extras 2022-11-14 10:05:06
neovim 0.8.0 main 2022-11-05 16:37:50
openssh 8.9.1.0p1 main 2022-11-05 11:48:09
oraclejdk17 17.0.3.1 destiny 2022-11-05 16:53:24
oraclejdk8 8u321 destiny 2022-11-05 16:54:46
posh-cargo 0.1.2.0 siku 2022-11-05 16:54:48
posh-docker 0.7.0 extras 2022-11-05 16:54:50
posh-git 1.1.0 extras 2022-11-05 16:54:52
powershell-preview 7.3.0-rc.1 destiny 2022-11-05 13:05:41
procs 0.13.3 main 2022-11-05 16:54:59
psreadline 2.2.6 extras 2022-11-05 16:55:00
refreshenv 2022.06.30 main 2022-11-05 16:55:39
ripgrep 13.0.0 main 2022-11-05 16:55:47
rustup-msvc 1.25.1 main 2022-11-05 17:14:00
scoop-completion 0.2.4 extras 2022-11-05 16:56:55
starship 1.11.0 main 2022-11-05 16:56:59
tdm-gcc 10.3.0 versions 2022-11-05 16:57:47
tinygo 0.26.0 main 2022-11-05 17:06:16
ttyd 1.7.2 main 2022-11-06 12:55:25
vcpkg 2022.10.19 main 2022-11-05 17:06:52
vcredist2010 10.0.40219.473 extras 2022-11-05 17:07:37
vcredist2022 14.34.31931.0 extras 2022-11-14 10:06:49
vhs 0.1.1 main 2022-11-06 12:55:30
vim 9.0 main 2022-11-05 17:10:32
vimtutor 0.2018.07.25 main 2022-11-05 17:10:33
wrangler 1.20.0 main 2022-11-05 17:10:38
youtube-dl 2021.12.17 main 2022-11-05 17:10:52
zig 0.10.0 main 2022-11-05 17:11:40
zoxide 0.8.3 main 2022-11-05 17:11:44
firacode-nf 2.2.2 nerd-fonts 2022-11-05 18:35:27 Global install
Noto-NF 2.2.2 nerd-fonts 2022-12-17 20:05:33 Global install
smiley-sans 1.0.0 nerd-fonts 2022-12-11 12:11:51 Global install