tl;dr: use scoop.
i’m a bit of a linux veteran at this point, so i am yearning for a command line so much that i use it to install software even on windows. cli-based package managers have great advantages like the ability to update all the software you install through them with a single command and basically no extra interaction required, which is just too convenient to give up.
windows has had chocolatey for a while, and there’s a microsoft-backed solution in winget, but both install software the usual windows way, which turns updates into a babysitting exercise of granting admin privileges to every program that needs an update. scoop is a great alternative to both that solves this shortcoming by installing all the software at user level, bypassing privilege elevation and ensuring a mostly hands-free installation experience.
not everything is served well by scoop, especially stuff that either specifically relies on admin privileges, or has auto-update baked in [discord, steam, etc.], but it is surprisingly solid for most things, and does the job so well that it’s been a must-have on my windows machines for years now.