Scoop Usage Notes

Scoop is a package manager for Windows, similar to Homebrew, but unofficially maintained.

Why Choose Scoop#

No administrator privileges required (for most programs)
Closest to a "package manager" in the sense of Linux, rather than being more like an "installer manager" like winget: Scoop manages both downloading and installation, while winget only handles downloading installation packages and running them for installation.
Although not as extensive as chocolatey, it has a sufficient software library
Only affects files under ~/scoop, does not pollute the registry and $PATH
After adding Scoop's skim to PATH, there is no need to restart to make PATH effective when installing new software
For a detailed comparison with chocolatey and winget, you can refer to the official wiki description

Installation#

Scoop's core and installed software are by default placed in %USERPROFILE%\scoop. Software installed with global installation (-g) and administrator privileges is placed in C:\ProgramData\scoop. If you want to change the location, you need to set the environment variable before installation. If it is already installed, you can uninstall and reinstall (you can find methods to preserve data, such as this issue).
If you don't want to change the installation location, simply run

> Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser # Optional: Needed to run a remote script the first time
> irm get.scoop.sh | iex

Set the user installation path

$env:SCOOP='D:\Softwares\scoop'
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('SCOOP', $env:SCOOP, 'User')

Set the global installation path (not recommended to change)

$env:SCOOP_GLOBAL='D:\Scoop_Global'
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('SCOOP_GLOBAL', $env:SCOOP_GLOBAL, 'Machine')

Then run those two PowerShell commands again

Basic Operations#

scoop install exampleApp # Install
scoop uninstall exampleApp # Uninstall
scoop search exampleApp # Search

scoop update exampleApp # Upgrade
scoop update # Update software repository, similar to "apt update"
scoop update * # Update all applications

# Scoop's software is stored in buckets, you need to install the bucket first
scoop bucket --help # Scoop's help pages are simple and easy to understand, you will know how to use buckets by looking at them

Convenient usage process:
- Open https://scoop.sh/, search for the software you want to install (much more convenient than the built-in search, you can find all the software in the officially recognized bucket)
- Copy the command and run it
Tips
- It is not recommended to install software from the nonportable bucket, as it may not be completely uninstalled. It is better to install it using the normal method.
- It is recommended to install the dorado bucket, which is suitable for Chinese users. See here for details.

Version Switching#

One of the major features of Scoop is the ability to easily switch between software versions, such as Python.
You can refer to https://www.thisfaner.com/p/install-and-switch-versions-of-java-python-ruby-via-scoop/
In simple terms, you first install a bucket that has previous versions (usually called versions), then install the old version, and then use scoop reset desired_version to switch.