WingetUI's source code - WingetUI Documentation

The WingetUI source code offers you the opportunity to dig into how does this program work. Modifications can be made to the UI, functionalities, and usability, while contributions like bug fixes and new features are possible.
On this article you will find how to obtain the source code, how to install the required dependencies, how to run the source code and how to build WingetUI into a standalone, distributable executable file

Table of contents

• Obtaining the source code
• Installing the required dependencies
• Running the source code
• Building WingetUI

Obtaining the source code

Obtaining WingetUI's source code is as easy as downloading it from GitHub's servers. You can do so in two ways:

1. Using git: Open a command prompt or terminal and navigate to the desired location. Then, enter the command git clone https://github.com/marticliment/wingetui This will create a new directory called wingetui and download the source code into it.
2. Downloading from GitHub: Go to the WingetUI repository on GitHub https://github.com/marticliment/wingetui.
   Click on the green Code button and select Download ZIP.
   Finally, extract the downloaded ZIP file to access the source code.

Inside the repository, under the subfolder wingetui/, you will find the main application built with Python, and under share-component-source/ you will find the solution of WingetUI's sharing interface.

Installing the required dependencies

In order to run WingetUI, you will need to have Python 3.10 or higher installed on your system.
Now that Python is installed, open a Command Prompt window on the root folder of the repository and execute the following command to install the required packages: pip install -r requirements.txt Once the command finished you will be able to run the source code without issues.
NOTE: To prevent interferences with other libraries, it is highly recommended to run the source code from a virtual python environment. More information about virtual environments here.

Running the source code

Under the wingetui/ directory you will find different Python files, as well as subfolders with more code files in them. To run WingetUI, just run the __init__.py file. However, there are some considerations to take into account:

• Double-clicking the file directly on file explorer might cause icons and other graphics elements to not show up. As a workaround, launch a Command Prompt on that same location and launch WingetUI by running the command python.exe -m __init__.py
• If another instance of WingetUI is running on the background (let's say, for example, a regular WingetUI install), launching the script will trigger the original instance to show, while quitting the script immediately. To prevent this behavior make sure to close any other running instance before running the source code
• The other python files on the wingetui/ directory can also be executed and WingetUI will launch as expected. However, executing python files that are located on subdirectories, such as wingetui/PackageManagers or wingetui/external will result in an instant crash.

Building WingetUI

Note: It goes without saying that you will have to install all the required dependencies before building WingetUI. See Installing the required dependencies

To build your own version of WingetUI, you will need to run the build.bat script located on the root directory of the repository. You may be prompted to press enter to continue a few times.
Please DO NOT delete any files or folders created by the builder. The temporary files will be cleaned automatically.

Once finished, a new folder named wingetuiBin will be generated, containing the final executable file and its dependencies.
NOTE: If Inno Setup is found installed, the installer will be also compiled and stored on the root folder of the repository.

This is the end of this article. Return to the WingetUI Help and Documentation page?