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Spec for #1984 - Apps & Packages #2204

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docs: Adding the first version of the Apps & Packages spec
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---
author: Sharla Soennichsen @shakersMSFT and Jordi Adoumie @joadoumie
created on: 2024-01-30
last updated: 2024-01-30
issue id: 1984
---

# Apps & Packages

## 1. Overview

### 1.1 Establish the Problem

Devs often need to install and manage a variety of tools and packages to get their work done. This can be a time consuming and frustrating process scattered across various UIs and CLIs.

### 1.2 Introduce the Solution

This new feature aims to create an all-in-one apps & packages management experience in Dev Home that allows you to manage your apps & package in a single, streamlined interface. From a unified interface, users can seamlessly handle package installation (exists in Dev Home already today), updates, and rollbacks for their winget packages. These enhancements will significantly boost efficiency, convenience, and control for software developers and power users, transforming the way they manage apps & packages.

### 1.3 Rough-in Designs

![Apps and Packages View 1](apps-and-packages.png)
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![Update and View](update-and-view.png)

## 2. Goals & User Cans

### 2.1 Goals

| No. | Goal | Priority |
| --- | ---- | -------- |
| 1 | Provide users with an easy and delightful experience to manage installed applications. | 0 |
| 2 | Incorporate advanced package management features such as version management, batch operations, automatic updates, and rollback capabilities. | 0 |

### 2.2 Non-Goals

| No. | Non-Goal |
| --- | -------- |
| 1 | This feature is not intended to replace the Windows Settings 'Apps > Installed' apps functionality. |

### 2.3 User Cans Summary Table

| No. | User Can | Priority |
| --- | -------- | -------- |
| 1 | A user can view application name, publisher, size, version, and source | 0 |
| 2 | A user can switch between different versions of a package | 0 |
| 3 | A user can select multiple applications at a time to perform bulk actions like update or uninstall | 0 |
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When the user clicks for an update, is the update going to default to "Silent" experience or "Silent With Progress" or an "Interactive" one? Some packages do not behave well in a silent installation (can default to installing in another location, may overwrite existing user configs) but expose the ability to select those options in an interactive install/update. How would the install modes be honored in a "bulk update" scenario? Can it be possible to set a preference only for specific packages that a user knows do not behave well in a certain install mode?

I think there should be a way to specify an install mode for an install/update and set a default install mode in user settings (where DevHome would try to honor the install mode if the installer supports it). There should be ways to offer a better UX if an installer doesn't support one of these modes. For this, we may need to populate winget manifests better with InstalModes: field. Not sure if this is within the scope of this spec / future consideration but wanted to call this out in any case

| 4 | A user can search to find an application | 0 |
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| 5 | A user can filter the page by update available | 0 |
| 6 | A user can sort the page by application name, publisher, size, and source. | 0 |

## 3. User Stories

### 3.1 User story - Updating and Rolling Back Packages

A software developer wants to update a package to the latest version but finds that it has a bug affecting their system.

#### Job-to-be-done

1. Update a package to the latest version
2. Roll back to a previous version of a package
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How do you want dependencies to be handled when rolling back? If Package Bv3.0 depends on Package Av2.0. Package A is rolled back to v1.0. What should happen to package B? Should it roll back? Should the roll back terminate with an unsuccessful message because other packages need to be rolled back?

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This is a really interesting edge case - good call out. Let's see what works best for various workflows. My gut says we should have a design that alerts the user that the package they intend to roll-back has dependencies and allow the user to determine yes/no to continue or not.


#### User experience

- A software developer launches Dev Home and navigates to the Apps & Packages page.
- They select the package that they want to update and click the Update button.
- They are prompted to confirm the update and clicks Yes. The package is updated to the latest version.
- They later find that the update has a security bug, so they go back to Dev Home to quickly revert to a previous version.
- They select the package they want to roll back and click on the version.
- They can see the available versions and select the version they want to roll back to.
- The package is rolled back to the previous version.

### 3.2 User story - Performing Bulk Actions

A software developer wants to clean up space on their machine and uninstall large packages they are no longer using.

#### Job-to-be-done

1. Sort packages by size
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2. Select multiple packages to uninstall in bulk

#### User experience

- User launches Dev Home and navigates to the Apps & Packages page.
- They click on the Size column to sort the packages by size.
- They select 3 packages they want to uninstall and click the Uninstall button.
- They are prompted to confirm the uninstall and click Yes. All 3 packages are uninstalled.

## 4. Requirements

### 4.1 Functional Requirements

#### Summary

This feature specification outlines the addition of a unified package management interface in Dev Home. It allows users to manage apps & packages from various package managers in a single, streamlined interface. With advanced features such as dependency and version management, batch operations, and rollback capabilities, the new interface provides a comprehensive package management solution. The result is a more efficient and user-friendly package management experience that substantially simplifies the workflow for software developers and IT professionals.

#### Detailed Functional Requirements

| No. | Requirement | Pri |
| --- | ----------- | --- |
| 1 | The list of applications shown are winget or store applications (source: winget, msstore from winget list) | 0 |
| 2 | The management experience allows updating, version management, and uninstallation of winget or msstore packages. For store packages, we can only update to latest.   | 0 |
| 3 | Version selection allows a specific version to be installed from a drop-down menu. NA for store packages which only only latest update. | 0 |
| 4 | A modification (version rollback, uninstall) to a package prompts for a confirmation. | 0 |
| 5 | Multiselect is available to apply bulk actions of update, and uninstall. | 0 |
| 6 | Packages can be sorted by name, size, update status, and source. | 0 |
| 7 | Packages can be filtered by name, size, update status, and source. | 0 |
| 8 | A search bar is available to search for a specific package. | 0 |
| 9 | Application data shown is name, size, installed version, update status, and source. | 0 |
| 10 | New applications installed via Dev Home, winget, or the Microsoft Store are automatically added to the list | 0 |
| 11 | When a package has a valid update, you can see there are updates available in the UI. | 0 |
| 12 | Packages can be imported with their settings with a Winget Configuration file | 0 |
| 12 | Packages can be imported with a winget import file [import Command](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/import) | 1 |
| 13 | Packages can be exported to a winget export file [export Command](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/export) | 1 |
| 14 | Packages can be pinned so that they do not update or recommend new updates in the UI (dependent on [Add support for pinning to the COM API · Issue #4058 · microsoft/winget-cli](https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/issues/4058)) | 0 |
| 15 | Packages can be exported with their settings to a Winget Configuration file [WinGet Settings export and import user settings · Issue #3693 · microsoft/winget-cli](https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/issues/3693) | 1 |
| 16 | Other package managers can integrate into the UI (dependent on [Add support for other package managers · Issue #20 · microsoft/devhome](https://github.com/microsoft/devhome/issues/20)) | 2 |
| 17 | Side by side support for apps (dependent on [Better support for Side by Side packages · Issue #2129 · microsoft/winget-cli](https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/issues/2129)) | 2 |
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