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I've recently started using Chocolatey to install new programs on my computer and to then subsequently upgrade them. However, there are many programs that I have already installed which appear when I run

choco search ProgramName

but do not appear when I run

choco list --local-only

because I did not install them with Chocolatey. For some of these programs at least, I'd like to start using Chocolatey to upgrade them to the newest version. The simplest solution would be to simply uninstall the program and then reinstall it using Chocolatey, but this might result in me losing some of my saved preferences (or, for larger programs, this is simply a waste of bandwidth and time). Is there a way for me to add the program to Chocolatey without uninstalling it? If so, is there a way to search for all installed programs on my computer that Chocolatey could maintain for me (rather than adding them one at a time)?

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  • I wondered this myself, especially when the docs seemed to say that (most?) Chocolatey packages just automate the regular install process. I decided to throw caution to the wind and simply have Chocolatey install something over the top of an existing install (in this case vlc). And I can report that this seems to have worked; I don't have two copies installed, and existing settings were preserved. But it does still waste bandwidth and time.
    – Tim Pederick
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 12:12
  • Further information: some Chocolatey packages (I note that Chrome is one of them) explicitly check whether the up-to-date version is already installed, and don't re-download it if it is... and then they do add it to Chocolatey's installed list.
    – Tim Pederick
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 12:29

1 Answer 1

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Try:

choco list --local-only --includeprograms

-i, --includeprograms, --include-programs

IncludePrograms - Used in conjunction with LocalOnly, filters out apps chocolatey has listed as packages and includes those in the list.

Defaults to false.

It lists the programs managed by chocolatey plus those it does not manage.

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  • 1
    For future readers: this answer, in conjunction with this one, tells me that while I have the ability to list the applications not managed with Chocolatey, I would need a licensed version of Chocolatey to have Chocolatey manage them.
    – Kraigolas
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 13:25

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