FAQ | Developer Tools

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1

ERROR: winget (App Installer) is not installed (Screenshot below).

winget not installed

Solution

There are two common causes for this issue. Follow the steps for the scenario that matches your environment.

Scenario 1: App Installer missing or not on PATH

Confirm that the App Installer (winget) is available on your PATH. In PowerShell run:
```
echo $env:PATH
```
You should see a path similar to:
```
C:\Users\<yourname>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
```
If the WindowsApps path is missing, add it to your user PATH. In PowerShell run (note the quotes):
```
setx PATH "${env:PATH};C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps"
```
After running setx, close and re-open PowerShell for the change to take effect.
Verify winget is available:
```
winget --version
```
If winget is still not available, install or update the App Installer from Microsoft and then re-run the script: https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/package-manager/winget/

Scenario 2: Corporate-managed devices / Microsoft Managed Desktop

On some corporate-managed devices the App Installer may only be available at the user profile level or may be restricted by IT policies. If you see the error in this environment:

Run PowerShell as your normal user (not elevated) so the user-level App Installer can be discovered.
When the script attempts to install applications, an elevation prompt or helpdesk intervention may be required. Have IT or helpdesk provide administrator credentials when prompted.
In some environments each application install may require separate approval or credentials. If installations fail due to policy restrictions, contact your IT support team and request App Installer/winget be made available or for the required packages to be installed.

Additional notes

After installing or updating the App Installer, restart PowerShell before re-running setup_env scripts so the updated PATH is picked up.
If you continue to have problems, capture the exact error output and the result of echo $env:PATH and open an issue (or provide the logs here) so we can help diagnose further.

Question 2

How does a successful installation log looks like?

Log

Installation of some tools was skipped because they are already present on the user’s machine. For example, Git: git already available. Skipping Git for Windows..

```powershell

PS C:\Users\UserHomeDir> cd \github\dev-tools PS C:\github\dev-tools> .\scripts\windows\setup_env_min.ps1 ===> Starting minimal Windows developer environment setup… ===> setup_env_min.ps1 - Minimal Windows bootstrap ===> Accepted switches: -DryRun (preview), -Interactive (installer UX), -Silent (no prompts), -Help (this message). ===> Default behavior: Silent installs (no prompts). ===> Mode: Silent (default). ===> PATH (Session) entries (one per line): 01: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot\bin 02: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\wbin 03: C:\WINDOWS\system32 04: C:\WINDOWS 05: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem 06: C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
07: C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH
08: C:\Program Files\dotnet
09: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\160\DTS\Binn
10: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps 11: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin 12: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\bin 13: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\cmd 14: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Apache\apache-maven-3.9.11\bin 15: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot\bin ===> PATH (Machine) entries (one per line): 01: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot\bin 02: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\wbin 03: C:\WINDOWS\system32 04: C:\WINDOWS 05: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem 06: C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
07: C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH
08: C:\Program Files\dotnet
09: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\160\DTS\Binn
===> PATH (User) entries (one per line): 01: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps 02: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin 03: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\bin 04: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\cmd 05: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Apache\apache-maven-3.9.11\bin 06: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot\bin ===> Updating winget sources… Updating all sources… Updating source: msstore… Done Updating source: winget… ██████████████████████████████ 100% Done Updating source: winget-font… Done ===> Installing required tools… ===> git already available. Skipping Git for Windows. ===> java already available. Skipping JDK install. ===> code already available. Skipping Visual Studio Code install. ===> Installing: IntelliJ IDEA Community (JetBrains.IntelliJIDEA.Community)… Found an existing package already installed. Trying to upgrade the installed package… No available upgrade found. No newer package versions are available from the configured sources.

===> Already installed: IntelliJ IDEA Community - skipping. ===> mvn already available. Skipping Maven install. ===> Setting up JAVA_HOME… ===> Found JDK at: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot ===> JAVA_HOME set to: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot ===> Restart your terminal to apply the JAVA_HOME change. ===> PATH (Session) entries (one per line): 01: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot\bin 02: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\wbin 03: C:\WINDOWS\system32 04: C:\WINDOWS 05: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem 06: C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
07: C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH
08: C:\Program Files\dotnet
09: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\160\DTS\Binn
10: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps 11: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin 12: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\bin 13: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\cmd 14: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Apache\apache-maven-3.9.11\bin 15: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot\bin ===> PATH (User) entries (one per line): 01: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps 02: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin 03: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\bin 04: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\cmd 05: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Apache\apache-maven-3.9.11\bin 06: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot\bin ===> Start verification ===> Verify Git… git version 2.53.0.windows.1 ===> Verify Java… openjdk version “17.0.18” 2026-01-20 LTS OpenJDK Runtime Environment Microsoft-13106358 (build 17.0.18+8-LTS) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Microsoft-13106358 (build 17.0.18+8-LTS, mixed mode, sharing) ===> Verify Maven… Apache Maven 3.9.11 (3e54c93a704957b63ee3494413a2b544fd3d825b) Maven home: C:\Users\UserHomeDir\AppData\Local\Programs\Apache\apache-maven-3.9.11 Java version: 17.0.18, vendor: Microsoft, runtime: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\jdk-17.0.18.8-hotspot Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: Cp1252 OS name: “windows 11”, version: “10.0”, arch: “amd64”, family: “windows” ===> Verify VS Code… 1.109.5 072586267e68ece9a47aa43f8c108e0dcbf44622 x64 ===> Verify IntelliJ IDEA… ===> IntelliJ verification is manual. Launch it once to finish first-run setup.

Awesome, all set!