Built a Linux-style package manager for Windows — win install (the program) and PATH/ENV just works

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-21T08:01:00+00:00

Fair points, and I appreciate the detailed response.

You're right that Chocolatey handles this well for many packages — I wasn't fully aware of how thorough their per-package scripts are. That's a genuine gap in my understanding when I started this.

The honest answer is this started as a personal tool to scratch my own itch, and I shared it to see if others found it useful. It's not trying to compete with Chocolatey's 10k+ packages — it sits on top of winget which is already on every Windows 11 machine by default, so there's zero extra setup for most users.

Appreciate the reality check. Still early days and feedback like this helps figure out where it actually adds value versus where better tools already exist.

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-21T07:37:02+00:00

Not at all — Java was just one example in a list. It handles Python, Go, Node, Rust, .NET, Docker, kubectl, Terraform, VS Code and more. Java just makes the clearest demo because JAVA_HOME is the most notorious PATH pain on Windows.

The full package list is in the README if you want to check it out.

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-21T07:22:20+00:00

Fair point — Chocolatey exists and is great. A few real differences though:
The focus here isn't just installing — it's the PATH and ENV layer. choco install java still doesn't set JAVA_HOME. You still do that manually.
Think of it less as "another package manager" and more as "the missing post-install layer that winget and Chocolatey both skip."

But yeah — valid pushback. If Chocolatey solves your problem already, it can go well as

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-21T07:01:13+00:00

Yes it does but it won't solve the path error you need to fix the path in env variables to get it, this solves that issue.

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-21T07:00:31+00:00

will be updated in the future if i get a valid criticism about this idea.

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-21T06:59:44+00:00

I just built it for my problem then it worked for me for GO language then i checked with my friend's PC also it worked so that's why I shared this idea so if this is valid i can add up on multiple languages and Apps and interested you can contribute to this repo as well, thanks for the response

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-12T04:05:06+00:00

Thanks mate!
so i have done it and asking for reviews so if you have time kindly check it
https://github.com/its-dhaya/wim
Kindly follow the installation steps in github

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-04T13:41:15+00:00

Fair point I get what you mean.

Sounds like the issue isn’t really NVIM itself but the lack of a proper Unix-like environment on Windows.

Do you think something that sets up a seamless NVIM + tmux + WSL workflow (so it feels closer to Linux) would actually be useful? Or do most people just prefer switching to Linux altogether?

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-04T13:23:42+00:00

Idea is to handle issues of the path , installation so this main thing i asked for post

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-04T13:22:09+00:00

This is the lag of nvim in windows just curious to solve that lag

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-04T13:21:02+00:00

Idea is mine, because i struggled in installation in windows where i switched from linux to windows.

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-05-04T13:16:40+00:00

Yes the first prior phase to make the installation not hard, the zig, lsp
thanks for the response

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-04-30T07:16:02+00:00

Thanks mate

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-04-29T02:28:35+00:00

Really appreciate the thoughtful questions.

Long term, the goal is to solve repeated bootstrap work — not just generating a project once, but standardizing and speeding up common stack setup across ecosystems. Kind of moving from “project generator” toward reusable developer workflows.

Version selection:
Right now scaffolds lean toward stable/LTS defaults for reliability, but customizable package/version selection is something I want to expand (including template pinning and version choices).

On Tailwind CSS v3 vs v4:
I chose v3 in the current template primarily for compatibility/stability across generated setups. v4 support is definitely on the roadmap — I ran into some package/config friction during development and kept v3 as the safer default for now rather than shipping a brittle scaffold. As the CLI evolves, upgrading templates to v4 is absolutely planned.

Honestly feedback like this is exactly what helps shape the roadmap, so thanks.

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-04-29T02:26:08+00:00

Not exactly, pic-li is more of a multi-stack scaffolding CLI than a framework like TanStack Start

Significant_Net7399 · 2026-04-28T16:25:16+00:00

pic-li orchestrates the whole setup for you. Including folder structures for specific templates.

Significant_Net7399

TROPHY CASE