Appupdater might just be the coolest Windows app ever. OK, that's probably an overstatement, but we've been looking for something like this for ages. Essentially, Appupdater is to Windows what apt-get is to Debian Linux. In other words, it's a command line utility that lets you automatically download, install, update, and remove applications.

Here's how it works. Once you've downloaded and installed Appupdater, you can either run it by clicking on a shortcut or by running the Appupdater command using a command line box (which you can pull up by typing "cmd" into the Run box in your start menu.

While there is a graphical interface, it's pretty ugly and the command line version is actually much easier to use. Here are a few commands to get you started:

• "appupdater --update" will grab a list of available packages (or programs) from a server.
• "appupdater --list" shows a list of installed packages on your system. Note, this is not a complete list of installed application, but rather a list of packages available in the repository which you have already installed.
• "appupdater --available" displays a full list of available packages.
• "appupdater --install PKG" will let you download and install a package. For example, "appupdater --install pidgin" downloads and installs the latest version of Pidgin.
• "appupdater --upgrade" will download and install updates for all supported applications that have available updates.
• "appupdater --remove PKG" uninstalls a specified package.

You can get a complete list of commands in the user manual.
AppUpdater does not by any means support every freeware application available for Windows. But it does have a pretty good list of apps. And you can also create your own custom repositories.

We've seen other attempts to create a Linux-style package management system for Windows. But Appupdater definitely seems to be the most useful of the bunch.

[via Lifehacker]