Deploy thousands of Windows apps in a few clicks: winget packages come to K12Panel

A teacher needs Stellarium for astronomy class. The art room wants GIMP and Inkscape. The robotics club asks for Python and VS Code — on Monday. Each request is small, but each one used to mean finding the right installer, working out its silent switches, building or subscribing to a blueprint, and hoping the vendor's download link still works next semester.

Today, K12Panel adds winget packages: the Windows Package Manager community catalog, built right into the place you already look for software. Search for an app, click Action, and create a Deploy or Undeploy modifier. That's it — there's no blueprint to build, subscribe to, or keep up to date.

What's winget?

Winget is Microsoft's Windows Package Manager, included with Windows 11. Its community catalog lists thousands of apps, each described by a manifest that pins the exact installer, its silent-install switches, and the installer's SHA-256 hash. Winget checks that hash on the computer before it installs anything, so a swapped or tampered download is refused.

K12Panel reads Microsoft's catalog every night, so the list you search is always current. Today, more than 7,000 packages can be deployed through K12Panel, from browsers and PDF readers to planetariums, 3D printing slicers, and programming tools.

Find an app where you already look

Winget packages appear right in Blueprints › Team Blueprints search:

1. Type an app name, publisher, or package ID — say, stellarium.
2. Your team blueprints are listed first, so the blueprints you and your partners already rely on stay on top.
3. Matching winget packages follow, marked Winget Community, with the package ID, latest version, and a short description.

Want to browse winget packages on their own? Choose Winget Packages in the Library filter.

One Action button, two choices

Click Action on any winget package to see its publisher, description, license, and website, then choose:

• Create Deploy — installs the package on the computers in the asset groups you add the modifier to. Pick any version (install it if it's missing), at least a version (install or update older copies), or exactly a version.
• Create Undeploy — uninstalls the package from those computers.

K12Panel names the modifier for you — Winget: Deploy Stellarium or Winget: Undeploy Stellarium — or you can type your own. Add it to an asset group, and computers pick it up at their next check-in.

Already created one? Action shows Open Deploy modifier or Open Undeploy modifier instead of making a duplicate. Your winget modifiers also appear on the Modifiers page and on asset and asset group pages, like every other modifier.

Smart about what's already installed

Before running anything, K12Panel checks what's installed on each computer, using the uninstall information in the package's manifest — without downloading anything. So:

• Deploy runs only when the app is missing, or older than the version you asked for.
• Undeploy runs only when the app is actually installed.
• Every result lands in the modifier's report and each asset's modifier history as a short, readable line — "installed or already up to date", "uninstalled" — with winget's result code for anyone who wants to dig deeper.

Some packages show Can't deploy yet. Their manifests don't include enough information for K12Panel to tell reliably whether the app is installed, so we'd rather not guess. The catalog refreshes nightly, so this changes as publishers improve their manifests.

Nothing to maintain

Winget packages work differently from traditional blueprints on purpose. Behind the scenes, K12Panel keeps two managed blueprints in your organization — Winget Install and Winget Uninstall — and every winget modifier runs on one of them. You don't subscribe to them, they don't clutter your libraries, and when we improve how they work, the improvement reaches every organization automatically.

That also means no per-app blueprints to build, no payloads to host, and no checksums to update when a vendor ships a new version.

Search winget packages without signing in

Evaluating K12Panel, or planning next year's software list? The public Panel Blueprint Catalog now includes a Winget packages search — no account required. Each result shows whether K12Panel can deploy it, with a link straight into Team Blueprints when you're ready.

AI assistants can use it too. Point your favorite assistant at my.k12panel.com/llms.txt and ask, "Can K12Panel deploy Zoom?" — it can look up the real answer instead of guessing.

Good to know

• Windows 11 and the Panel Service Agent. Winget is part of Windows 11. If it isn't registered yet on a freshly imaged computer, K12Panel registers it for you.
• Installs are machine-wide. Only packages that install for all users of a computer are offered. Microsoft Store apps and per-user installers aren't included.
• On by default. Winget packages are available to every organization today. Admins can turn them off or back on in Settings, and the Team Libraries page shows whether they're on.
• Same access as Team Blueprints: Architects and above, in organizations licensed for CORE+DEPLOY.
• Third-party software. Packages are provided by their publishers through Microsoft's Windows Package Manager. K12Panel doesn't review or warrant third-party software, so check the publisher and license before you deploy — the Action dialog shows both.
• Deploy and Undeploy are separate modifiers. Don't put the same computer in groups that both deploy and undeploy the same app; like adding and removing the same printer, they'd undo each other.

Get started

1. Go to Blueprints › Team Blueprints and search for an app your teachers have been asking for.
2. Click Action, then Create Deploy.
3. Add the new modifier to a small test group, watch the report, then roll it out.

For the full walkthrough, see Knowledge Base → Deploying Winget Packages.