Pins, Export & Import

These features have no COM API at any WinGet contract version (verified against the winget-cli IDL). They are the library's single deliberate exception to "no CLI": they run winget.exe behind the isolated IWinGetCliClient interface, exposed through IPackageManagementService.

Pinning packages

Three pin kinds exist:

Kind	Effect
Pinning	Excluded from bulk "upgrade all"; explicit upgrade still allowed
Gating	May only upgrade within the pinned version pattern (e.g. 2.44.*)
Blocking	Cannot be upgraded at all until the pin is removed

// List pins
var pins = await packages.GetPins();

// Plain pin
await packages.Pin("Git.Git");

// Gating pin: only 2.44.x upgrades allowed
await packages.Pin("Git.Git", version: "2.44.*");

// Blocking pin
await packages.Pin("Git.Git", blocking: true);

// Remove
await packages.Unpin("Git.Git");

Pin/Unpin always pin the package definition itself. The lower-level IWinGetCliClient.AddPin/RemovePin also accept a pinInstalledVersion flag to pin the currently-installed version specifically — not exposed through the service layer.

Export

Snapshot the machine's installed packages to a winget import-compatible JSON file:

var result = await packages.Export(@"C:\backup\packages.json", includeVersions: true);

Non-zero exit with a valid file

winget export exits non-zero when some installed applications aren't available in any source — the file is still written for everything it could map. Check whether the file exists rather than treating a non-zero exit as total failure.

Import

Install everything a previously exported file lists:

var result = await packages.Import(@"C:\backup\packages.json",
    ignoreUnavailable: true,    // skip packages no longer in any source
    ignoreVersions: false);     // false = honor exported versions

CLI results

CLI-backed operations return a CliOperationResult — since there is no structured COM result, it captures the process outcome directly:

Property	Meaning
Succeeded	ExitCode == 0
ExitCode / ExitCodeHex	Raw exit code; hex form matches WinGet's documented APPINSTALLER_CLI_ERROR_* HRESULTs
Output / Error	Captured stdout/stderr

How winget.exe is located

The shim resolves winget.exe via the per-user App Execution Alias first, then falls back to globbing the WindowsApps package directory and picking the highest version — the same strategy enterprise deployments (Winget-AutoUpdate) use, which matters because service/SYSTEM contexts have no App Execution Alias. If neither works, WinGetUnavailableException is thrown.