I just noticed something odd about my latest WinGet update cycle. It worked just fine but threw a “Failed in attempting to update the source: winget” error before proceeding. When I check version info on WinGet itself it shows version v1.7.10861. Running winget show Microsoft.AppInstaller (the app name for the environment that includes WinGet) it shows version v1.22.10861.0. When I attempt to update it comes back “No available upgrade found.” When I run another general update check, it says “No installed packages…” meaning “Nothing to see here!” This makes me thing that digesting WinGet updates gets interesting — some of the time, at least. Let me explain…

Note App Installer got “Modified yesterday” (that’s an update)!

IMO Digesting WinGet Updates Gets Interesting

When I check the MS Store, I see that it updated App Installer just yesterday. This is the first time I’ve run Windows Terminal and Winget since that update. Methinks it may take an exit-restart maneuver after the update for the new stuff to take effect.

To test my theory, I fire off a new instance of Windows Terminal/PowerShell and run winget upgrade –all –include-unknown again. This time it repeats the “No installed package…” message. That lets me know things are all caught up. No mention of “Failed in attempting to update the source: winget,” either.

That may not prove my theory, but it certainly adds it a bit more credence. How did I figure this out? On my Windows 10 PC, I actually updated Microsoft.AppInstaller as part of the sequence that stated with “Failed in attempting to update the source: winget.” That got me to thinking that a winget self-update might temporarily throw off the access to its source. And, by golly, I think that may just explain what’s going on here. As I said before: it’s interesting!