An Interesting Experience To Install Software On Windows 7

An Interesting Experience To Install Software On Windows 7

My Windows 7 is for fun, it is outdated, sitting there for several years doing nothing. I just want to play around with it before I upgraded to Windows 10. To install some software like Java, Growl and Python.

After having some fail attemps, I feel like Windows system is a big pile of junks messy software code, around 15-20Gb, but still can find something useful out of it.

The process is interesting, so I write it down.

Software Package Manager

The original software manager from Windows is always not good. The first things I am doing is install a 3rd party software manager tools to help me to get the job done. I have tried Scoop many years ago, now I want to try something else, there are quite a few 3rd party tools available, like Chocolatey, OneGet, AppGet. All fail to be installed as Windows 7 is just too old.

Microsoft came out a new software manager, WinGet on May 2020, it is new and only support Windows 10. It is a copycat of AppGet. So my first choice is try AppGet.

AppGet

AppGet fail for the first time, it was unable to download and update the dot net framework. AppGet base on .Net. Later I try the second time, it was able to download the dot net framework. It says AppGet was installed, but I can't find the appget.exe!!

Chocolatey

Let's try Chocolatey. Requirement Windows 7+, PowerShell v2+, sounds good to go.

There are a few methods to install, first try install from PowerShell. It says need PowerShell v3, mine is v2.

PS C:\> Get-Host
==> Version: 2.0

Try Basic Cocolatey Install: cmd

@"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"

Exception calling "DownloadString" with "1" argument(s): "The underlying connec tion was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send."
At line:1 char:54
+ iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString <<<< ('https://chocolat ey.org/install.ps1'))
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

Try PowerShell, fail.

PowerShell

Try upgrade to PowerShell. I have tried a few times before successfully updated to PowerShell 5.

You can try by installing the WMF 5.1 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/windows-powershell/wmf/setup/install-configure?view=powershell-7.1#download-and-install-the-wmf-51-packagePowerShell 5

Scoop

I have tried Scoop before, it was working, but now it says it need PowerShell v5.

Try to upgrade to PowerShell v5, but install Windows Management Framework 5.1 fail! (I have tried a few more times before I succeed)

PS C:\> iwr -useb get.scoop.sh | iex
iwr : The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel.
At line:1 char:1
+ iwr -useb get.scoop.sh | iex
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-WebRequest], W...
eption
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId :
WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand

You need to upgrade PowerShell to get it work. In my opinion, is not a good idea to write the installation script, rely on PowerShell.

Python: missing DLL

I have tried a few version 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 32bit and 64bit version, all having 1 problem:

Error:Error: api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer…...

No luck, still unable to solve.

FULL STOP. Oh Microsoft!!!