4 hours Ago By Liam Proven
When you install a fresh, clean copy of Windows – say, if you're switching to the LTSC edition – Ninite is here to kickstart provisioning the new OS. Ninite is a very simple, but very clever, tool that automates the process of installing a user-configured suite of apps and runtimes onto Windows. Not only will it help you get up and running as quickly and easily as possible, but if you keep the tiny custom installer, you can re-run it later and it will update everything it originally installed to the latest version.
The Register first described Ninite in 2012 and we returned to recommend it in 2013 . That is quite a while ago – back then, Windows 8.0 was new , as was the Windows Store and its array of "modern" touchscreen-capable apps built on the foundations of .
NET and its CLR. Ninite still works, it's just as useful as ever, and if you have a brand-new Windows installation, Ninite can save you hours of work getting things working again. It doesn't just install your hand-picked bouquet of apps, it will update them too.
It's still free, although for businesses there's also a paid-for Ninite Pro tier that can also do all this remotely to provision a whole fleet with a few clicks. Now, an inauspicious 13 years after Windows 8, Windows 10 is teetering toward Microsoft's October 2025 support massacre . Windows users are meant to upgrade to Windows 11, even if that means buying new hardware because a perfectly capable PC doesn't have a TPM 2.
0 module. Since 11's launch, Microsoft has blocked loopholes , and it isn't backing down on the requirements. It even removed the documentation on bypassing them.
This week, we introduced you to an escape route: the Windows LTSC editions , the Windows 10 flavors of which will stay in support until 2027 – and 2032, if you don't mind US English. As added incentives, LTSC omits the online sign-on, OneDrive integration, the Windows Store and its "modern" apps, and more. The best way to get LTSC, though, is to back up all your data, make sure you have media and license keys for all your apps, then format and reinstall your PC.
Strictly speaking, it's a downgrade from the Windows 10 22H2 release , which means you can't do an in-place upgrade. Inevitably, this means reinstalling a lot of apps. Most users probably have some paid ones, and for them, you need to either make sure you still have your media and license keys, or that you can download the versions you want.
We can't help you there. Ninite step 1: Check off the apps you want, say, Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC, and foobar2000 – click to enlarge However, you might not need quite as many as you think. There is a lot of useful freeware and FOSS for Windows these days, and Ninite automates the process of downloading, installing, and updating it.
Visit the website, tick the apps and runtimes you want, and download one little installation program. Run it, and it will work its way through your list one by one. For each program, it checks if that program is already present and current.
If you don't have the latest version installed, your custom Ninite installer silently downloads that app, installs (or updates) it without prompting, automatically skipping or omitting all "optional extras" that might nag at you. It works through the list, tidies up the downloads, and quits. Although Ninite includes some FOSS apps, it's not all-FOSS by any means.
It includes five web browsers, ten graphics packages, 11 developer tools, six messaging apps, five document-handling tools (including two office suites), four online-storage tools, 13 media-playing tools, a BitTorrent client, three file-compression tools, over 20 different versions of .NET and Java runtimes, six anti-malware tools, 15 assorted utilities, and six more in the "Other" category including an open source screen reader. Step 2: Run the resulting custom installer.
That's it. Re-run later for updates, if you need to – click to enlarge If you are somewhat flexible in your choice of tooling, you could get everything you need for a fully usable PC here. Although this vulture mostly uses Linux and macOS, occasionally circumstances compel me to run Windows, and with the addition of Panwriter we could be entirely productive with tools off this shopping list.
(OK, we'd probably add the latest VirtualBox , and Notepad++ would suffice for our Markdown needs.) Your resulting bespoke Ninite installer is tiny and largely non-interactive – click to enlarge If you're used to using some of the built-in Windows tools that are missing from the LTSC versions of Windows, such as Microsoft's email, contacts, calendar, and messaging apps, then Ninite offers alternatives to get you up and running. One of the things this vulture likes about most Linux distros is that they come with all the productivity apps you need, preinstalled out of the metaphorical box.
Including such things in a fresh installation of Windows adds hours to the time it takes to provision a new PC. Ninite massively reduces how long that takes. Best of all, if you keep your custom Ninite installer, you can re-run it later and it will update everything you installed with it.
® If you're also missing some important device drivers, Snappy Driver Installer Origin can help you there, as we have described previously . With LTSC there's much less need for O&O AppBuster but O&O ShutUp10++ makes it trivially easy to turn off most Microsoft telemetry..
