--- title: Automate PowerShell Modules with Chocolatey Packages description: Create Chocolatey packages to automate PowerShell modules and software installations. canonical: https://adamtheautomator.com/create-chocolatey-package/ --- # Automate PowerShell Modules with Chocolatey Packages > Create Chocolatey packages to automate PowerShell modules and software installations. Source: https://adamtheautomator.com/create-chocolatey-package/ --- - Automate PowerShell Modules with Chocolatey Packages Tap to hide Home - Tutorials - Guidebooks - Instructors - Get Paid to Write - Advertising - Recommended Resources - About Adam Search for: - - - - # Automate PowerShell Modules with Chocolatey Packages Published:1 August 2019 - 2 min. read - Chocolatey - PowerShell [](https://adamtheautomator.com/author/adam-bertram/) [Adam Bertram](https://adamtheautomator.com/author/adam-bertram/) Read [more tutorials](https://adamtheautomator.com/author/adam-bertram/) by Adam Bertram! - - [](https://specopssoft.com/product/specops-password-auditor/?utm_source=adamtheautomator&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=adamtheautomator_referral_na&utm_content=display) Audit Active Directory for stale users, weak passwords, and other security risks with [Specops Password Auditor](https://specopssoft.com/product/specops-password-auditor/?utm_source=adamtheautomator&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=adamtheautomator_referral_na&utm_content=text). Table of Contents - Installing Chocolatey - Creating an NUSPEC file - How to Create Chocolatey Package - Summary XFacebookLinkedIn In this blog post, learn how to create Chocolatey package (a popular Windows packaging manager). As automation becomes more of necessity rather than a nicety, it's important we IT folk look at better ways to perform menial tasks; one of those tasks is installing software. Rather than download an MSI, double-click on it and run through the wizard, it would behoove you to think of a better way. Not a reader? Watch this related video tutorial! Not seeing the video? Make sure your ad blocker is disabled. Nearly all software has command-line switches to install silently, and if you perform enough research, you might figure out the right switches. Your install might then look like this: > install.exe /q /n /e /noreboot Are you going to remember all of those switches? Probably not. You could put these switches in a batch file and then forget where you put that script or you could do this: Install-Package -Name AcmeSoftware Now that's something that can be remembered easily. But how would you get to that point? The answer is a [NuGet](https://adamtheautomator.com/nuget-package-manager/) repository and a NuGet package. [NuGet](https://www.nuget.org) is a traditional software packing technology that allows you to essentially wrap up a piece of software which can then be stored in a repository, downloaded and installed at will. Chocolatey is a favorite open source tool that uses [NuGet](https://adamtheautomator.com/nuget-package-manager/) to allow IT administrators to download and silently install software. In this article, I'm going to assume you've already got a NuGet repository setup or you know where you're going to send your package. Let's take a piece of software and wrap it up in a NuGet package for use in one of these repositories. ## Installing Chocolatey Since [Chocolatey](https://adamtheautomator.com/install-chocolatey/) is not installed by default on a Windows operating system, it must be downloaded and installed. It can be downloaded and installed by running this in a PowerShell console: PS> iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')) ## Creating an NUSPEC file To create a Chocolatey package, you first must create an NUSPEC file. An NUSPEC file is an XML package manifest that describes the package contents. This NUSPEC file must be in a particular format. Here's a sample NUSPEC file using only the required elements: MySpecialSoftware 1.0 Some software I'm packaging up. Adam Bertram For the complete rundown of all the tags that can be used refer to the [NUSPEC reference](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/reference/nuspec). ## How to Create Chocolatey Package Next, create the package. To do this, we use the Install-ChocolateyInstallPackage command. Let's pretend that the software we're packaging up is an EXE and the switches to install it silently are /s. We must send the file location along with the silent switches to use to the command. PS> Install-ChocolateyPackage -PackageName 'AcmeSoftware' -FileType 'exe' -File 'C:\install.exe' -SilentArgs '/s' This command will create the package. Next, we'll need to pack the package using the choco exe. PS> choco pack Once the software has been packaged up, it's now in a format to where you can publish to a Chocolatey repository of your choice. ## Summary This process can be repeated for each piece of software you need to deploy via Chocolatey. As you can see, there are only a few additional steps that must take place to get the software "Chocolatey-ready." By doing so now allows you to get back to doing tasks that matter rather than figuring out how to deploy software to a bunch of machines at once! If you'd like a deep dive more after you learned how to create Chocolatey packages, be sure to check out the [Chocolatey docs](https://docs.chocolatey.org/en-us/create/create-packages). Learning How to Create Chocolatey Package Hate ads? Want to support the writer? Get many of our tutorials packaged as an ATA Guidebook. [Explore ATA Guidebooks](https://adamtheautomator.com/ata-guidebooks/) ## More from ATA Learning and Partners - ### Recommended Resources! Recommended Resources for Training, Information Security, Automation, and more! - ### Get Paid to Write! ATA Learning is always seeking instructors of all experience levels. Regardless if you’re a junior admin or system architect, you have something to share. 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