Ninite is a package management system offering that enables users automatically install popular applications for their Windows operating system. It enables users to make a selection from a list of applications and bundles the selection into a single installer package. It is free for personal use. A paid version, Ninite Pro, is available for professional use. Alternatively, a cheaper albeit less robust version of Ninite Pro known as Ninite Updater is available for users who want the ability of one-click updates without the other features offered by Ninite Pro.
Features
Ninite works on Windows 7 and later. It presents the user with a list of programs and generates a custom installer executable based on the user's selection. When run, the installer downloads and installs the selected programs. Ninite's installer always downloads the latest version of the program. This is accomplished by downloading a regularly-updated list of applications and their download URLs from the Ninite servers each time the program is run. Benefits of using Ninite rather than the individual applications' installers themselves include: toolbar/adware free installations, the ability to update multiple applications at once, automatic selection of architecture, language selection based on operating system's language, and error reporting, should one of the installations fail.
On the Ninite webpage, the user chooses software of own preference by activating checkboxes and continues with downloading the executable installer, which is preconfigured to the users custom selection. By executing the installer, the previously chosen software is unattended installed on the computer.
The Ninite installer offers discontinued or unmaintained software, and in some cases will only install outdated versions of certain programs. In some cases this may mean that security issues related to that software will never be addressed. Ninite continues to install Python v2.7 despite it being end of life. For a while the Python Software Foundation has recommended Python users upgrade to Python v3 by the end of 2019. UK National Cyber Security Centre has also indicated there may be security issues with continuing to use Python v2. As of May 2020, Ninite does offer Python v3 as an option. Microsoft Security Essentials is being discontinued in January 2020 at the same time as Windows 7. On newer versions of Windows, the same functionality is already installed with the operating system under the feature name of Windows Defender. Classic Start was discontinued at the end of 2017. Other applications that have not been updated in over 3 years include:
