Npackd is a package manager for Windows: a tool that helps you find, install, update and remove applications.
Perhaps you've decided you need a PDF viewer, for instance. Normally you'd have to go online, search for applications, find one that appeals, locate the download, tell your PC where to save the file, then launch it and work your way through the installation process.
With Npackd, though, you'd start by typing "pdf" into the search box, and the program will list the six related programs that it supports (Adobe Reader, CutePDF Writer, Foxit Reader, Ghostscript, PDF Creator, PDF-XChange Viewer).
If you spot something you'd like to try, then select it on the list, click Install - and that's it. Npackd will download and install the package, without you even seeing a hint of a setup program. And it'll then keep any software it installs updated, too.
While this can be very useful, the program does have some significant limitations.
It doesn't support too many packages, for instance - just a little over 400 at the moment, and even that figure includes multiple versions of the same program.
Npackd isn't fully interoperable with your existing applications, either. We had 7-ZIP installed on our test PC, for example, but this wasn't detected and so we couldn't use Npackd to update or remove it. And the developer's site also warns that you shouldn't remove packages installed by Npackd through the Control Panel.
Still, if you're able to install Npackd on a new system then it could still be very convenient. In just a few clicks you're able to select a host of popular free software - AVG antivirus, CCleaner, Chrome, Eraser, Firefox, Foxit Reader, Gimp and more - then leaving the program to install your chosen apps while you get on with something else: a real time-saver.
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