PREPARATION

Before you actually start creating packages, I recommend you install the following program packages via Chocolatey. These programs will most likely turn out very helpful down the road. You won't need all of them right away and maybe never depending on what you're packaging, but they're good to have handy. Trust me on this, they're useful, install them now before you need them. You can install them manually or download the packages.config at the end to batch install them easily with "choco install packages.config -y"

These are what I use, though there are other comparable programs that will work just fine...

• autohotkey.install - for the "hard" stuff
• becyicongrabber - "borrow" icons from programs
• elevate and/or sudo - when you forget to run as admin
• innoextract - extract files from packaged .EXEs
• marker - display/edit your markdown for package descriptions
• notepad++ - great programmer's text editor
• uninstallview - shows uninstall commands for programs
• ussf - tells you the silent install settings for many common installers
• wget - to test your download links
• winrar - extract self executing EXE files to get to the "real stuff"

Quick install to save you some typing: Right click and save the link to download the file https://github.com/bcurran3/ChocolateyPackages/blob/master/_packagingtools_/packages.config