How to Install AAS WorldWide Telescope Silently with winget on Windows

Need AAS WorldWide Telescope on a server, golden image, or developer workstation without anyone watching the screen? winget's silent install handles it in seconds. Here's the recipe and the gotchas.

TL;DR

Open Terminal as Administrator and run:

winget install --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope -e --silent --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements

AAS WorldWide Telescope: Tool for showcasing astronomical data and knowledge

Typical install time: 10–60 seconds depending on installer size.

What gets installed

Field	Value
Package ID	`AAS.WorldWideTelescope`
Publisher	American Astronomical Society
Installer type	Windows Installer (MSI)
License	MIT License
Latest version	6.1.2
Minimum OS	10.0.0.0
Homepage	worldwidetelescope.org

MSI installers accept /quiet (no UI) and /norestart (skip reboot). winget passes both automatically with --silent.

Per-user install (no admin)

If you don't have admin rights, try per-user scope:

winget install --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope -e --scope user --silent

If the manifest doesn't have a user-scope installer, winget falls back with an error — in that case you genuinely need admin or use the Access denied fix.

Specify a version

To pin a known-good version (useful for reproducible CI / team standardisation):

winget install --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope -e --version 6.1.2 --silent

List available versions:

winget show --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope --versions

Override silent flags

If winget's --silent doesn't fully suppress the installer's UI, pass native flags via --override:

winget install --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope -e --override "/quiet /norestart"

These are the Windows Installer (MSI)-native silent switches the installer recognises.

Verify after install

winget list --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope

If the version is shown, the install succeeded.

Upgrade silently

winget upgrade --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope -e --silent --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements

Or upgrade as part of a bulk weekly cron — see How to update all Windows apps.

Uninstall silently

winget uninstall --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope --silent --disable-interactivity

Detailed guide: How to uninstall Windows apps with winget.

In a provisioning script

PowerShell snippet for unattended Windows setup:

$apps = @(
  "AAS.WorldWideTelescope"
  # add more packages here
)

foreach ($id in $apps) {
  winget install --id $id -e --silent `
    --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements
}

Wrap in Task Scheduler for one-shot machine provisioning. See Fresh Windows 11 setup.

Common errors

"AAS WorldWide Telescope is already installed" — winget detected the existing install. To force-reinstall over the existing copy:

winget install --id AAS.WorldWideTelescope -e --silent --force

"Installer hash does not match" — American Astronomical Society published a new version before the winget manifest updated. Wait ~24 hours or pass --force. See hash mismatch fix.

"Access denied" / 0x80070005 — run Terminal as Administrator. See Access denied fix.

0x80073D02 — package in use — AAS WorldWide Telescope is currently running. Close it then retry. See package in use fix.