Distribution of Azure CLI via package manager on Windows

[Leon99]

I don't think that distributing a CLI tool via a GUI installer makes much sense. Besides, while on Linux there are officially supported ways to install it via package managers, there is none on Windows. This creates an impression that Microsoft doesn't back their own products.
I'm aware of the existence of an unofficial Chocolatey package, but it's clearly not a first-class citizen and official documentation refuses to mention it because it's not officially maintained by MS (see MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs-cli#1342).

[tjprescott]

Thank you for your feedback @Leon99. We will revisit this as a team and update this issue accordingly.

For team discussion, the following issue is related: #3874

[tjprescott]

While there is little internal desire to take over a community-maintained release channel, I see no reason why we cannot call attention to it on the installation page.

cc/ @sptramer

[yugangw-msft]

Right now, for non UI installation option on Windows I suggest:

1. Curl the MSI and invoke silent installation of msiexec <msi> /q
2. pip

I don't agree the GUI behavior by default of MSI would disqualify its role for command line install. On the contrary, the silent install mode has been supported for a few decades and still is the most reliable
and supported way, please do use it.

[Leon99]

Neither of those options feels like a better alternative to a chocolatey package, which doesn't require any knowledge of the msi's URL/python package name/underlying technology or distribution format. Having said that, documenting either of them would be an improvement over what we see now. I keep hearing it from every single person I share the link to that documentation with - suggesting a GUI installation for a CLI tool doesn't make any sense. That is the only problem here - not that it's packed as MSI.