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Windows 11 Setup

This guide was created using Microsoft Windows 11 Pro

Version 21H2 build 22000.194

Installation

System Updates:

  • Settings -> Windows Update
  • Install all updates

Powershell Execution Policy:

  • launch Windows Powershell as administrator and execute:
  • Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
  • Enter A to accept all changes

Install Chocolatey:

  • To install Chocolatey, follow the instructions here.
  • Restart your console (as administrator) to take advantage of the updated path.
  • Set Chocolatey polices (prevents a prompt for each package):
choco feature enable -n allowGlobalConfirmation  
choco feature enable -n allowEmptyChecksums

Install Chocolatey packages:

choco install googlechrome sql-server-management-studio visualstudiocode windirstat nodejs notepadplusplus 7zip paint.net grepwin p4merge postman dotnetcore sourcetree conemu poshgit vim firefox greenshot winaero-tweak irfanview quicklook
  • If this computer is not a VM:
choco install zoom slack evernote dropbox pia microsoft-teams sharpkeys

Windows terminal

Visual Studio 2019:

  • Community Edition is free.
  • Download and run the installer
  • Select the following workloads:
    • ASP.NET and web development
    • .NET Core cross-platform development
    • Desktop development with C++ (for the compiler tools)
  • On startup, choose the Web Development (code only) profile and dark for the theme.

Resharper

  • Download and run the installer
  • Choose skip on all non-Resharper options

SQL Server 2019 Developer Edition:

  • Download and install
  • Select Basic installation type

System Configuration

Install a code font:

  • Install a font from Nerd Fonts
  • I use Hack (Hack Regular Nerd Font Complete Mono.ttf)

Caps Lock (Not necessary in Parallels)

  • Launch SharpKeys
  • Map Caps Lock (00_3A) to Escape (00_01)
  • Click "Write to Registry"
  • Reboot

set git config defaults:

  • git config --global user.name "H. Alan Stevens"
  • git config --global user.email "ChangeMe@gmail.com"

Rename This PC

  • Settings -> System
  • Under the computer name on the right click "rename"
  • Restart your PC

UAC

  • Run msconfig
  • Select the Tools tab
  • Click on "Change UAC Settings" and click Launch
  • Configure to taste

Taskbar:

  • Right click the taskbar, select Taskbar settings
  • Under Taskbar items, turn off all four options
  • Scroll down to Taskbar behaviors, Taskbar alignment: Left

Context Menus

  • Launch WinAero Tweaker (Installed above)
  • Windows 11 -> Classic Full Context Menus
  • Enable classic full context menus

Desktop

  • right click on the desktop -> view -> uncheck show desktop icons
  • right click on the desktop -> pesonalize, select a theme

Display Scale (Parallels)

  • right click on the desktop -> Display settings
  • Under Scale & layout, change Scale to 100%

Start Menu

  • right click on every app you don't want and choose unpin or uninstall
  • Settings -> Personalization -> Start ->
    • Show most used apps: off

Change Default Browser

  • Follow the instructions here

Explorer:

  • click the ellipses in the toolbar, select Options
    • General
      • open file explorer to: This PC
      • uncheck Show frequently used files in Quick access and Show frequently used folders in Quick access
      • click "Clear"
    • View
      • navigation pane (scroll to bottom) -> expand to open folder
      • click: Apply to Folders
  • Quick Access (top left)
    • unpin all folders except desktop and Downloads

Reverse scroll wheel (Not needed in Parallels)

  • Settings -> Devices -> Mouse & touchpad, Reverse Scrolling Direction
  • If no touch pad do this

Application Configuration

Evernote

  • Help > Keyboard shortcuts
  • Global > Paste to Evernote
  • Click the ellipses and choose disable
  • Do the same for Global > New note window
  • (These global shortcuts conflict with Resharper)

SourceTree

  • Tools -> Options
    • Theme: Dark

Windows Terminal

  • Settings -> Startup -> New instance behavior: Attach to the most recently used window
  • Add a color scheme:
    • download iterm color schemes:
    • Extract and copy the contents of windowsterminal\IR_Black.json
    • Settings -> Open JSON file (bottom left)
    • find the line: schemes[],
    • expand the array and paste in the contents of IR_Black.json
    • save
  • Add Git Bash:
    • Settings -> Profiles -> + Add a new profile
      • New empty profile
    • Name: Git Bash
    • Command line: C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe -l -i
    • Icon: C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\share\git\git-for-windows.ico
    • Tab title: Git Bash
  • Change font and color scheme:
    • Settings -> Profiles -> Powershell
    • Select Appearance
    • Under Text, select a Color scheme and a Font face
    • Repeat for other profiles

ConEmu

  • Launch ConEmu and save the settings file location
  • Settings -> Integration, register the explorer menu integration.
  • Settings -> Features -> Status bar, uncheck Show status bar
  • In settings -> features -> colors
    • In the schemes field, type IR_Black
  • Click save.
  • Edit %appdata%\ConEmu.xml
  • Search for IR_Black
  • Replace ColorTable00 through ColorTable15 with the lines found below:
  • IR_Black color scheme
  • Alternately, choose Settings -> import and import the contents of ConEmu.xml

Visual Studio Code

Install the following extensions(Ctrl+Shift+x):

  • C#
  • IR_Black Theme
  • PowerShell
  • Vim

In Settings (Ctrl+,)

  • Commonly Used:
    • Editor: Font Size: 14
    • Editor: Font family: Hack Nerd Font Mono
  • Security -> Workspace
    • Uncheck Trust:Enabled

Notepad++

  • Install the xml tools plugin
  • Settings -> Preferences
    • Click Dark Mode in the list on the left.
    • check: Enable dark mode
  • Settings -> Style Configurator:
    • Select Twilight from the drop down
    • Select Hack Nerd Font Mono from the font list
    • Font Size: 12
    • Enable global font
    • Enable global font size

Visual Studio 2019

Settings:

Tools -> Customize -> Extensions Menu tab, uncheck Resharper Tools -> Options:

  • Environment:
    • Fonts & Settings: Font: Hack Nerd Font Mono, Size: 14
    • General -> Color Theme: Dark
    • General -> Apply title case styling to the menu bar (should be on by default)
  • Projects and Solutions:
    • Locations -> Projects Location: %userprofile%\Source\
    • track active item in solution explorer
  • Debugging -> General -> uncheck: Enable Just My Code
  • Source Control -> Plug-in selection: git
  • Text Editor -> All Languages:
    • General:
      • uncheck: hide advanced members
      • check: line numbers
      • uncheck: navigation bar
    • Tabs:
      • Indenting: Smart
      • Tab Size: 4
      • Indent Size: 4
      • check: Insert Spaces
  • Install ir_black color scheme
    • download: ir_black theme https://studiostyl.es/schemes/ir-black
    • Tools -> Import and Export Settings -> Import Selected Environment Settings -> Next -> No, just import new settings -> Next -> Browse to file -> open -> next -> finish

Extensions:

Tools -> Extensions and Updates:

  • Visual Studio Spell Checker

  • VsVim

    • tools -> options -> vsvim:
      • defaults -> general
      • VimRc Error Reporting: true
      • VimRc File Loading: vsvimrc files only
      • keyboard
        • Handle all with Visual Studio
        • ctrl+d: Handled by VsVim
        • ctrl+u: Handled by VsVim
      • Copy _vsvimrc to %userprofile%.
  • Productivity Power Tools

    • tools -> options -> Productivity Power Tools:
      • Custom Document Well (Sadly, this extension doesn't work in VS 2019)
        • General -> Tab Appearance: uncheck Color tabs by project
        • General -> Sorting: uncheck all
        • Advanced -> Colors and Gradients: uncheck Automatically select tab text colors
        • Advanced -> Colors and Gradients: uncheck Force flat custom colors
      • Power Commands -> Commands
        • disable (uncheck) all
        • enable to taste

Resharper

  • Log in to JetBrains.com to get a license key, or simply log in to your JetBrains account when Resharper prompts you for a license

Settings:

  • Tools -> Customize -> Extensions Menu tab, uncheck Resharper

Resharper -> Options:

  • Environment

    • Keyboard & Menus

    • Keyboard Shortcuts: Resharper 2.x or IntelliJ IDEA

    • Editor -> Editor Appearance:

      • Highlight current line
      • Highlight matching delimiters when caret is: at both sides
  • Code inspection -> Code Editing -> C#:

    • Naming Style

      • Constant fields (private): ALL_UPPER
      • Constant fields (not private): ALL_UPPER
    • Formatting Style

      • Braces Layout -> Empty Braces Formatting: Together on the same line
      • Line Breaks and Wrapping -> Break line in a block with a single statement: Force put on single line
      • Blank Lines -> Keep max blank lines in code: 1
      • Blank Lines -> Keep max blank lines in declarations: 1
      • Line Breaks and Wrapping -> Prefer wrap before operator in binary expression: check for true
      • Line Breaks and Wrapping -> Place simple property/indexer/event declaration on a single line: check for true
      • Line Breaks and Wrapping -> Place simple method on single line: check for true
      • Line Breaks and Wrapping -> Place field attribute on same line: uncheck for false
      • Line Breaks and Wrapping -> Place simple array, object and collection on single line
      • Other -> Don't indent comments started at first column: uncheck for false
  • Tools

    • External Sources: Navigation to Object Browser Import Live Templates
  • Resharper -> Tools -> Templates Explorer...

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