Windows setup¶

A setup guide for programmers, etc., on Windows.

Hardware-specific setup¶

Intel and NVIDIA¶

I used these steps on 6 Intel+NVIDIA workstation builds.

1. Download drivers from the NVIDIA driver page.

2. Download and install the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. Open it and view the system info and temperatures.

3. Overclock:

4. Restart your computer, enter the BIOS, and open the overclocking settings. In general, you’ll want to overclock the memory to the XMP profile. This might mean a change from 2400 MHz to 3600 MHz.

5. Overclock the CPU and cache frequencies a little bit at a time. After each change, run the Intel tuning utility: Run multiple “benchmarks” and watch the temperature.

6. Install the CUDA toolkit.

Security & features¶

First, update Windows to the newest feature release. In the security settings, enable Core Isolation and Trusted Platform Module in security settings. Restart your computer. If appropriate, enable BitLocker and restart again.

Built-in apps¶

Purge Windows’s horrifically unnecessary built‐in apps. In an unmistakably irresponsible choice, Windows comes with Candy Crush. Err on the side of assuming they’re useless and shouldn’t be there. Kill it with fire (1).

Features¶

Install the Windows Developer Mode. Go to the start menu and type features. Navigate to Apps and Features ➤ Manage optional features ➤ add feature ➤ Windows Developer Mode ➤ install.

Also enable OpenSSH, uninstall Notepad and Wordpad, and disable other unnecessary Optional Features – which is most of them. These include the Telnet Client, Windows Media Player, and PowerShell 2.0.

Services and startup apps.¶

Disable unnecessary startup apps. These are under Settings ➤ Apps ➤ Startup.

Next, open the Services app. Disable unnecessary services (set them to Manual start). However, set Windows Time Service to Automatic to force an NTP sync every startup. Otherwise, your system clock can drift seconds or even minutes after a small number of restarts.

Power & update settings¶

In the power settings, disable hibernation, automatic sleep mode, and USB connection suspending. While these can save power, chances are too high that they will interfere with a long‐running job or backup.

In some cases, you will want to disable scanning in a drive. This can drop performance. It can even cause issues because it can open file handles, temporarily preventing writes; this case it to interfered with data collection on our custom hardware.

Stop automatic updates by installing Win Update Stop. Although I understand Microsoft’s rationale, it’s incredibly annoying that Windows forces a restart with short notice. This is an enormous problem on a workstation that could be running an important job while you’re away – and you don’t respond in time to postpone the update. Plus, eventually you can’t postpone further. To update Windows, first open Win Update Stop and enable updates. Disable them again when you’re done.

Chocolatey and Powershell Core¶

Install Chocolatey, a fantastic package manager. After installing, run choco upgrade all -Y. Install powershell-core (choco install powershell-core -Y) and restart your terminal, choosing PowerShell Core.

Set powershell-core as your default shell. Check the PowerShell version using: Get-Host | Select-Object Version. Make sure it’s 7+.

Install some essential packages by running

choco install -Y poshgit gh libressl gnupg rsync

choco install -Y \
  chocolatey-core.extension \
  sysinternal notepadplusplus 7zip \
  googlechrome firefox teamviewer \
  vlc ffmpeg pandoc treesizefree

Keep packages up-to-date by occasionally running choco upgrade all.

Snappy & Scoop¶

Install Snappy, a cross-platform package manager.

Install Scoop, which is great for software used for development:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
irm get.scoop.sh | iex

Git, SSH, & GPG¶

Follow the Git, SSH, & GPG guide. The SSH key and config instructions work in PowerShell because OpenSSH is installed. Note that GitHub CLI was installed via Chocolatey (in the steps above).

Language tools¶

First, check Add or Remove Programs for Java. Uninstall any versions you have installed.

Java, Rust, and Python¶

For Rust, just install the Rust toolchain.

For Java, download JDK 21 LTS from Temurin (or a newer non-LTS version if preferred). Do not use Java 8, java.com, or OpenJDK. Make sure it’s on your $PATH by checking the version via java --version in a new shell.

For Python, install and use uv. You don’t need anything else – and you really shouldn’t use anything else. Make your life easier: (1) Leave your system Python alone, (2) don’t install Python via a package manager, and (3) install and use Conda/Mamba only if necessary.

scoop install main/rust
scoop bucket add java
scoop install java/temurin-jdk

choco install -Y temurin rust

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable( \
  "Path", \
  [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine) \
  + ";C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21", \
  [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine \
)

Install Node.js:

scoop bucket add main
scoop install nodejs

Finally, install pnpm, a faster alternative to npm:

iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex

Visual C++ Build Tools¶

Install the Visual C++ Build Tools This is not the same as the “redistributable” package. Install the package without optional packages (unless they’re wanted).

Windows Linux Subsystem¶

Follow Microsoft’s instructions to install the WLS. Then follow the Linux setup guide.

*[WLS]: Windows Linux Subsystem