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 and cleanup¶

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.

Enable BitLocker disk encryption 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).

Game Bar¶

Run this to disable Game Bar:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online |`
    Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*XboxGamingOverlay*"} |`
    Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online

Optional 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 (most are unnecessary). These include the Telnet Client, Windows Media Player, and PowerShell 2.0.

System settings¶

Services¶

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 few restarts.

Power settings¶

Configure your Power Plan.

In some cases, you should disable scanning in a drive to avoid the performance drops. Scanning can also cause errors because it opens file handles.

Update settings¶

Configuring via Settings¶

First, review the settings under Settings ➤ Windows Updates ➤ Advanced options. Set Active hours and make sure Get me up to date is unchecked.†

Making updates non-automatic¶

You may want to disable automatic updates to manage them yourself, something Windows doesn’t normally allow. An app I used and recommended called Win Update Stop is now paid-only. The GitHub repo Aetherinox/pause-windows-updates has a pair of registry keys, one to pause and another to resume. It worked flawlessly on my laptop, but I have only tested it on that machine. Alternatively, you can search for other apps on GitHub.

Packages and package managers¶

WinGet¶

Review the documentation for WinGet.

Powershell Core¶

winget install --exact --id Microsoft.PowerShell

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

Chocolatey, Scoop, and Snappy¶

Install three other package managers: Chocolatey, Scoop, and SnapPy. After installing Scoop, run

scoop bucket add main
scoop install main/scoop-search

PowerShell Gallery¶

Also see the PowerShell Gallery.

You can access it with the built-in PSResourceGet module. Note that PowerShellGet is deprecated.

Install packages¶

Install Git, the GH CLI, and GnuPG:

winget install --exact --id Git.Git
winget install --exact --id GitHub.cli
winget install --exact --id GnuPG.GnuPG

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).

Long paths¶

Enable system support for paths with ≥ 260 characters by executing this command:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" `
    -Name LongPathsEnabled `
    -Type DWord `
    -Value 1

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"LongPathsEnabled"=hex(1)

Next, enable support in Git by running

git config --global core.longpaths true

Programming languages and frameworks¶

Build tools¶

Install the Build Tools for Visual Studio, This is not the same as the “redistributable” package. You can use WinGet:

winget install --exact --id Microsoft.VisualStudio.BuildTools

Also install CMake and MSYS2:

winget install --exact --id Kitware.CMake
winget install --exact --id MSYS2.MSYS2

Before installing any package, check for and uninstall any existing copy under Add or Remove Programs. For example, you’ll want to uninstall the copy of Java that ships with Windows.

scoop install main/rust
cargo install cargo-update

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

Rust¶

For Rust, just install the Rust toolchain.

Java¶

For Java, download the latest Temurin JDK.

To understand why you should use Temurin, see whichjdk.com. Do not use Java 8, java.com, jdk.java.net, a pre-installed JDK, or the openjdk apt package.

Make sure it’s on your $PATH by checking the version via java --version and javac --version. Example:

openjdk 25.0.1 2025-10-21 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Temurin-25.0.1+8 (build 25.0.1+8-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Temurin-25.0.1+8 (build 25.0.1+8-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)

Python¶

For Python, install and use uv. You don’t need anything else – and you really shouldn’t use anything else.

After installing uv, use it to install the latest Python version:

uv python install --default

_[LTS]: Long-Term Support _[JDK]: Java Development Kit

JavaScript¶

Install Node and pnpm with Scoop:

scoop bucket add main
scoop install nodejs pnpm

Windows Linux Subsystem¶

Follow Microsoft’s instructions to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Then follow the Linux setup guide.

Final steps¶

Install system utils¶

First, install Sysinternals.

Install the command-line utils FZF and Bat:

winget install --exacte --id junegunn.fzf
winget install --exact --id sharkdp.bat

Finally, install PowerToys, TreeSize free, UniGetUI, 7-zip with ZSTD support, and, of course, Notepad++. Optionally include Files, Pandoc, ImageMagick, and VLC:

winget install --exact --id Microsoft.PowerToys
winget install --exact --id JAMSoftware.TreeSize.Free
winget install --exact --id MartiCliment.UniGetUI
winget install --exact --id mcmilk.7zip-zstd
winget install --exact --id Notepad++.Notepad++
winget install --exact --id FilesCommunity.Files
winget install --exact --id JohnMacFarlane.Pandoc
winget install --exact --id ImageMagick.ImageMagick
winget install --exact --id VideoLAN.VLC

Disable startup apps¶

Disable unnecessary startup apps, which are listed under Settings ➤ Apps ➤ Startup. You should periodically review this list because apps love to add themselves.

Organize the applications menu¶

Organize these two locations:

• %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
• %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Some apps end up in the parent directories (i.e. in Start Menu\); you can move them.

Organize the context menus¶

TODO

Credits: Cole Helsell drafted the original version of this guide with me.