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:

• 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.
• 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.

4. 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 by setting them to Manual startup. Automatic (Delayed Start) may be preferred for some services (e.g. Google Updater Service). 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.

Scanning

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.Git includes a lot of nice GNU-style tools, such as gzip, sha1sum, and less. These are normally located under C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\. There are also some less generally useful tools; deally, you would symlink the tools you want. Alternatively, you can just add them to your PATH.

This PowerShell function may be helpful. (Small caveat: It does not check the User scope if you use System, and vice versa.)

function Add-ToPath {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory)]
        [string] $Dir,

        [ValidateSet("User", "Machine")]
        [string] $Scope = "User",

        [switch] $Prefix
    )

    $dir = (Resolve-Path $Dir).Path
    $old = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", $Scope) -split ';'
    if ($old -contains $dir) {
        Write-Verbose "'$dir' already in $Scope PATH."
    } else {
        $new = if ($Prefix) { $dir + $old } else { $old + $dir }
        $new = $new.Where({ $_ -ne "" }) -join ';'
        [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", $new, $Scope)
        Write-Host "Added '$dir' to $Scope PATH."
    }
}

Add the Git tools to your System PATH:

Add-ToPath -Scope System 'C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin'

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

Java, Rust, and Python

scoop install main/rust
cargo install cargo-update

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

scoop install main/uv

See the toolkits guide.

JavaScript

Install Node and pnpm with Scoop:

scoop bucket add main
scoop install nodejs pnpm

Windows Subsystem for Linux

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

Apps

System utils

First, install Sysinternals.

Install the command-line utils FZF and Bat:

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

Other apps

Install PowerToys, 7-zip with ZSTD support, and, of course, Notepad++.

winget install --exact --id Microsoft.PowerToys
winget install --exact --id mcmilk.7zip-zstd
winget install --exact --id Notepad++.Notepad++

Optionally, also install the GitHub Desktop, TreeSize free, UniGetUI, Files, Pandoc, ImageMagick, and VLC:

winget install --exact --id GitHub.GitHubDesktop
winget install --exact --id JAMSoftware.TreeSize.Free
winget install --exact --id MartiCliment.UniGetUI
winget install --exact --id FilesCommunity.Files
winget install --exact --id JohnMacFarlane.Pandoc
winget install --exact --id ImageMagick.ImageMagick
winget install --exact --id VideoLAN.VLC

Tweaks

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.

Better command history

To get ZSH-style command-by-prefix history scrolling with the up/down arrow keys, run

@'
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Key UpArrow -Function HistorySearchBackward
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Key DownArrow -Function HistorySearchForward
'@ | Add-Content -Path $PROFILE

File Explorer options

Under Explorer ➤ Options ➤ View, use these options. Launch folder windows in a separate process provides isolation, often preventing the desktop environment from crashing.

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.