Windows setup with dotfiles and choco

A collection of PowerShell files for Windows, including common application installation through Chocolatey and npm, and developer-minded Windows configuration defaults.

Features

• Uninstall unwanted Software
• Disable/Remove annoying Windows settings
• Install WSL2
• Automatically configure your taskbar and start-layout
• Install the Software you need

Structure and Explanation

What does the installation do?

You download my git-repo and execute the bootstrap.ps1 Script. It copies all needed files into your Powershell directory C:\Users\USER_XY\Documents\WindowsPowerShell and your dotfiles located in the home folder into your Home-Directory.

Folder structure

.
+-- *profile.ps1
+-- bootstrap.ps1
+-- setup
|   +-- install.ps1
+-- custom-scripts
|   +-- customStartLayout.ps1
|   +-- deps.ps1
|   +-- windows.ps1
|   +-- installwsl2.ps1
|   +-- downloadGitRepos.ps1
|   +-- LayoutModification.xml
+-- home
|   +-- .anyDotFiles
+-- profile-scrip-help
|   +-- specific-scripts
|   |   +-- HELPER-SCRIPTS
|   +-- *components.ps1
+-- README.md
+-- LICENSE

File explanation

Feel free to fork this repo and edit files to fit your needs!

• The install.ps1 Script downloads the git repository and executes the bootstrap.ps1 Script (Only needed for gitless usage)
• Powershell loads the corresponding profile-scripts (at least the profile.ps1) and executes them. They run the corresponding components Script located in the profile-script-help folder
• The Scripts in the profile-script-help/specific-scripts folder gets executed from the corresponding components Script
• The profile.ps1 executes a few Scripts that adds aliases, useful functions and checks for the correct environment variables
• The home folder contains all your dotfiles that will be moved to you home directory
• The custom-scripts folder contains useful Scripts for every Windows 10 Setup
  • installwsl2.ps1 installs the WSL of your choice
  • windows.ps1 removes unwanted Software and configures Windows to your needs
  • deps.ps1 installs all things that you need
  • customStartLayout.ps1 sets the Taskbar and StartLayout to the settings in the LayoutModification.xml (assuming you installed most of the Software from the deps.ps1
  • downloadGitRepos.ps1 downloads all your repositories. You need to setup a User Token and allow full access to your repos (otherwise only public repos will be downloaded).

Suggested steps

1. Change files to fit your need!
2. Change Execution Policy
3. Download the repo and execute the bootstrap.ps1 (Getting started section)
4. Execute windows.ps1 for cleanup
5. Check for remaining Software and Settings
6. Execute installwsl2.ps1, restart PC when prompted and execute again
7. Execute deps.ps1 to install your Software on the fresh configured System
8. Execute customStartLayout.ps1 to get your predefined StartLayout and Taskbar items

Getting started

Using Git and the bootstrap script

You can clone the repository wherever you want. (I like to keep it in ~\Projects\dotfiles-windows.) The bootstrapper script will copy the files to your PowerShell Profile folder.

From PowerShell:

git clone https://github.com/hoeffjo/automated-windows-setup.git; cd automated-windows-setup; . .\bootstrap.ps1

To update your settings, cd into your local automated-windows-setup repository within PowerShell and then:

. .\bootstrap.ps1

Note: You must have your execution policy set to unrestricted (or at least in bypass) for this to work: Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted.

Git-free install (recommended)

Note!!!: You must have your execution policy set to unrestricted (or at least in bypass) for this to work. To set this, run Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted from a PowerShell running as Administrator.

To install these dotfiles from PowerShell without Git:

iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.github.com/hoeffjo/automated-windows-setup/master/setup/install.ps1'))

To update later on, just run that command again.

Usage

Add custom commands without creating a new fork

If .profile-script-help\specific-scripts\extra.ps1 exists, it will be sourced along with the other files. You can use this to add a few custom commands without the need to fork this entire repository, or to add commands you don't want to commit to a public repository.

My .\extra.ps1 looks something like this:

# Hg credentials
# Not in the repository, to prevent people from accidentally committing under my name

Set-Environment "EMAIL" "Jonas Hoefflin <email@example.com>"



# Git credentials
# Not in the repository, to prevent people from accidentally committing under my name

Set-Environment "GIT_AUTHOR_NAME" "Joans Hoefflin","User"
Set-Environment "GIT_COMMITTER_NAME" $env:GIT_AUTHOR_NAME
git config --global user.name $env:GIT_AUTHOR_NAME
Set-Environment "GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL" "email@example.com"
Set-Environment "GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL" $env:GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL
git config --global user.email $env:GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL

Extras is designed to augment the existing settings and configuration. You could also use ./extra.ps1 to override settings, functions and aliases from my dotfiles repository, but it is probably better to fork this repository.

Sensible Windows defaults

When setting up a new Windows PC, you may want to set some Windows defaults and features, such as showing hidden files in Windows Explorer and installing IIS. This will also set your machine name and full user name, so you may want to modify this file before executing.

.\windows.ps1

Install dependencies and packages

When setting up a new Windows box, you may want to install some common packages, utilities, and dependencies. These could include node.js packages via NPM, Chocolatey packages, Windows Features and Tools, and Visual Studio Extensions from the Visual Studio Gallery.

.\deps.ps1

The scripts will install Chocolatey, node.js, and other tools. Check the "Choco Install ..." lines and disable or add what you (don't) need.

Install WSL2 (Needs Build 2004+)

To quickly get up and running with WSL2, open a new PowerShell window as "Admin" and run the following one-liner:

.\installwsl2.ps1

You need to run this script twice, one to install pre-requisites and once after the reboot to update the WSl2 kernel and install the distro (Ubuntu 18.04 recommended from MS)

Test if it works with

(Get-VM).Name # Get a list of VM names
Set-VMProcessor -VMName [TestVMName] -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

Customize your StartLayout and Taskbar

To Setup your StartLayout and Taskbar the same on every device you can run the following Script:

.\customStartLayout.ps1

It overrides the LayoutModification on your system with the file name LayoutModification.xml (exact name is important). If you want to export your Layout from your current or testing-machine just run the following command:

Export-StartLayout -Path  "C:\YOUR_CUSTOM_PATH\LayoutModification.xml"

Put the xml file into the same directory as the script and run it.

Forking your own version

This repository is built around how I use Windows and to make my setup easier and the same on all my different devices. If you want to use this on your primary OS, you may want a different configuration that reflects that, and I recommend you fork this repository.

If you do fork for your own custom configuration, you will need to touch a few files to reference your own repository, instead of mine.

Within /setup/install.ps1, modify the Repository variables.

$account = "hoeffjo"
$repo = "automated-windows-setup"
$branch = "master"

Within the Windows Defaults file, /custom-scripts/windows.ps1, modify the Machine name on the first line.

(Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem).Rename("MyMachineName") | Out-Null

Finally, be sure to reference your own repository in the git-free installation command.

iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.github.com/$account/$repo/$branch/setup/install.ps1'))

Feedback

Suggestions/improvements are welcome and encouraged!

Author

Jonas Hoefflin

Thanks to…

• @Mathias Bynens for his OS X dotfiles, which some things are inspired from.

• @Jay Harris for his dotfiles-repo, which this repository is modeled after.