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My super awesome Windows 10 πŸ±β€πŸ‰

The system setup that makes my computing experience awesome

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desktop

Disclaimer

It's been a while since I've used a Windows machine for my daily tasks (2018). Nowadays I use a Macbook, mostly due to work reasons.

Still, if I were to use Windows, all of here probably would apply. πŸ˜„

Table of Contents

Applications

I use BoxStarter in order to automate the installation of most of my applications. The process usually goes like this:

  • Install BoxStarter with . { iwr -useb https://boxstarter.org/bootstrapper.ps1 } | iex; Get-Boxstarter -Force
  • Run the BoxStarter script of this repo with Install-BoxstarterPackage -PackageName https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NickSeagull/my-windows/master/boxstarter/System-Init.ps1 -DisableReboots

The apps listed in this repo follow the following convention:

  • βœ… The app is successfully automated with BoxStarter
  • πŸ‘œ The app needs to be installed manually from the Windows store
  • ⚠ The app needs to be installed manually from its website

Productivity

⚠ spacedesk - Use my Surface Pro 6 as second screen

not the prettiest screen

  • I use a Surface Pro 6 as my secondary system that acts as a laptop/tablet
  • In some moments, I require a second screen, so spacedesk allows me to use it as a screen when I'm working at my desktop

βœ… AutoHotKey - General automation

  • AHK provides a scripting language that allows you to automate most of the things in Windows. From remapping keys, to moving the mouse, you can automate everything.
  • I have used AHK extensively in the past and I even created bots for online games with it (yes, I was THAT guy, but not always). You can imagine the power of this tool now.

βœ… Notion - All organizer

  • Notion is a software masterpiece, it makes organization seem very simple
  • Replaces a lot of tools like Evernote, Google Sheets, etc..
  • I use it mainly to organize my personal stuff

notion screenshot

⚠ 1password - Password management

  • Having the same password for all the sites is a very bad practice. I learnt this once a friend's Steam account got hacked, and with it, his email, Facebook, and everything.
  • Thanks to passwords managers like this one, I don't even need to remember my passwords.
  • For some reason, chocolatey doesn't install this properly, and it always fails.

⚠ Espanso - Text expansions

  • I try to avoid typing the typical stuff, like my name, address, etc... Espanso helps me with this task
  • Also, I don't like using acronyms, so I can automatically expand them.
  • You can find the expansions here

⚠ Simple Mind - Mind mapping

  • I use Simple Mind to brainstorm around how can I break down a problem into smaller ones

simple mind screenshot

βœ… Transmission - Torrent client

  • I use this client to share files from time to time, very minimal one, which I like.

⚠ Pennywise - Floating windows

  • Very useful for watching videos while doing other stuff
  • It's like having the ability to listen to a podcast while being able to peek into what the speaker is saying

Coding

βœ… Visual Studio Code - My main code editor

βœ… Microsoft Terminal - Terminal emulator

πŸ‘œ Windows Subsystem for Linux - Run Linux apps natively on Windows

  • Not really an app, but it needs to be installed, so it goes on this list. The chocolatey package didn't work for me, so I have to install it manually.
  • WSL allows running Linux apps on Windows, interoperating with your current files, etc... So it is a much better experience than a Virtual Box, or alike.

βœ… Docker Desktop - Containerization of apps

βœ… VcXsrv - X11 server for Windows

  • VcXsrv is great, it allows you to run graphical Linux apps on Windows thanks to the X11 protocol, make sure to:
    • export DISPLAY=:0 in the shell rc file (this is already done in my Nix config)
    • Save the VcXsrv settings to a safe folder, and add a link into the shell:startup directory.
  • If some fonts are not being rendered, it is because in VcXsrv you have to:
    • Install them inside WSL with your regular installation method (it probably includes using fc-cache)
    • Download them for Windows, and add them to the C:\Program Files\VcXsrv\fonts directory

Social

βœ… Slack - Work chat

  • I use Slack mainly for work, although I also chat from time to time in the Functional Programming one

βœ… Discord - Leisure chat

  • I like playing online games, and from time to time, I socialize in them, meaning that I have to talk to people, so I use Discord
  • On the other hand, it also allows me to talk with people from some developer communities, like AutoHotKey.

discord screenshot

πŸ‘œ Unigram - A Telegram client optimized for Windows 10

  • The regular Telegram client has some issues with DPI scaling, meaning that if I move the window from my 1080p monitor to the Surface one, it'll stay with the same resolution. This doesn't happen with Unigram, and I get integrated notifications.

Music

βœ… Spotify - Music player

  • I use Spotify on a daily basis. I love listening to many kinds of music, and specially, discovering new songs.

Command Line Apps

I use most of my command line apps from WSL, apart from a few ones described here:

Windows CLI apps

βœ… chocolatey - An apt/brew for Windows

βœ… bat - A cat(1) clone with wings

βœ… watchexec - Executes commands in response to file modifications

βœ… RunInBash - Aliases $ to run any command in WSL

WSL CLI apps

⚠ fontconfig - Font Cache updater

  • For some reason fontconfig is not installed by default in WSL Ubuntu 18.04, so I have to install it with apt

⚠ nix - A purely functional package manager

  • I install Nix by adding the following to /etc/nix/nix.conf

    sandbox = false
    use-sqlite-wal = false
    

    And by then running curl https://nixos.org/nix/install sh

⚠ home-manager - User environment management

  • Note: Install using 19.09 as the channel, instead of master.
  • I install most of my WSL CLI apps using Nix, and I manage them declaratively using home-manager
  • I can easily add packages to my home.nix file, and then run home-manager switch in order to get the newest environment.

βœ… Link Shell Extension - Context menu entry to create symlinks

  • Sometimes it is useful to create a symbolic link from a folder/file to another place. This is specially useful when dealing with configuration files that are checked in a version control system like Git.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Nikita Voloboev for his awesome my-mac-os list, without it, this one wouldn't exist πŸ™

Preferences

Set DNS to DNS.Watch

  • Docker has issues with the default DNS provided with Windows 10, to set it to DNS.Watch's servers, follow this guide.

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