Windows now!

Setup a Windows developer workstation in corporate environment - ASAP.

Scenario

• Corporate laptop issued, OS baseline configured already and managed externally

Philosophy

• WSL 2 + Ubuntu FTW!
• Most stuff runs inside WSL, set it as the default shell and install utils such as terraform, gcloud, awscli inside WSL
• Some things have to run on the host in powershell - like vagrant <<<--- fixme!

Todo

• Vagrant https://developer.hashicorp.com/vagrant/docs/other/wsl

Lets do it

Manual setup

• All scripts run as administrator in powershell
• Remember the .\ is backwards on Windows
• Apply all Windows updates first
• If something doesnt work try rebooting

Keyboard (Thinkpad)

BIOS/UEFI is locked. To swap FN and CTRL login to Windows, press F11 to access Lenovo Keyboard Manager. There is a switch if you scroll down to swap these two buttons

Install basic dev tools

1. Install chocolatey
   • Choose individual
   • Copy-paste the powershell codes into an Adminstrator powershell terminal
2. choco install firefox vscode git

Clone this repo

Stop git breaking line endings:

git config --global core.autocrlf false

Open new powershell terminal as user and clone the repo somewhere:

git clone https://github.com/GeoffWilliams/windowsnow.git

Execution policy to allow scripts to run

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass

Run the script

cd \this\repo
.\setmeup.ps1

Reboot as needed

App Setup

After install, some setups to do

CPU Usage

• Unfortunately not in taskbar (xmeters does this but doesnt work with Windows 11 - author contacted)
• Provided through chocolatey package: 8gadgets. Start gadgets and you get a separate giant panel which you can add a monitor to
• Start 8gadgets, choose run at startup and add the widgets you want to monitor system

Docker Desktop

• Start Docker Desktop, accept the licence
• Login with your personal Docker ID, ask IT to add your Docker ID to the corporate account
• resources -> WSL integration -> enable ubuntu integration
• Test (check powershell terminal and ubuntu - use windows terminal): docker run hello-world
• See notes on WSL Integration
• wsl --set-default Ubuntu

WSL/Windows Terminal

In the above steps, WSL and Ubuntu were installed. After reboot, setup Windows Terminal to boot Ubuntu by defualt:

1. Launch terminal
2. Arrow down menu
3. Settings
4. Default Profile -> Ubuntu
5. Save and reopen. Should now be in Ubuntu shell

Setup Ubuntu system

Now you can setup Ubuntu. Some apps like az run "magically" from windows inside WSL but most dont, so run the next script inside Ubuntu - you can launch terminal from inside VS code editing this project and you will be in the right place otherwise your Windows system files are at /mnt/c:

sudo ./setup_system.sh

You will need to reboot WSL2, see notes at bottom of this file.

Setup python

Required by xdg-open-wsl and probably other things too:

First install pyenv:

./setup_pyenv.sh

Logout, log back in again, install python:

./setup_python.sh

Logout, log back in again.

Setup Ubuntu user apps/configs

Install user apps and settings, run this script as yourself:

./setup_user.sh

The script is idempotent so run as many times as you like.

VS code

Ubuntu terminal as default:

1. File->Preferences->Settings
2. Feature->Terminal
3. Terminal: Explorer Kind -> external
4. Terminal › External: Windows Exec -> wt
5. Terminal › Integrated › Default Profile: Windows > Ubuntu (WSL)

Close, restart code. Should now have Ubuntu terminal on click

Intellij (new UI)

• Settings -> Tools -> Terminal -> Shell path -> wsl --distribution Ubuntu

Post-setup DIY

Accessing Ubuntu services from Windows

• You have a service bound to a port on WSL2/Ubuntu
• You want to access this port from Windows - eg in web browser

Follow these instructions

but use the script in this repo as the execution target: wsl2_port_forward.ps1

Notes and gotchas/Tips and Tricks

Windows update

Ill just leave this here... If your system administrator cares about this future group policy updates will re-enable things:

• Notify about available updates
• Disable automatic restarts

How to reboot WSL2

Run in powershell:

wsl --shutdown ; wsl -d ubuntu

Powershell

• Powershell 5 remains installed after installing 7x and cannot be removed without breaking system
• Always launch powershell via Windows Terminal on start menu - if you launch the old powershell icon you will get powershell 5 no matter what you do

Script errors

/bin/bash^M: bad interpreter means something has randomly converted your files from git to windows line endings. Probably git, see setup instructions above

Docker errors

• The command docker' could not be found in this WSL 2 distro.
  • Restart Docker Desktop
  • purge docker data:

WSL2

• WSL filesystem mount is so slow! microsoft/WSL#9430