This is my basic setup for Windows 7 at work. Unfortunately, I am forced to use Windows due to enterprisey standards and licensing agreements. But thanks to open source software, I can make it a tolerable experience. Here's how I do it.
When we finally move to Windows 10, a lot of this might be unnecessary if I can successfully use with Windows Subsystem for Linux but I've never done that so I don't know. More to come on that.
By default, you have a Windows home directory of C:\Users<userid>. That is fine and you can use that as your home if you'd like. However, I get a little paranoid with Windows and I kind of want to control things myself and keep it crud free. So I create a directory name C:\home<userid> and set the HOME environment variable to this directory.
It keeps the stuff I intentionally install and work on separate from the Windows home that's filled with all kinds of other crap I don't care about.
- Git - https://git-scm.com/downloads
- wget for Windows - https://eternallybored.org/misc/wget/1.19.4/64/wget.exe
- Emacs for Windows
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/download/v2.18.0.windows.1/Git-2.18.0-64-bit.exe
I've stopped doing this. Now in Double click mode.
If you are coming from a Mac, going back to double clicking on things is maddening. Turn on single click and it feels more natural.
- Open Windows Explorer
- From the menu, Tools > Folder Options
- Select "Single Click on item to open"
Again, coming from a Mac, the direction of the mouse wheel is backwards on Windows. Fix it by following these instructions: https://www.vvse.com/blog/blog/2012/02/27/reverse-scrolling-on-windows-7/
As an Emacs user, I make heavy use of the Ctrl key. It's unnatural where it is so I remap it to the Caps Lock key. Some people like remapping Ctrl to Caps Lock but I find there is no real need for a Caps Lock key.
For my keyboard of choice, the Vortex Pok3r, you can do the remap by programming one of the non-default layers. The default layer is not programmable.
To reprogram the CapsLock on Layer 2:
- FN + R_Ctrl to enter programming mode -> second LED under space bar is now lit
- CapsLock then: L_Ctrl then: PN to confirm
- FN + CapsLock then: L_Ctrl then: PN to confirm
- FN + R_Ctrl to exit programming -> second LED extinguishes
This works great if I am sitting at my desk typing on my Pok3r. However, I often have to undock my laptop and work off the laptop keyboard. In this case, I need to have the Caps Lock remapped at the Windows level.
- Run regedit.exe
- Drill down to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
- Add a new Binary value here named "Scancode Map"
- Set the value of Scancode Map to:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
02 00 00 00 1d 00 3a 00
00 00 00 00
If you really want to swap Caps Lock and Left Ctrl, set the Scancode Map to:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
03 00 00 00 1d 00 3a 00
3a 00 1d 00 00 00 00 00
I am always playing around with fonts but I've settled on Hack as my favorite font for terminal and text editor. You can download it from:
https://sourcefoundry.org/hack/
Formerly, I liked Inconsolata which is still a great font. Download it from the official Github repo at https://github.com/google/fonts/tree/master/ofl/inconsolata.
- wget
- cURL
- DBeaver
- Dexpot
- Emacs, obviously
- Fiddler
- GIMP
- Git with Git Bash
- Java JDK
- KDiff3
- Node and npm
- Pandoc
- Postman
- Python 2.7
- SoapUI - maybe
- WinSCP
See the git config files in the git subfolder. Copy them to $HOME and add the '.' at the beginning.
npm config set registry http://nexus.bcbst.com:8080/repository/npm-public/
Sometimes you have to build Node packages from source. This means node-gyp which depends on Python and a C++ compiler. Use the Windows Build Tools to set this up properly.
https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp https://www.npmjs.com/package/windows-build-tools
See my dotfiles repo for configuration of bash. See my emacs.d repo for configuration of Emacs.
References:
- https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MovingTheCtrlKey#toc19
- https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs
- https://github.com/google/fonts/tree/master/ofl/inconsolata
- https://github.com/davidjenni/pok3r-layouts
Check back for more great Windows hacks later. ;)