Genesis

I've been reinstalling my box a lot lately. So this is my personal Windows 10 setup script for making initial configuration easier. I think it would save me about 30 minutes per setup; if I can automate software installs, even much more. I spent about 2 hours or so on this script in total but learned a great deal about PowerShell in return, which was a bonus.

You might I ask why I didn't use something like Microsoft Configuration Manager for that. It looked very complicated for my purposes and requires a client running on the machine which is absolutely unnecessary for my personal use. I later found out about Desired State Configuration which looks much better and doesn't require a client as far as I know, but by default it lacks many types of resources that I require and finding them in the wild seemed to be hard. I just needed a simple automation. I decided to use this for a learning opportunity.

Installation

Type this on the PowerShell prompt:

Install-Module Genesis

Running

First, examine the contents of SampleConfig.yaml and edit as necessary. Don't forget that your changes will be permanent and irreversible (I hope to fix that in the future). Then run the command below on an Administrator PowerShell prompt:

Update-SystemConfiguration SampleConfig.yaml

It will make necessary changes on your system and install Chocolatey and required packages as needed. Genesis changes system settings, it never removes a file, or uninstalls an app. So the worst can be weird settings and some additional unwanted software installed on your computer. You should still be careful running such tools though.

Roadmap

I don't want to spend too much time on this project, that's one of the reasons why I used PowerShell as it was the simplest way to do it. I'd like to add some features though:

• Add checks for non-Store apps (chocolatey integration maybe?) although I'm not very fond of Chocolatey.
• Get config file as a parameter.
• Switch to a portable configuration format.
• Use Chocolatey package provider instead of the tool
• Use readable boolean values instead of 0 and 1 for flags options.
• Better structured progress and log output
• Signed packages
• Ability to generate config files from existing state of a system.
• Support PowerShell Confirm/WhatIf system.
• Easier installation using PowerShellGet, e.g. Install-Module Genesis.
• Rollback changes
• Modularize configuration handling better.
• End-user friendly (GUI, profile management etc.).

Planned configuration options:

• Explorer Quick Access: Show recently used files and frequently accessed folders.
• Explorer System Tray: EnableAutoTray

License

MIT License. See LICENSE file for details.