Machine Learning Dev PC Setup

Quick way to consistently set up a new PC with my personal dev preferences for Machine Learning.

Tested most recently on a custom built desktop with RTX 3080 GPU and Windows 11

1. Set up OS and Productivity Tools

1. Unbox and admire your shiny new hardware. Go through default OS setup.
2. Install all updates OS (including upgrading to the latest OS version if needed).
3. Launch Microsoft Store and install all app updates.
4. Enable malware protection, e.g. Windows Defender or other.
5. Download and install Microsoft Office (or other productivity suite), instructions will vary. Sign in.
6. Download Teams (or other chat service e.g. Teams, Slack), instructions will vary. Sign in.
7. Clean up Taskbar. Remove extraneous items and pin Teams, Slack, Outlook, etc.
8. Set up printers / peripherals as needed.
9. Launch Windows Terminal (from Start / Search) and pin it to the taskbar.

2. Set up Dev Tools in Windows

See comments in setup.ps1 for more information. This is an automated script that installs:

1. WSL Ubuntu
2. Winmerge
3. Git
4. Git LFS
5. ScreenToGif
6. Visual Studio Code
7. Docker Desktop
8. Azure Storage Explorer
9. Azure CLI
10. AWS CLI

To begin setup, launch Windows Terminal as an admin and paste in the following into the default (Powershell) terminal:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tjaffri/ml-dev-pc-setup/master/setup.ps1'))

After all tools are installed, close the terminal window above and open a new default (Powershell) Terminal. Then perform some basic config as follows:

git config --global user.name "<First Last>"
git config --global user.email <alias>@yourcompany.com
git lfs install --skip-smudge

aws configure

In Terminal, open a new window with the "Azure Cloud Shell" profile, then enter the following command and follow instructions:

az login

Take a moment and pin some more tools to your taskbar. I prefer to pin Winmerge, ScreenToGif and Visual Studio Code at this point.

Important Note: At this point, RESTART your machine. We continue below inside WSL Ubuntu.

3. Set up Dev Tools in WSL Ubuntu

After the restart above, Ubuntu should launch automatically. If not, you can launch it yourself (Search for it in Start). On first run, you will be asked to specify a username and password for the Ubuntu instance.

Take a moment and make Ubuntu the default in Windows Terminal. See instructions here

1. Set up git lfs using the steps here: https://github.com/git-lfs/git-lfs/wiki/Installation#ubuntu. Specifically, run:

curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/github/git-lfs/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt-get install git-lfs
git lfs install --skip-smudge

2. Configure git username:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email you@example.com

3. Set up Git Credential Manager

4. Clone your repos, then make sure credentials are persisted:

   1. git clone https://.../foo.git
   2. Specify username and password (ideally a single use token) to clone
   3. cd into the cloned repo dir, then run git config credential.helper store
   4. Run git pull again, then specify the username and password again. This time it will be persisted.