When I get a vanilla Windows system, there's a bunch of stuff I change to make it more developer-friendly.
Some of it I remember every time, other stuff I only do as and when.
Examples:
I seem to remember a blog post from Jeff on this topic, but can't locate it!
What else do you do, and do you have any tools that automate this process?
I install all of the shell extensions I normally use (TortoiseSVN and CommandHere for example).
Also, one of the first things I do after I reimage a machine is make sure it's hooked to all of my network shares properly. Few things derail my work as quickly as having to fight with the network to get a file at an inopportune time.
Using the Add\Remove Windows Components in Control Panel, I always remove...
For the look and feel I...
Before installing any software I...
For tools (outside of my IDEs and other necessary development tools), I install..
I install some set of *nix command utilities and process explorer at a bare minimum.
Also, on XP systems I disable any theming and use the windows classic coloration. Vista just doesn't look or work right without the Aero theme so I can't do that on Vista without going almost completely nuts.
Also forgot, I install Chrome. (Used to be Firefox but Chrome is nicer out of the box)
Indeed I do the above, plus deactivating Zip support (regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll), activating the underscore on Alt shortcuts (Advanced Appearance), replacing Courier New by Andale Mono (replace with your favorite font) in all program settings (after installing it, of course), installing my favorite utilities (UnxUtils, Sysinternals', SciTE, FileMenu Tools which has Command line here and lot of other goodies, etc.) and so on.
Oh, and indeed also deactivate dual keyboard support (French/English), deactivate task grouping, install VirtuaWin (4 desktops), CLCL (clipboard manager), AutoHotkey and my favorite macros, and lot of other freewares, more or less must have.
No automation, alas.
I add Wordpad to the Send To context menu. Instructions for XP here. Works in Vista, as well.
Someone gave me a 'Delete all SVN folders' registry script - that is a must have for me, now (it's somewhere on this thread).
I leave UAC on - last thing I want is to write code that works with UAC off, but fails miserably with it on. Before I started to use Virtual PC to set up test environments for my code, I tried to leave my desktop as 'vanilla' as possible - I wanted to test under conditions reasonably similar to an everyday non-developer user.
All of the above is for my home development system. I try to do the same at work, within reason. Except for the SVN stuff, because we use TFS at my office.
I always install the following to make it easier to manage and interact with windows
Wow, this is a really good thread... I'm going to have to go through all the suggestions and see what I'm mission out on :)
Off the bat, I install:
When I used XP (I'm on Vista now) I'd always install Tweak UI and tweak everything to my liking. Like listing My Computer before My Documents. I remove the Help icon from the start menu. I make it so Network Neighborhood was displayed in the start menu. I have it show file extensions and show hidden files/folders.
First thing I do is making sure everything is updated and all superfluous junk in the background turned off. I hadn't done a fresh install of Windows for years until very recently, so I forgot how painful this step was (4-5 hours...)
One of the first things I do is download the ClearType Tuner from the PowerToys page. I find the OS's default settings give the text very visible colour fringes no matter which LCD I use it on, and it ends up causing eyestrain after a while. Sometimes I'll just turn it off entirely.
After that I install the usual stuff; Firefox, gVim, Command Prompt powertoy, 7-Zip, ...
For storing scripts that I use from the command line I create a Command Line Scripts directory under Program Files and add it to the PATH environment variable. I use the following batch file for listing and editing those scripts:
@echo off
setlocal
set UTILPATH=C:\Program Files\System Tools\Command Line Utilities
if not "x%1"=="x" (
start "" "notepad" "%UTILPATH%\%1.bat"
) else (
dir /b "%UTILPATH%" | grep -v com.bat | grep -P "(exe|bat|cmd)" | sed "s/\.\(exe\|bat\|cmd\)//"
echo.
)
(note that the filtering of the directory listing depends on some unix commands I have installed via Cygwin)
I give it the name com.bat, (short for command) then I can:
com at the command promptcom script-name at the command prompt*, similarly:com new-script-name at the command prompt*com com* As I'm running Vista I have to use an elevated command prompt as directories under Program Files are protected.
For a quick way to launch an elevated command prompt, simply press the Win key; type cmd; press Ctrl+Shift+Enter; and then hit Alt+C to confirm the elevation prompt. Six keystrokes to an elevated command prompt! ([via][4])
One of the scripts I store in my Command Line Scripts directory is a script that is run when I log in to windows (via the Task Scheduler, type Task in the Vista start menu). I use that script to set up several virtual drives using the subst command to directories I access frequently or want a quick way to access on the command prompt or for shortening path names in compiler warnings, logs or debug output.
My Startup script looks something like this:
@setlocal
@set _MYDOCS_=%USERPROFILE%\Documents
@REM Note: first delete the drives so I can run script again
@REM to fix drives that failed to get mapped
subst /d W:
subst /d T:
subst /d S:
subst /d R:
subst /d N:
subst /d L:
subst /d H:
subst W: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\Website\trunk\www"
subst T: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\project 1\trunk"
subst S: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy"
subst R: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\project 2\branches\12.50"
subst N: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\project 2\trunk"
subst L: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\"
subst H: "%_MYDOCS_%\My Projects\Haslers.info\Working Copy"
Note that subst can be a little temperamental and occasionally the drives don't get created and I have to run the startup script again manually.
Disable shortcuts to FilterKeys, StickyKeys, and ToggleKeys - nothing frustrates me more than having to deal with that cruddy feature because I push the shift key down several times while I'm thinking or hold it down for eight seconds (again, while thinking) before I start typing!
Change the default action for Folder to explore instead of open.
Regarding:
- Show extensions of all file types
- Make hidden and system file visible
I don't like making hidden files visible all the time (it makes two desktop.ini visible on my windows Vista desktop for starters) so I use an explorer extension to make it easy to toggle this on and off. There's also a corresponding one for file extensions:
I like to:
I also randomly open a lot of PuTTY sessions to various machines, so I like to create a "bin" directory in my home folder, add it to the PATH, and then create a shortcut to PuTTY in it named "p" (among other shortcuts). I can then easily Windows-R (run) and type p [putty-session-name] to open the session. This has saved me tons of time / mouse clicks.
Turn off Autorun so that I'm not accidentally installing malware or crapware.
Here's a couple of links, out of many:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/ht/autorun.htm http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-9894970-33.html?tag=mncol;txt
Install emacs + a selection of gnuwin32 packages.
Also proexp to replace task manager.
Install dev tools (take your pick). Source Control, DB, IDE, Unit testing tools, etc.
Assumption: I have full rights over the box.
Install latest drivers, Windows updates, Firefox, Evernote, Live Mesh, 7-zip, Digsby (for IM & social networks), Zune (for music & podcasts)
I follow the extensive recipe for making a Windows system useful built and maintained by Simon Peyton Jones.
I wipe it and install Linux. Everyone is always amazed by how productive I can be. It's because I don't spend half my time fighting with the machine.
The first thing I do is open a command prompt and then open the properties for it:
In summary: why the hell?
I guess that's not all, just everything which came in my mind.
I use nLite to prepare the windows installation disk in order to have some typical settings already set right after the installation.
For example:
You can also remove useless parts of the system:
Edi Weitz has a nice writeup of his customizations: Making Windows usable for old Linux farts
Now that my shiny new Core 2 Duo PC isn't bogged down with useless crap running like a 386, I can build it up again
ls when I try to type dir, and windows still hasn't heard of grep yetAs an alternative to cygwin I use ch it's a free unixshell + utils and is a 'c' interpreter.
Their website is a bit nephew-art but the product is excellent.
over the years i have arrived to the decision that i do as little customization as possible since workplaces change and computers change (both at home and at work).
i used to do all kinds of crazy tweaks with litestep, setting up partitions, etc. these days i pare it down to the basics, and it does not take me long to setup a machine and have a familiar environment.
in addition to the usual "win32dev" setup (classic scheme, optimized for performance, no special effects, show all files, details in explorer views, blue background, etc) i have the following stack:
everything i install by hand goes into c:\programs (for easy no-space, lowercase paths).
I wonder how many of you use nLite/vLite to create a custom installer for Windows???
My development tools get installed:
Plus many more...
Mainly : Visual Studio , SQL Server and some extensions for them such as Rock Scroll etc.
Being a web developer I install 4 other browsers (along IE) : Opera, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
Also :
Install latest service pack. Usually, I slipstream it anyway.
Prevent applications from stealing focus. http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_prevent_applications_fr.htm
Copy my command line apps (basic unix commands) and SysInternals apps.
Windows Updates
Install developer tools like Visual Studio, Eclipse, VirtualBox, etc.
I'm leaning more towards having service based applications like SQL Server be installed on a base lined Virtual Machine and run from there. That way I only have it running when I need to and I can extend the performance life of my Windows install.
All this used to happen in the past. Nowadays I'm using Linux exclusively and I'm happy with it. I'm not a fanboy, neither I'm a zealot. Linux just does the job for me so I stick to it.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned ClipX. I find that I can't develop without this clipboard history tool.