# Windows Setup * Desktop: turn off hibernation * Open admin cmd prompt: `powercfg.exe /hibernate off` * Disable power throttling: * Windows key + r, `gpedit.msc`. * Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Power Throttling Settings. * Double-click the `Turn off Power Throttling` policy. * Select Enabled. * Disable reserved bandwidth * Windows key + r, `gpedit.msc`. * Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > QoS Packet Scheduler > Limit reservable bandwidth * Enable it and set the % to 0. * Enable ultimate power plan (alternatively make a new plan and set the min/max processor speed to 100%) * Open cmd as admin, run `powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61` * Can now select the ultimate power plan in power options. * Create a power plan for software benchmarking * This will disable turbo boost and general lock the frequency to base-ish clock. This can help keep cpu temps stable (hot temps affect clock) and it avoids variable clock changes. * AFAIK this only works for Intel CPUs; not sure how to do the same thing on AMD. * In the power plan set the processor min/max speed to 99%. * Disable Windows error reporting dialog so that when stuff crashes you can get to a debugger faster. * Open an admin cmd prompt and run the file `disable-windows-error-reporting-dialog.bat` from this directory. * Optional: disable Windows Defender real-time protection: * This can speed up compilation times since Defender will scan every file written to disk. I was able to shave off ~2-5 seconds in a particular project. * If you'd rather keep real-time protection active then you can add specific files or folders to the Defender exclusion list in the Windows Security settings, however I did some testing and didn't see any speedup when excluding a project folder. * Go into the Windows security settings and disable `Tamper Protection`. * Start menu, search for `gpedit.msc`. * Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Defender Antivirus -> Real-time Protection * Double-click the `Turn off real-time protection` policy. * Select Enabled (you may have to restart PC). * If you want to re-enable then change the policy to `Not configured` and re-enable tamper protection. * Disable `Enhance Pointer Precision`: * Mouse Properties -> Pointer Options -> Motion section * Disable various Window features: * Go to Add/Remove Programs -> Turn Windows features on or off * Disable: * Internet Explorer 11 * Legacy Components - DirectPlay * Media Features - Windows Media Player * Microsoft Print to PDF * Microsoft XPS Document Writer (and any other XPS components) * Print and Document Services - Internet Printing Client & Windows Fax and Scan * Windows PowerShell 2.0 (current version is 5+ as of 2021-03-05) * Laptop: change touchpad sensitivity to medium or high in order to prevent mouse movement when palm touches the pad while typing. * If using a Lenovo then disable touchpad lock in the Lenovo Vantage app. * Map caps to left-ctrl using sharpkeys * Restore classic Windows Photo Viewer app (the default Win10 photos app is fucking awful): * Run photo_viewer.reg from this folder. * You'll need to change the default app for the various image extensions. Don't change gif types though because photo viewer doesn't support animations. * Now run disable-are-you-sure-you-want-to-open-with-the-default-program-dialog.reg to stop it from occasionally asking if you still want to use photo viewer. * Add custom hosts file * Run notepad as administrator * Open C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/hosts * Add contents of the hosts file from this directory * Restart PC * Note: POS Windows may periodically reset this file to the default state so you'll want to check it every so often. * Change explorer options so that file extensions are always displayed. * Disable the WinSAT task which is used to figure out your Windows performance score. It eats up processor time and is generally useless. * Open task scheduler. * **note** If you see an error about a selected task {0} no longer existing then you'll need to repair the task scheduler. See https://www.thewindowsclub.com/the-selected-task-0-no-longer-exists-error-in-task-scheduler * Go to `Local` -> `Microsoft` -> `Maintenance` and disable the WinSAT task. * Setup a symbol server: * Right-click My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced Tab -> Environment Variables * Add a new System Variable called `_NT_SYMBOL_PATH` * Set the value to `SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols`, replacing the first path to where you want the symbols to live. * Configure crash dump storage location for projects via the registry. * Increase TDR setting for GPU Driver * TDR determines the length of time that a GPU can hang on a computation until the OS restarts the driver. By default this is set to a few seconds so you can experience app crashes when using GPU intensive software, like 3D modeling or texturing. To increase the duration, follow this guide: https://web.archive.org/web/20191107173337/https://docs.substance3d.com/spdoc/gpu-drivers-crash-with-long-computations-128745489.html ## Windows 7 Stuff * Enable clear text * Disable Win 7 Fault Tolerant Heap * I know know why anyone would want to spend large amounts of CPU time to hide application instability. * https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/Win7AppQual/fault-tolerant-heap * Disable on system via regedit: set the REG_DWORD value `HKLM\\Software\\Microsoft\\FTH\\Enabled` to `0`. ## Windows 10 Stuff * Disable the Windows Customer Experience Improvement program via group policy https://www.ghacks.net/2016/10/26/turn-off-the-windows-customer-experience-program/ * Install the Windows SDK https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-10-sdk * Will install to c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10 * Download [O&O ShutUp10](https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10) and disable things. ## Setup Terminal * Install [MSYS2 w/ MinGW-w64](http://www.msys2.org/) to `C:\msys64` * MinGW is intended for developing native Windows applications. MSYS is for developing software that runs inside of the MSYS2 posix-like env with FHS style filesystem naming (i.e. MSYS2 tools/packages). * Open `C:\msys64\mingw64.exe` * Run `pacman -Syu`, then restart the terminal and run `pacman -Su`. * Run `pacman -S base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain bc` * Use `C:\Users\` as the terminal $HOME by editing `C:\msys64\etc\nsswitch.conf` and changing the `db_home` value to `windows`. * You may need to work around an issue with envsubst.exe - you'll know there's a bug if git displays `not a valid identifier line 89: export: dashless` or rebase complains about `new_count`. * To patch, cd into `/mingw64/bin` and run `mv envsubst.exe envsubst.exe_backup`. Now run `pacman -S gettext` and verify that `which envsubst` reports back `/usr/bin/envsubst`. * Bug report is at https://github.com/Alexpux/MSYS2-packages/issues/735 * Use `C:\msys64\mingw64.exe` if you want to compile native binaries and `C:\msys64\msys2.exe` to build msys binaries. * You can also load the shell with a batch file. This allows you to do some setup work, like run `vcvarsall.bat`, eg. ```batch REM saved as shell-64.bat @echo off REM For VS2015: call "drive:\path-to-vs2015\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x64 REM For VS2017: REM call "drive:\path-to-vs2017\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" x64 REM For VS2019: REM call "drive:\path-to-vs2019\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" x64 REM Disable CRT heap debug stuff. See https://preshing.com/20110717/the-windows-heap-is-slow-when-launched-from-the-debugger/ set _NO_DEBUG_HEAP=1 call C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64 -use-full-path exit ``` * This will launch a 64-bit env. If you need 32-bit then replace x64 above with x86. * Now you can make a system32 cmd line shortcut that will be used to launch the batch file. e.g. * `target:` `%windir%\System32\cmd.exe /k drive:\path-to-bat-file\shell-64.bat` * `start in:` `drive:\some-path` * Setup git completions for bash (note: shouldn't have to do this if you ran the install script): * `curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash -o ~/.git-completion.bash` ### 32-bit dev tools * Load a 32-bit shell * Install toolchain: `pacman -S mingw-w64-i686-toolchain` ## Setting up dev tools * Download the Windows 2003 Resource Kit in order to get tools like `list.exe` (command line hex editor) * URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657 * Installer will display a compatibility warning. Ignore it. * Full list of tools can be found here https://www.technlg.net/windows/download-windows-resource-kit-tools/ ## Setting up Vim ### Compiling on Windows (optional) * Open the shell with `C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd` -- If you don't do this then vim will not compile. * Run `pacman -S --needed base-devel msys2-devel gawk perl python2 python3 ruby libiconv ncurses-devel libcrypt-devel` * Clone MSYS2 packages: `https://github.com/msys2/MSYS2-packages` * cd into the vim package * Edit `PKGBUILD` and change the version number to the one you want to build. You can see the available versions at `https://github.com/vim/vim` * Run `makepkg` * If checksums fail then generate new ones: `makepkg -g -f -p PKGBUILD`, copy the output, edit `PKGBUILD` and replace the checksums array with the new values. * Run `makepkg` again * If it fails to apply a patch then you'll need to make the fixes yourself: * Clone vim (`https://github.com/vim/vim`), cd into `vim/src`. * Modify the file(s) that they failed patch was changing and make the correct fixes. * Commit the change. * Generate a patch file with `git diff commitid1 commitid2 > newpatch.patch` * Copy the patch to `MSYS2-packages/vim` and use the same name as the original patch that failed. * Regen the pkg checksums and add them to `PKGBUILD`. * Run `makepkg` again. * Once built, install it with `pacman -U ${package-name}*.pkg.tar.xz` ### Configuring 1. Open Vim and run `:PlugInstall` to fetch all plugins. 2. Create a tmp folder for swap files (i.e. `set directory` and `set backupdir`). Place these at `~/.vimrc.private` so that the main vimrc file can source it. We do it this way so that you can have a tmp folder path that is specific to your setup. ### Setting up Custom Search * First install Rust. See `Setting up Rust` below. * Setup `ripgrep`: * Open an `msvc x64` shell and run `cargo install ripgrep`. **Note** the last time I did this I got linker errors saying that it was trying to link an x86 exe in a 64-bit env. I had to run the `msvc x86` shell instead. * Verify it works by running `rg` in a shell. * You may get compilation errors when updating the package. This are likely the result of having an outdated Rust compiler. Try running `rustup update` and then retry the package installation. ### Setting up ctags * Download the latest Universal ctags build: https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags-win32/releases * Place ctags.exe and readtags.exe in `~/bin` or in `~/.dev/tools`. ## Setting up Visual Studio * Use an install path with no spaces in it `/x/programs/vs15` * Select custom install and check off the C++ language support. * Once installed, open Visual Studio and go to `Tools` -> `Options`. Open `Debugging` -> `Symbols` and add the path to the cached symbols directory that you set up above under `Setup a symbol server`. * Open the `Visual Studio Layout` folder in this directory and copy the file to `%LOCALAPPDATA%/Microsoft/VisualStudio/{VisualStudioInstanceID}`. You can now apply the custom layout in VS: `Window -> Apply Window Layout -> Campo` ## Setting up Cygwin * Can create symlinks to dotfiles using the git bash shell. The cygwin home directory is likely going to be `C:\cygwin\home\`. * Build [rlwrap](https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap) ## Setting up Rust * Install `rustup`: https://win.rustup.rs/ ## Setting up Go * Installer: https://golang.org/doc/install ## Setting up Clojure * Install Lein: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/technomancy/leiningen/stable/bin/lein.bat ## Setting up Xbox stuff * Install the xbox controller drivers * Turn off stats collection * cmd-r, msconfig.exe, startup tab, uncheck `Microsoft Xbox 360 Accessories`. ## Turn off various startup processes * cmd-r -> msconfig.exe -> startup tab ## Setting up Wacom tablet * Install the shitty Wacom driver. * Preemptively deal with future issues in Photoshop by saving the `PSUserConfig.txt` file in this directory to `%APPDATA%\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop XX\Adobe Photoshop XX Settings` (should take you to AppData/Roaming) * In Wacom tablet settings look at the mapping tab and make sure "Use Windows Ink" is unchecked. * These steps are from [FlippedNormals - Fixing All Issues with Your Wacom Tablet and Photoshop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGi47EWEkuY) ## Software * Install [Desktop Restore](http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm) * Install Android platform tools to get adb.exe: * Download [Android commandline tools](https://developer.android.com/studio/#downloads) * Unzip and place the contents into the folders `cmdline-tools/tools/` * Run the sdkmanager.bat script to install the tools: `$ ./cmdline-tools/tools/bin/sdkmanager.bat "platform-tools"` * You can now add the platform-tools dir to your path if you want, or just symlink `adb` to `~/bin`. ### Youtube-DL * In order to combine audio and video files you need ffmpeg. Download from https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ and place the exe's in `~/bin`. ### Spotify * If you install an older version then you'll need to block the auto updater: * Go to `%APPDATA%\Spotify` and create `Spotify_new.exe` and `Spotify_new.exe.sig` * Set both as read-only. I did this by denying all permissions to the active user account. * Spotify caches song data in `C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Spotify\Data` and this path cannot be modified within the app settings. This is an issue if your main drive is an SSD, as you want to limit the amount of writes to it and you may not have a lot of free space. The simplest way I found to stop this is to change the `Data` folder's permissions (under the Security tab) and deny all properties for the user account.