The system setup that makes my computing experience awesome

It's been a while since I've used a Windows machine for my daily tasks (2018). Nowadays I use a Macbook, mostly due to work reasons.

Still, if I were to use Windows, all of here probably would apply. 😄

• Security
• Productivity
• Coding
• Writing
• Social
• Music
• Web browsing
  • Firefox extensions
• Command Line Apps
  • Windows CLI apps
  • WSL CLI apps
• Set DNS to DNS.Watch

I use BoxStarter in order to automate the installation of most of my applications. The process usually goes like this:

• Install BoxStarter with . { iwr -useb https://boxstarter.org/bootstrapper.ps1 } | iex; Get-Boxstarter -Force
• Run the BoxStarter script of this repo with Install-BoxstarterPackage -PackageName https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NickSeagull/my-windows/master/boxstarter/System-Init.ps1 -DisableReboots

The apps listed in this repo follow the following convention:

• ✅ The app is successfully automated with BoxStarter
• 👜 The app needs to be installed manually from the Windows store
• ⚠ The app needs to be installed manually from its website

⚠ spacedesk - Use my Surface Pro 6 as second screen

• I use a Surface Pro 6 as my secondary system that acts as a laptop/tablet
• In some moments, I require a second screen, so spacedesk allows me to use it as a screen when I'm working at my desktop

✅ AutoHotKey - General automation

• AHK provides a scripting language that allows you to automate most of the things in Windows. From remapping keys, to moving the mouse, you can automate everything.
• I have used AHK extensively in the past and I even created bots for online games with it (yes, I was THAT guy, but not always). You can imagine the power of this tool now.

✅ Notion - All organizer

• Notion is a software masterpiece, it makes organization seem very simple
• Replaces a lot of tools like Evernote, Google Sheets, etc..
• I use it mainly to organize my personal stuff

⚠ 1password - Password management

• Having the same password for all the sites is a very bad practice. I learnt this once a friend's Steam account got hacked, and with it, his email, Facebook, and everything.
• Thanks to passwords managers like this one, I don't even need to remember my passwords.
• For some reason, chocolatey doesn't install this properly, and it always fails.

⚠ Espanso - Text expansions

• I try to avoid typing the typical stuff, like my name, address, etc... Espanso helps me with this task
• Also, I don't like using acronyms, so I can automatically expand them.
• You can find the expansions here

⚠ Simple Mind - Mind mapping

• I use Simple Mind to brainstorm around how can I break down a problem into smaller ones

✅ Transmission - Torrent client

• I use this client to share files from time to time, very minimal one, which I like.

⚠ Pennywise - Floating windows

• Very useful for watching videos while doing other stuff
• It's like having the ability to listen to a podcast while being able to peek into what the speaker is saying

✅ Visual Studio Code - My main code editor

✅ Microsoft Terminal - Terminal emulator

👜 Windows Subsystem for Linux - Run Linux apps natively on Windows

• Not really an app, but it needs to be installed, so it goes on this list. The chocolatey package didn't work for me, so I have to install it manually.
• WSL allows running Linux apps on Windows, interoperating with your current files, etc... So it is a much better experience than a Virtual Box, or alike.

✅ Docker Desktop - Containerization of apps

✅ VcXsrv - X11 server for Windows

• VcXsrv is great, it allows you to run graphical Linux apps on Windows thanks to the X11 protocol, make sure to:
  • export DISPLAY=:0 in the shell rc file (this is already done in my Nix config)
  • Save the VcXsrv settings to a safe folder, and add a link into the shell:startup directory.
• If some fonts are not being rendered, it is because in VcXsrv you have to:
  • Install them inside WSL with your regular installation method (it probably includes using fc-cache)
  • Download them for Windows, and add them to the C:\Program Files\VcXsrv\fonts directory

✅ Slack - Work chat

• I use Slack mainly for work, although I also chat from time to time in the Functional Programming one

✅ Discord - Leisure chat

• I like playing online games, and from time to time, I socialize in them, meaning that I have to talk to people, so I use Discord
• On the other hand, it also allows me to talk with people from some developer communities, like AutoHotKey.

👜 Unigram - A Telegram client optimized for Windows 10

• The regular Telegram client has some issues with DPI scaling, meaning that if I move the window from my 1080p monitor to the Surface one, it'll stay with the same resolution. This doesn't happen with Unigram, and I get integrated notifications.

✅ Spotify - Music player

• I use Spotify on a daily basis. I love listening to many kinds of music, and specially, discovering new songs.

I use most of my command line apps from WSL, apart from a few ones described here:

✅ chocolatey - An apt/brew for Windows

✅ bat - A cat(1) clone with wings

✅ watchexec - Executes commands in response to file modifications

✅ RunInBash - Aliases $ to run any command in WSL

⚠ fontconfig - Font Cache updater

• For some reason fontconfig is not installed by default in WSL Ubuntu 18.04, so I have to install it with apt

⚠ nix - A purely functional package manager

• I install Nix by adding the following to /etc/nix/nix.conf

  sandbox = false
  use-sqlite-wal = false
  

  And by then running curl https://nixos.org/nix/install sh

⚠ home-manager - User environment management

• Note: Install using 19.09 as the channel, instead of master.
• I install most of my WSL CLI apps using Nix, and I manage them declaratively using home-manager
• I can easily add packages to my home.nix file, and then run home-manager switch in order to get the newest environment.

✅ Link Shell Extension - Context menu entry to create symlinks

• Sometimes it is useful to create a symbolic link from a folder/file to another place. This is specially useful when dealing with configuration files that are checked in a version control system like Git.

Thanks to Nikita Voloboev for his awesome my-mac-os list, without it, this one wouldn't exist 🙏

• Docker has issues with the default DNS provided with Windows 10, to set it to DNS.Watch's servers, follow this guide.