Windows 10 Setup 🖥 · Manfred Touron

Image made with Paint.exe

§Introduction

I recently ordered a Microsoft Surface Book 2 with Windows 10. The last time I used a Windows for something else than playing games was in 2006.

About the “why”, here are some reasons:

to give a new trial, especially after seeing Microsoft becoming more and more “cool” company, in the Open-Source and Linux world,
to get out of my routine/comfort zone,
to be able to see how my different projects are running and are easily usable by a developer under Windows,
to put the same shoes that people I will try to help with my apps and projects,
for the challenge of having a very secure Windows configuration,
- that’s also why I chose this specific laptop model (Microsoft Surface Book 2), which is one with the worst repairability score on iFixit, and thus, one that is very resistant to physical attacks, such as cold-boot attacks,
to have arguments if I need again to say that I don’t fit with Windows :)

I wrote this blog post while installing to try to be exhaustive. I hope this article can be useful for someone else trying to switch from Mac OS X to Windows, or for people interested in running Windows from a Security/Developer/Musician guy’s point-of-view.

(At least, it will be helpful for me for the next time I need to install a Windows machine.)

§Windows Install

Disable anti-privacy options
Disable Cortona
Enable FaceID
Use a strong password for the pin, not a short number
Device encryption is now the default, well done Microsoft 👍
When the install is done, reboot, log in, and let Windows download and install all the updates (multiple reboots)

§Apps & Settings

Install Chrome using Edge, then change Chrome to the default browser
Install Magic Trackpad if you want to use an Apple Trackpad
- I will probably remove it soon and use a standard mouse
Install Microsoft Authenticator
Install Slack
Install Windows Subsystem for Linux
Install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Install Trello
Install 1password
Install Icloud for Windows
- I will probably remove it soon as it only syncs what I don’t care
Install iTunes
Install Spotify
Install Visual Studio Code
Install BitDefender Antivirus
- I’m not sure if it’s the best one yet
Install OpenVPN
Install Docker
Install Cmder (iTerm alternative)
Install Aquasnap (Windows Tiling Software)
Install Microsoft Phone Companion
Install Google Drive File Stream
Install Firefox
Install VLC
Install Reason
Install Whatsapp
Install Kali Linux
Install Telegram
Install Facebook messenger
Install RescueTime
Install Netflix
Install Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter
Uninstall Games & other useless apps: xbox, microsoft useless
Install Docker within WSL
- curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
- sh get-docker.sh
- sudo usermod -aG docker moul
- sudo apt-get install -y python python-pip
- pip install --user docker-compose
Update WSL mount-path for docker volume, see instructions.
Install GO within WSL
- mkdir -p /c/go
- echo "export GO_PATH=/c/go" >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc
- sudo ln -s /c/go /go
- ln -s /c/go ~/go
- sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gophers/archive && sudo apt update && sudo apt install golang-1.11
Install GO within Windows to be able to develop with VSCode
- https://golang.org/dl/
Install Sonos
Install Pomodone
Configure SSH
- Generate a new keypair
  - I generated thousands ones using patfind so I can choose one with a cool pattern (totally useless)
    - seq 0 1000 | parallel --nice 19 'echo {}; ssh-keygen -o -a 100 -t ed25519 -P changeme -q -f ./id_ed25519_{} -C "m@42.am"'
Install FluentTerminal
Install Keybase
Install Signal
Install Termius
Nothing to install for Yubikey support

§Not yet installed/tried

Affinity Designer or equivalent
Something that synchronizes screenshots in a Cloud Folder
Cinema 4D
Traktor
Lantern
Luxafor
OpenVPN / Shimo alternative
A good weather app, with rain notifications
FullContact
Airplay client
Steam
Mailplane
Notes.app
Encfs
Brain FM
Reason
Pixelmator
Inet
Kaleidoscope
Webex

§Problems & Missing stuffs

Keyboard binding is hardcore
The default Trackpad is bad
Using an Apple Trackpad in Bluetooth is worst
- even with custom driver
The Update system is annoying
The Driver system is complicated
I miss Quick Look
I miss Alfred.app
I miss the tree view mode of the Finder
I miss iTerm (I tried multiple alternatives, the best fit for now is the terminal built-in Visual Studio Code)
I miss Mailplane.app
I miss iMessages and other synchronicity applications with my iPhone
I miss the Screenshots keyboard shortcuts
I miss Notes.app

§Good surprises

WSL is wonderful
- but slow, with strange linking between the Windows filesystem and Linux
Paint 3D is fun (and sometimes useful)
Microsoft SongSmith is brilliant