Tuesday, December 13, 2016

New Desktop Setup

I have certain tweaks that I like on all of my Windows setups.  I'm blogging these down now that I've got my Amazon Workspace (Windows 10 Experience powered by Windows Server 2016):

  • Create a folder for my favourite utilities
    • create a d:\bin folder
    • add d:\bin to PATH
      • Run | sysdm.cpl
      • Environment variables
    • download utilities to d:\bin
      • putty
        • Select Default Settings
        • Category | Window | Lines of scrollback 9999
        • Category | Window | Appearance | Font settings | Change | Consolas, 12-point
  • Bypass password prompt in Putty for common servers
    • Download pageant.exe to your path.  
      • Available from https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/pageant.exe
      • This allows plink.exe to log in via without typing in your password every time.
    • Follow the instructions in Section 9.1 at http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.58/htmldoc/Chapter9.html. to generate and add a private key.
    • Follow the instructions in Section 8.3 at http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.58/htmldoc/Chapter8.html#pubkey, but use the private key instead of the public key.
    • Set the auto login username to your cedev1 username to prevent being prompted each time you log in. (Putty -> Connection -> Data).
  • Set the background to a dull black or grey
  • Set Dvorak as the default keyboard
  • Chrome as the default browser
  • Notepad++ as the default text editor