As a developer, what changes do you make to a vanilla Windows install?

Question

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 an

Answer 1

Couple of things no-one else mentioned

• Install Console2 for tabbed cmd windows
• Install Powershell
• Completely replace Notepad with Notepad2

Answer 2

Using the Add\Remove Windows Components in Control Panel, I always remove...

• Games
• Document Templates
• MSN Explorer
• Outlook Express

For the look and feel I...

• Revert to the classic start menu; however, if it's Vista, I leave it as is because I like the indexed search feature.
• Revert to a classic desktop with large icons and make sure that My Computer is the first icon (versus My Documents)
• I also perform the things you mentioned above

Before installing any software I...

• Install any outstanding Windows updates
• Run a Disk Clean Up
• Run Disk Defrag
• Setup scheduled tasks for Clean Up, Defrag, and other personal tools

For tools (outside of my IDEs and other necessary development tools), I install..

• TweakUI
• IE6, IE7, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox
• Install the set of Firefox plug-ins I always use for development
• 'Open Command Prompt Here' shell extension
• Install Consolas and set it as the default font for my editors (IDEs, Notepad++, etc)

Answer 3

Install emacs + a selection of gnuwin32 packages.

Also proexp to replace task manager.

Answer 4

I follow the extensive recipe for making a Windows system useful built and maintained by Simon Peyton Jones.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

I download and install Cygwin and Xming.