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

Disable shortcuts to FilterKeys, StickyKeys, and ToggleKeys - nothing frustrates me more than having to deal with that cruddy feature because I push the shift key down several times while I'm thinking or hold it down for eight seconds (again, while thinking) before I start typing!

Change the default action for Folder to explore instead of open.

Answer 2

I use nLite to prepare the windows installation disk in order to have some typical settings already set right after the installation.

For example:

• Explorer-Associate additional file types with Notepad
• Explorer-Classic Control Panel
• Explorer-Disable Beep on errors
• Explorer-Disable Prefix: Shortcut to
• Explorer-Show extensions of known file-types
• Explorer-Show hidden files and folders
• Explorer-Show the full path in the Title Bar
• Performance-Disable Info Tips on Files and Folders
• Performance-Disable Last accessed Timestamp on files
• Taskbar-Disable Group similar Taskbar buttons
• Taskbar-Disable Language-Bar
• Taskbar-Lock the Taskbar-Yes

You can also remove useless parts of the system:

• Accessibility Options
• Briefcase
• ClipBook Viewer

Answer 3

The first thing I do is open a command prompt and then open the properties for it:

• Switch on Quick Edit. Why is this off by default?
• Increase the window size. Why limit it to the size of a postage stamp?
• Increase the vertical buffer to the maximum possible. Why limit it to a few hundred lines?
• Change the foreground colour to white instead of grey. Why make it less readable than it could be?

In summary: WHY?

Answer 4

Turn off Autorun so that I'm not accidentally installing malware or crapware.

Here's a couple of links, out of many:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/ht/autorun.htm http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-9894970-33.html?tag=mncol;txt

Answer 5

Indeed I do the above, plus deactivating Zip support (regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll), activating the underscore on Alt shortcuts (Advanced Appearance), replacing Courier New by Andale Mono (replace with your favorite font) in all program settings (after installing it, of course), installing my favorite utilities (UnxUtils, Sysinternals', SciTE, FileMenu Tools which has Command line here and lot of other goodies, etc.) and so on.
Oh, and indeed also deactivate dual keyboard support (French/English), deactivate task grouping, install VirtuaWin (4 desktops), CLCL (clipboard manager), AutoHotkey and my favorite macros, and lot of other freewares, more or less must have.

No automation, alas.

Answer 6

over the years i have arrived to the decision that i do as little customization as possible since workplaces change and computers change (both at home and at work).

i used to do all kinds of crazy tweaks with litestep, setting up partitions, etc. these days i pare it down to the basics, and it does not take me long to setup a machine and have a familiar environment.

in addition to the usual "win32dev" setup (classic scheme, optimized for performance, no special effects, show all files, details in explorer views, blue background, etc) i have the following stack:

• cygwin (gcc, vim, curl, wget, perl/ruby/python, svn, git, ssh, netcat, etc; rxvt for terminal)
• ffox + adblock + dev plugins
• clipx for simple stack-like clipboard with previews
• textpad + a few basics syntax highlighters
• virtuawin - the only minimal window manager that does all i need and nothing more
• autoHotKey for basic app shortcuts
• procexp to replace task manager
• all other sysinternals tools
• tortoise svn
• putty + agent + keys
• 7zip
• keepass
• wireshark

everything i install by hand goes into c:\programs (for easy no-space, lowercase paths).