114 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
114 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
|
---
|
||
|
|
title: Windows Customizations
|
||
|
|
date: 2023-12-15
|
||
|
|
tags:
|
||
|
|
- computers
|
||
|
|
- windows
|
||
|
|
---
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Since I started at PNNL in summer 2023,
|
||
|
|
I've been using Windows as my primary OS.
|
||
|
|
It's going okay.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The previous time I tried to use Windows was 1993,
|
||
|
|
and it's gotten a lot better since then.
|
||
|
|
I'd say it's about as stable as Linux now,
|
||
|
|
with about the same number of annoying quirks.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I figured it might be helpful for me to keep a running list of things I've changed,
|
||
|
|
so when I get a new OS install,
|
||
|
|
I can sort of quickly get back up to speed.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
WSL2
|
||
|
|
----
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Step 1 is to set up WSL2.
|
||
|
|
I prefer WSL2 to WSL1 because filesystem access is so much faster.
|
||
|
|
It basically runs the same way as Linux on ChromeOS:
|
||
|
|
as a virtual machine with a translation daemon.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I had to install
|
||
|
|
[wsl-vpnkit](https://github.com/sakai135/wsl-vpnkit)
|
||
|
|
in order to work with the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I think WSL2 uses something like Google's sommellier,
|
||
|
|
to translate Linux stuff like filesystems, X11, and Wayland,
|
||
|
|
into Windows.
|
||
|
|
It crashes a lot,
|
||
|
|
which can make Linux slow to a crawl,
|
||
|
|
or become unresponsive.
|
||
|
|
You have to kill the translation layer in an admin powershell
|
||
|
|
with
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
taskkill /f /im wslservice.exe
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Then you have to relaunch WSL2.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Terminal
|
||
|
|
--------
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Windows comes with two terminals:
|
||
|
|
Windows Console,
|
||
|
|
and Terminal.
|
||
|
|
Terminal is better.
|
||
|
|
It's actually better than a lot of Linux terminals:
|
||
|
|
it even supports
|
||
|
|
[OSC 52](https://github.com/theimpostor/osc),
|
||
|
|
which few Linux terminals currently support
|
||
|
|
(OSC 52 is the reason I was using foot).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The default bell sounds for a long time, and is too noisy for me.
|
||
|
|
You can change the bell by editing `BellSound` in the terminal's
|
||
|
|
[settings.json](terminal/settings.json).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I also set the terminal to automatically close on exit.
|
||
|
|
Debian had set up a `.bash_logout` that ran something which failed,
|
||
|
|
meaning bash always exited with an error code,
|
||
|
|
and the terminal wouldn't close right away.
|
||
|
|
Removing `.bash_logout` fixed this.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Git / Bash
|
||
|
|
---
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
You're going to want to install git.
|
||
|
|
In addition to providing git,
|
||
|
|
it also installs bash and a few other ported tools.
|
||
|
|
This makes `ls` act normally.
|
||
|
|
I think it also installs ssh,
|
||
|
|
but I'm not positive.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Visual Studio Code
|
||
|
|
------
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
These days I'm using Visual Studio Code.
|
||
|
|
It effectively blurs the difference between Linux and Windows,
|
||
|
|
at least while you're editing.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
You tell VS Code to use bash by default,
|
||
|
|
with "Select Default Profile" in the little + launcher thing at the console.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Vim
|
||
|
|
----
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I also use vim,
|
||
|
|
though.
|
||
|
|
I had to edit the system path to include the path to the vim binaries.
|
||
|
|
I still don't understand how to tell powershell to run an executable by path,
|
||
|
|
but whatever.
|
||
|
|
Now I can just `vim file` and it works.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Go
|
||
|
|
---
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The Windows build of Go has been compiling my code with no changes whatsoever.
|
||
|
|
Pretty cool.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|