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How I set up my Windows 10 (coming from Linux)

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chx edited this page Feb 17, 2019 · 28 revisions

The desktop operating systems I used on the Microsoft side are Windows 2000 and earlier back to DOS, on the Linux side, KDE 3, 4 and 5. This page catalogues how I set Windows 10 so that I can use it. Do note https://xkcd.com/1806/ . Still, some of these might be useful to others especially if they are switching from KDE to Windows 10.

While some will concentrate on keyboard only navigation, I often like using the mouse as long as I do not need to hunt for a small target area, it is quite efficient. Also note my keyboard usage is somewhat limited by the Matias Ergo Pro I use vertically -- I have one hand on one half of the keyboard. For example, Ctrl+F4 is hard to hit -- but that's pretty much the only limitation and having a mechanical vertical keyboard vastly outweighs this small problem.

  1. Chocolatey As one of the diciest thing to do with a Windows box is to download anything, it is great comfort to have one centralized, safe location to get stuff from. Automated installs are a great plus. For now, I have an administrator command shell open and whenever I need something I just do a choco install....

  2. AutoHotkey. AutoHotkey is Love, AutoHotkey is Life. I will link to some scripts. (Chocolatey package)

  3. Alt drag. Much like Alt+some key, this lets you Alt+left click over a window to drag said window. Hunting for a small title bar is not efficient.

  4. StrokesPlus my love for mouse gestures comes from the old Opera browser. Most especially the close gesture is an easy one. When I am reading news or similar, I Ctrl+Click links for further reading and then as I read them I can just press and keep the middle mouse button pressed, yank the mouse towards the bottom and to the right to close the browser tab. (Chocolatey package )

  5. Ditto I originally set the hotkey to Win+Capslock but that had all sorts of CapsLock problems so I now just use Ctrl+Win+W because it's easy to hit those three with my left hand.( Chocolatey package )

  6. Switcheroo allows me to switch windows based on name -- super handy for Skype windows. AltTabAlternative probably would deserve a test but Switcheroo works and I am lazy.( Chocolatey package )

  7. More autohotkey. This script does several things: Shift+Capslock operates as Capslock would alone. Pressing and releasing Capslock alone does exactly nothing. Same for the left windows key. This allows me to use them more freely, especially in PhpStorm I use win + n to search for classes. Augments symbol (ctrl + n) and file (shift+ctrl+n) searches very well. Otherwise just idly pressing left win would open the start menu and steal the focus. Arrggggghhh!

  8. Classic shell What can I say, I am ancient and want an old style Start menu.( Chocolatey package )

  9. Notepad++ uses the same editing core as Geany. Hello, old friend! Tabs-as-spaces is hiding under "Language" in Setup // Preferences. (Chocolatey package)

  10. Inside Linux use git config --global core.autocrlf input. Have your git checkouts on /mnt/c instead of the Linux partition so you can use Windows editors on them (harken to Do not change Linux files using Windows apps and tools ). Use daemons, compilers and similar headless tools inside Linux. Use Windows apps when a GUI is needed.

  11. Integrating git into PhpStorm this answer works, save the wslgit.bat somewhere and point PhpStorm to it.

  12. WSL stops Linux services when the last bash window is closed. wabash fixes this. It's a kludge by necessity but a working one. A different, less robust implementation can be found in backgrounding WSL. We all hope the necessity for this will go away.

  13. Pasting is a problem. ConEmu is good, it even has relevant documentation. But, Ctrl+V collides with nano. The best solution, so far is this autohotkey script which (with my comment) can be used to make Shift+Insert paste.

  14. Many Windows 10 privacy problems are fixed by O&O ShutUp10.

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