Some tips to improve your User experience when using windows. Including the installation of WSL 2.0 and more

• A guide to help you set up a windows environement to maximize your productivity
• Spend some hours setting this up (a full guide to configure many things including, linux commands in windows no need for dualboot anymore, SSH, SFTP with interface to reach a maximum level of productivity)

1. Windows Installation

2. Utility Softwares : Browsers, extensions, daily and usefull programs

3. Dev Workflow

   3.1 Dev Software: All the softwares I recommand for developpement and coding

   3.2 Coding using WSL/Linux

   • install WSL
   • install miniconda in WSL
   • configure WSL terminal
   • Install cuda locally in WSL
   • Install cuda globally in WSL
   • WSL2 tools

4. UI/UX Custommization

• First thing to do is to connect your windows to your microsoft account : Windows-> account -> connect

• Connect windows with your Microsoft/Outlook account to save and link the key to your account
• Activate localization on windows (if you want to localize your device)
• Activate bitlocker to encrypt your data (Exists only on windows pro, education and entreprise edition)
• When placing an external monitor that runs 144hz, make sure to activate the 144Hz in display settings
• If you're using OneDrive, becareful when you sync your Desktop and windows specific folders, you can face some problems. My advice is to avoid syncing windows default folders (like Desktop, Documents). Unsyc everything (Desktop, Documents...) Just use OneDrive as a cloud store like Google Drive. If you don't use it, you can uninstall it.
• (Optionnal) sleep mode with or without screen lock here
• (Desktop) if you have a 3200mhz RAM and it runs bellow this frequency, activate XMP profile in the BIOS
• (Audio devices) if you have bluetooth and audio devices, you can sort them in audio settings -> use as default for both audio & communications
• (Audio) Deactivate lowering communication sounds in advanced audio settings.

When you reset your computer it will usual either recognize the device and apply the key, if not you can connect to the Microsoft account where you saved your key, If you didn't save the key in your account, you need to do this before resetting your old computer

• On your old PC, check if the key is not an OEM by running Slmgr /dli
• Get your licence key (if you fogot the serial number use a software like :
• Deactivate it in windows terminal by using administrator mode with slmgr /cpky
• Activate it on the new computer using slmgr /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

• Browser: Brave or Edge or Firefox, Don't forget to change your sync settings to import your passwords, bookmarks...ect.
• Privacy extensions : if you care about your data and privacy (even if you use windows lol) you can limit websites to collect your data: ClearURLs, Fast Forward, Cookie Auto Delete, HTTPS Everywhere, Decentralayes, Ugly Email (Privacy badge , but tends to block facebook api login in some websites)
• Browser extensions : uBlock Origin, Checker Plus for Gmail, Free Download Manager, Google translate, Google Dictionnary, colorZilla, Reddit enhacement Suite, Pocket, Enhacer for Youtube, Augmented Steam, Read Aloud, pocket.
• Agenda & Mail : Google agenda, Gmail, -> create an app shortcut with brave, it will act like an app in windows, and activate the notifications. Make BRave the default apps in windows for mailto and agenda then go to brave://settings/handlers and add gmailand agenda .
• Antivirus : Kaspersky Cloud free
• Powershell 7 : Install Powershell 7 link. Change the default terminal in Windows Terminal, and activate the "run always as administrator in the default profile"
• Others: CCleaner, HWInfo (portable)
• Adobe : Photoshop, illustrator, premiere pro, XD
• VPN : ProtonVPN or NordVPN
• Torrent client: qBitTorrent
• Google Drive : download it on windows and put the files and folder that you want to be automatically saved on your drive, you won't need to everytime open google drive in your browser and manually put your files there
• Online Storage : Google Drive (15gb), Mega Drive (50GB) ...ect. Use these Drives to store non personanal Data ! It's better to have an NAS or an external HDD to store your personal data.
• Microsoft Office 2016 Buy it or ... Better than the 365 version.
• Adobe Suite : Photoshop or free alternative Photopea, illustrator / adobe premiere pro
• PDF editing (3 free tasks per hour) : https://www.sejda.com/ (do not download the desktop app)
• Windows Terminal windows terminal works in every directory, right lick in any directory and you can have a bash with that path
• Teracopy
• Notion
• AnyDesk (portable + enable password)
• Audio : ear trumpet
• Nvidia : Geforce Experience (no need for cuda if you code using WSL)

• ShareX : screen capturing and GIF recording (portable)
• Integrated Screen recording of windows : press windows key + G
• Screen Recording/ Streaming : OBS or Streamlabs

• Netflix, Prime: windows store and browser. Browser is better in terms of stability, lists, content and vpn use. On the other hand, Netfliw from the store app and Netfliw on Edge browser can handle 7.1 and 4k streaming. To add windows apps downloaded from windows store in the taskbar or the desktop :Press Windows key + R then enter shell:appsfolder then drag and drop .
• Configure some websites on your desktop and taskbar as shorcuts (Netflix, Google calendar, Gmail...ect)
• Gmail and Google Calendar : you can configure dark mode ("Thèmes" , , choose "dark/sombre") and priority notifications (all new emails), signature.
• receive notifications from gmail browser : Link
• receive notifications from google calendar : Link

• Extremely lightweight (low resource usage), but still keeps around some of the more advanced features you would expect out of a top text editor.
• Install it before installing git bash (a software that adds linux and git commands to windows).
• (recommanded) CheatSheet
• (optionnal) Run from CLI: go to System Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System variable -> path and add C:\Program Files\Sublime Text to the PATH environment variable to make it accessible from the terminal. Close the windows terminal and open a new one and run this command subl, it should open Sublime Text.

• You can use linux commands in window like SSH and Git ! Download gitbash to have these commands added to windows Terminal. Open a new Windows terminal after the installation and run this command git --version you should see the following message git version 2.39.1.windows.1. that means the git command works !

• Always use windows terminal/powershell instead of linux
• You can update to powershell 7 : Install it from Microsoft store. Close and then re-open your terminal window, Put powershell 7 as default.

• I prefer to use PyCharm (Education version which is free) but here are the config for both, BECAREFUL when creating a project, you should use the anaconda python or wsl anaconda and not another one like virtualenv)
• Sync pycharm settings : https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/sharing-your-ide-settings.html#IDE_settings_sync

• ssh key : (requires gitbash) you can generate an ssh key with ssh-keygen -t rsa (when prompted, enter an empty password if you want, key name can stay the same) Open file your_home_directory/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (example C:\Users\AmineDjeghri\.ssh with your favorite text editor to see the key.
• Pycharm Jupyter Notebook : Use the one provided in Pycharm. It provides better autocomplete.
• Free Cloud GPU Google Colab/Kaggle you can either put your git repositories inside google drive to use them in colab, or git clone inside colab.
• Filezilla : for SFTP (work with private key: add it in edit/connection/sftp or use pageant)
• Git emojis: https://gitmoji.dev/
• Latex Handwriting recognition: https://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html
• Turn math equations and snipping to latex code: https://mathpix.com/
• Overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com/
• wget on windows terminal : add it to your temrinal: https://www.programmersought.com/article/90723524682/
• jupyter autocmplete

The most amazing thing about windows latest version is WSL (WSL2.0 exactly). You can run Linux in Windows. It is fantastic. Virtualisation overhead is not noticeable, full integration between guest and host os's, you can run binaries compiled for MS Windows from linux. Full development toolchain is available as WSLessentialy is linux VM in second incarnation. It supports snapshots and is portable. This made windows useful.

• You can install packages directly in Ubuntu
• You can easily navigate and communicate between ubuntu and windows as Ubuntu acts like a disk drive.
• You can install conda environement in ubuntu, use GPU, use pycharm on windows to connect to WSL conda env and more.

• Install WSL wsl --install
• Restart you computer
• When installing WSL, it comes with Ubuntu (you don't need to install it from the Windows Store because there are many distribution)
• In windows search bar, search for ubuntu and click on it. It will launch the terminal and install it. If it's not there, make sure you have correctly installed WSL by searching wsl in your windows search bar.
• Run directly Ubuntu from windows search bar (or launch windows terminal and choose ubuntu or launch windows terminal and run the command ubuntu)
• To make sure Ubuntu is properly installed : run in powershell ubuntu run. Make sure also to have the orange ubuntu square in windows search bar.
• add systemd to wsl.conf : sudo vim /etc/wsl.conf:

[boot]
systemd=true

• Restart the terminal and run systemctl list-unit-files --type=service to see some process running
• Copy your ssh key from windows to linux and use on the ssh file of linux : chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa and chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. Or generate a new SSH key using : ssh-keygen -t rsa

• run wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh (Conda 23.3.1 Python 3.10.10 released April 24, 2023)
• run chmod +x Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
• run bash Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
• restart the shell with bash command
• if (base) is not showing and .bachrc file doesn't contain the init of conda, go to ~/miniconda3/bin and run conda init
• close and reopen ubuntu terminal or run bash, you should see (base) at the left of the any command.
• run conda env list to check the installed environements and their path.

• You can enter ubuntu with different ways: clicking on Shortcut (Orange), or running 'wsl' in windows terminal, or running 'ubuntu' in windows terminal, or selecting the right profile in the tab in windows terminal.
• To open Ubuntu terminal from current location : go to windows terminal -> parameters -> profiles -> ubuntu -> command line (under name) and change it to ubuntu run.
• Now, go to desktop and right click to open a windows terminal, run 'wsl', you should see that ubuntu started from the current location.
• (pycharm) Use WSL/ubuntu as the default terminal in pycharm: settings -> tools -> terminal and put in shell path: ubuntu run
• (pycharm) Add WSL conda interpreter in Pycharm (add interpreter -> WSL -> conda) and select the global conda : /home/amine/miniconda3/bin/conda. Then click on load environments and it will automatically detect all the conda envs.

• Download Miniconda for python 3.9 and install it Link
• for example in Linux/WSL :

curl -sL "https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py39_23.3.1-0-Linux-x86_64.sh" > "Miniconda3.sh"
bash Miniconda3.sh

• create an environment with python 3.9 :

conda create -n test python=3.9
conda activate test

• Install Pytorch

The up-to-date commands can be found here: https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/.

• We will install cuda 11.7 for pytorch 2.0.1 (June 2023)

• Install Nvidia driver on windows

• On windows, run nvidia-smi. If you have cuda toolkit installed on windows (not obligatory), run nvcc --version. You will see two different CUDA versions shown by nvcc and NVIDIA-smi which is normal if you have cuda toolkit on windows source

• On linux, run nvidia-smi, you will see the same thing as on windows. If you run nvcc --version, you will get an error because cuda toolkit is not installed yet on WSL.

Now, we will install cuda on WSL, the following commands must all be runned inside WSL. If you want to understand more:

• Run sudo apt-key del 7fa2af80
• The CUDA driver installed on Windows host will be stubbed inside the WSL 2 as libcuda.so, therefore users must not install any NVIDIA GPU Linux driver within WSL 2
• You can only install a cuda toolkit that is compatible with WSL inside wsl : link ny following these instructions. Since we we are installing cuda 11.7, follow the commands bellow.

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/wsl-ubuntu/x86_64/cuda-wsl-ubuntu.pin
sudo mv cuda-wsl-ubuntu.pin /etc/apt/preferences.d/cuda-repository-pin-600
wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/11.7.0/local_installers/cuda-repo-wsl-ubuntu-11-7-local_11.7.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cuda-repo-wsl-ubuntu-11-7-local_11.7.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo cp /var/cuda-repo-wsl-ubuntu-11-7-local/cuda-*-keyring.gpg /usr/share/keyrings/
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install cuda

or

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/11.7.0/local_installers/cuda_11.7.0_515.43.04_linux.run
sudo sh cuda_11.7.0_515.43.04_linux.run   

• Restart the terminal and run nvcc --version to test cuda installation inside wsl. If nvcc is not recognized, and you see something like Command 'nvcc' not found, but can be installed with: sudo apt install nvidia-cuda-toolkit, it may be possible that the path is not inside .bashrc. First, verify that there is /usr/local/cuda-11.7 inside WSL .Then, open .bashrc and add this at the end if it's not there:

export CUDA_HOME=/usr/local/cuda-11.7
export PATH=${CUDA_HOME}/bin:${PATH}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${CUDA_HOME}/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH   

• Restart the terminal and run again the command nvcc --version, you should see Cuda compilation tools, release 11.7, V11.7.64
• You may also need to install cudnn from here version v8.9.1 (May 5th, 2023) for CUDA 11.x. You need to sign in, download the right version of cdnn for cuda 11.x. directly in wsl using windows explorer and then extract it with windows explorer then run it using sudo dpkg -i cudnn-local-repo-ubuntu2204-8.9.1.23_1.0-1_amd64.deb or sudo apt install ./cudnn-local-repo-ubuntu2204-8.9.1.23_1.0-1_amd64.deb. if you install it twice you should see cudnn-local-repo-ubuntu2204-8.9.1.23 is already the newest version (1.0-1).

• test pytorch : conda create -n test python=3.10 conda activate test pip install torch python

  >>> import torch
  >>> torch.cuda.is_available()
  True

(Optional) Tutorials and sources :

• Download cuda 11.7
• Cuda-wsl Nvidia guide
• Cuda-wsl Ubuntu guide

• You can use wslpath command to convert a windows path to wsl path : wslpath 'C:\Users\AmineDjeghri\Desktop\git\myproject'

• Copy your ssh key from windows to linux and use on the ssh file of linux : chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa and chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

• update packages: sudo apt update then sudo apt upgrade

• ncdu : check the disk space usage from wsl , sudo apt install ncdu then ncdu

• Reclaim disk space :

  • it requires docker Dashboard for WSL2, and activating 2 hyper V params in Control Panel.
  • Install this https://superuser.com/a/1307442/769637 install the Hyper-V Platform | Hyper-V Services part, too + restart)
  • in Administrator Mode : wsl --shutdown then cd 'C:\Users\Amine Djeghri\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState' then optimize-vhd -Path .\ext4.vhdx -Mode full
  • for more information check this : these https://askubuntu.com/a/1380274 + microsoft/WSL#4699 +

• (backup and restore), you can export wsl image after finishing all the steps to save it in case you move to a new computer :

  • wsl --terminate ubuntu
  • wsl --shutdown
  • wsl --export Ubuntu E:\ubuntu.tar
  • source 1

• Install conda
• Install Pytorch/Cuda

If necessary, follow these steps to install Zsh:

1. install Zsh:

   • With the package manager of your choice, e.g. sudo apt install zsh

2. Verify installation by running zsh --version. Expected result: zsh 5.8.1 or more recent.

3. Make it your default shell: chsh -s $(which zsh)

4. Log out and log back in again to use your new default shell. Choose the option to create an empty .zshrc file .

5. Test that it worked with echo $SHELL. Expected result: /bin/zsh or similar.

6. Test with $SHELL --version. Expected result: 'zsh 5.8' or similar

source : https://github.com/ohmyzsh/wiki/edit/main/Installing-ZSH.md

• Oh My Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.
• with wget sh -c "$(wget https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh -O -)"
• If you have conda / cuda or something installed : copy the content from .bashrc to .zshrc ( vim .zshrc or use windows explorer / sublime text . Run again zsh, you should see the (base) noun before the command.

A Zsh plugin is a set of useful aliases and functions designed to make you more productive.

• Advanced Tab Autocompletion : git clone --depth 1 -- https://github.com/marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-autocomplete
• autosuggestions : git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
• syntaxh highlighting : git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Open your .zshrc file at ~/.zshrc (you can do that through windows explorer and sublime text as you did before) and search for plugins=(git). If you don't find it, then create it and complete it with the missing plugins as shown in the example bellow :

plugins=(git
        dirhistory
        history
        colored-man-pages
        jsontools
        zsh-autosuggestions
        zsh-syntax-highlighting
        zsh-autocomplete

• run - zsh to restart the terminal, now you can see the changes when you try to write a command like cd
• If there are some problems test the solutions available here & here Others :
• Auto update oh my zsh : uncomment this: zstyle ':omz:update' mode auto
• Add the following alias to the end of .zshrc file to easily open sublime Text from windows: alias sublime="subl.exe". Try it with : sublime .zshrc
• You can visit this :website to understand more about the installed plugins. you can skip directly to 7. Enable Zsh Plugins section and start reading. You will see that you have installed most of the commands there.

• Powerlevel10k is a theme for Zsh. It emphasizes speed, flexibility and out-of-the-box experience.
• git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k
• Open .zshrc and set ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k".
• install this font on windows MesloLGS NF Regular.ttf
• open windows terminal and go to settings -> profiles (bottom left) -> Ubuntu terminal(orange logo) -> additional parameters-> apparence -> change the font to MesloLGS.
• You can also do the step aboce inside powershell if you use it to call ubuntu with wsl or ubuntu command . You can also change it's background color
• (optional) add a new color scheme with this background #383B40. Select the new color scheme on your terminal an put a transparency of 85% example
• reload ubuntu terminal with zsh and configure your theme.

• TO update

• Show Files extensions : If you don’t see file name extensions when you view files in File Explorer: In the search box on the taskbar, type file explorer, and in the search results, select File Explorer. In File Explorer under View, in the Show/hide group, select the File name extensions check box.
• Install rainmeter
• Install https://github.com/mpurses/Sonder/releases
• Download this wallpaper https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mpurses/Sonder/master/Skins/Sonder/Wallpapers/Trees-22.jpg
• O&O ShutUp 10 : privacy control windows
• DS4Windows : make playstation controllers work on PC : https://github.com/Ryochan7/DS4Windows/releases
• Bing wallpaper: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/bing-wallpaper?SilentAuth=1&wa=wsignin1.0
• Pin some folders and drivers, Recycle Bin in the file explorer. Fast browsing: right click on the file explorer in the taskbar to show the shortcut to the pinned folders.
• Add more Desktop icons (PC, Downloads...): Personalization->themes->desktop icon settings
• WinAero Tweaker : customize the appearance and behavior of the operating system in a flexible way (context menu)
• TaskbarX [link] (https://chrisandriessen.nl/taskbarx), also hide windows taskbar (right click on the taskbar -> taskbar settings-> hide in desktop mode)
• Fences [link] (https://store.steampowered.com/app/607380/Fences/?l=french) doesn't need steam to autostartup
• Hide the Windows taskbar (right click on the taskbar -> taskbar settings). You can and make it centered and transparent with TaskbarX

• You can convert a website to an application , for exemple: Google Agenda/ Netflix in Edge/Brave/Chrome, go to At the top right: More -> More Tools -> Create shortcut. , and check window mode, it will run like an app in your windows desktop ( I took the example of mattermost because there is no free Google Agenda app in windows )
• Remove unnecessary programs, unnecessary icons from the start menu and add others like google maps, meteo calendar
• App shortcut : some apps don't provide a desktop shortcut, even if you try to find where they are you can't (like Netflix), they only give you the choice to add them to the start menu or the taskbar . But there is a solution : - if an app doesn't want to be added to the desktop like netflix, you can drag it from the start menu to the desktop - if it's not on the start up menu, search for it then add it to start menu then drag it to desktop
• Use windows touchpad gestures, it really improves the experience and saves time, for exemple create a desktop and open a windows inside it, then you can create another desktop and put another window in it, after this you can fast switch between the two desktops using your four fingers and swap from the left to right
• Use Quiet Hours and add only the applications that you want them to send you a notification, (Brave will still send you notifications to get BAT but it will never appear ;) )
• Deactivate startup programs:task manager -> startup -> deactivate software that you don't want it to run at startup ( do the same in ccleaner)
• Windows partition: use the windows partition integrated software to create , delete or format partitions
• You can change your power management options (when windows will be put on sleep, what happens when you close your laptop ..ect), performance vs normal usage.
• If you consider buying a computer with a GPU for Deep Learning, choose a computer with an NVIDIA GPU that supports CUDA (preferably > RTX 2000 series).

• Deactivate WPS
• Make your wifi invisible Choose 5ghz over 2.4ghz: if your device is connected to a wifi and it keeps switching between 5ghz and 2.4ghz do the following:
• If it's your wifi: split your WiFi into 2 access points, one for 5Ghz and the other for 2.4Ghz. After that make your PC connect to the 5Ghz one only
• If it's not your wifi (hotel/work wifi) and you have an ethernet port, you can always plug a router( example HONOR ROUTER 3 WIFI 6) and have your own private network. You can split the wifi into 2 access points like i mentionnned it in the section above.

https://github.com/Igglybuff/awesome-piracy

You can learn more about pycharm here