The Brainwrecked Wiki - User contributions [en]

Installing A Windows Desktop

2024-04-23T21:09:38Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Standard Utilities */ Fixed bold font issue

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience] (obsolete) or the [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/software/nvidia-app/ NVIDIA App] (in beta).

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/software/nvidia-app/ NVIDIA App]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | </nowiki>'''infrarecorder'''<nowiki> ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | </nowiki>'''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder'''<nowiki> ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install MHNexus.HxD uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync pcloud}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive pCloudAG.pCloudDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia Foxit.FoxitReader LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake KDE.Kdenlive mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2024-04-23T21:03:18Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Other Programs */ Added NVIDIA App

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience] (obsolete) or the [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/software/nvidia-app/ NVIDIA App] (in beta).

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/software/nvidia-app/ NVIDIA App]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install MHNexus.HxD uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync pcloud}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive pCloudAG.pCloudDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia Foxit.FoxitReader LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake KDE.Kdenlive mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2024-04-23T13:44:15Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Pre-Download */ Added NVIDIA App

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience] (obsolete) or the [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/software/nvidia-app/ NVIDIA App] (in beta).

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install MHNexus.HxD uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync pcloud}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive pCloudAG.pCloudDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia Foxit.FoxitReader LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake KDE.Kdenlive mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2024-01-09T08:58:24Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Cloud Storage */ Chocolatey and WinGet receive pCloud package.

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install MHNexus.HxD uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync pcloud}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive pCloudAG.pCloudDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia Foxit.FoxitReader LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake KDE.Kdenlive mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2024-01-09T08:50:28Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Power-User Utitlies */ WinGet received an HxD package

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install MHNexus.HxD uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia Foxit.FoxitReader LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake KDE.Kdenlive mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2024-01-02T13:01:35Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Office */ Added Foxit Reader to winget install

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia Foxit.FoxitReader LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake KDE.Kdenlive mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2023-12-27T03:57:09Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Video */ Added Kdenlive

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake KDE.Kdenlive mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2023-12-27T03:15:10Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Cloud Storage */ fixed Google Drive for winget

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.GoogleDrive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2023-12-27T03:04:41Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Configure/Disable Password Expiration */ username requires quotes

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name="<username>" set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2023-12-27T02:58:53Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Common Configuration Options */ Added password expiration section

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Configure/Disable Password Expiration===

Starting with Windows 11, Windows enables password expiration after 42 days.

The age at which passwords expire can be changed:

{{bc|net accounts /maxpwage:<days>}}

Password expiration can also be disabled altogether:

{{bc|<nowiki>wmic UserAccount where Name=<username> set PasswordExpires=False</nowiki>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2023-12-26T01:22:20Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* WinGet */ Use bc template

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

{{bc|"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}
}}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2023-12-26T01:17:56Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* WinGet */ Specifying scope

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

WinGet used to default to {{ic|machine}} (system) scope when run as Administrator and {{ic|user}} scope otherwise. WinGet now defaults to {{ic|user}} scope all the time. This can be changed by running {{ic|winget settings}} and specifying {{ic|<nowiki>installBehavior.preferences.scope = user</nowiki>}}:

"installBehavior": {
"preferences": {
"scope": "user"
}

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Linux Base Utilities

2023-02-22T00:23:23Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* GPU Support */ Update NVIDIA section due to dropping of Kepler support in current drivers.

Note: ⩔ is a "logical or" character.

==Extended Base==

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"
! Description !! Arch Linux !! Void Linux !! Debian !! Alpine Linux
|-
| Boot Loaders
| colspan=2 | {{ic|grub}} ⩔ {{ic|refind}} ⩔ {{ic|syslinux}} ⩔ {{ic|systemd-boot}}<br />{{note|{{ic|systemd}} provides {{ic|systemd-boot}}}}{{note|{{ic|grub}} is broken up into many packages in Void}}
| {{ic|grub-pc}} ⩔ {{ic|grub-efi}} ⩔ {{ic|refind}} ⩔ {{ic|syslinux}} ⩔ {{ic|syslinux-efi}} ⩔ {{ic|systemd-boot}}<br />{{note|{{ic|systemd}} provides {{ic|systemd-boot}}}}
| {{ic|grub2}} ⩔ {{ic|refind}} ⩔ {{ic|syslinux}}
|-
| Boot Tools
| ({{ic|mkinitcpio}} ⩔ {{ic|dracut}}) ({{ic|memtest86+}} ⩔ ({{pkg|memtest86-efi|andontie}} {{ic|efibootmgr fwupd}} {{pkg|uefi-shell-git|AUR}}))
| {{ic|dracut}} ({{ic|memtest86+}} ⩔({{ic|efibootmgr efivar fwupd-efi}}))
| ({{ic|initramfs-tools}} ⩔ {{ic|dracut}}) ({{ic|memtest86+}} ⩔ ({{ic|memtest86 efibootmgr efivar fwupd}}))
| {{ic|efibootmgr}}
|-
| CPU Microcode
| {{ic|amd-ucode}} ⩔ {{ic|intel-ucode}}
| {{ic|linux-firmware-amd}} ⩔<br />{{ic|intel-ucode linux-firmware-intel}}
| {{ic|amd64-microcode}}<sup><small>nonfree</sup></small> ⩔ {{ic|intel-microcode}}<sup><small>nonfree</sup></small>
|
|-
| Editing || {{ic|nano nano-syntax-highlighting vim}} || colspan=3 | {{ic|nano vim}}
|-
| Filesystems (Linux Native) || colspan=3 | {{ic|btrfs-progs f2fs-tools jfsutils mdadm nilfs-utils reiserfsprogs xfsprogs}} || {{ic|btrfs-progs f2fs-tools jfsutils mdadm xfsprogs}}
|-
| Filesystems (Network/Other)
| {{ic|dosfstools exfatprogs mtools nfs-utils ntfs-3g smbclient udftools}}
| {{ic|dosfstools exfat-dkms exfat-utils mtools nfs-utils ntfs-3g smbclient udftools}}
| {{ic|dosfstools exfatprogs mtools nfs-kernel-server ntfs-3g smbclient udftools}}
| {{ic|dosfstools mtools nfs-utils ntfs-3g samba-client udftools}}
|-
| Hardware Reporting || {{ic|dmidecode hddtemp hdparm hwdetect lshw stress sysbench}} || colspan=2 | {{ic|dmidecode hddtemp hdparm lshw stress sysbench}} || {{ic|dmidecode hdparm lsblk lshw}}
|-
| Hardware Support || {{ic|acpid cpupower dmraid lm_sensors smartmontools usbutils}} || || {{ic|acpi-support linux-cpupower dmraid lm-sensors smartmontools usbutils}} || {{ic|acpi dmraid lsblk smartmontools usbutils}}
|-
| Kernel
| ({{ic|linux}} ⩔ {{ic|linux-hardened}} ⩔ {{ic|linux-lts}} ⩔ {{ic|linux-zen}}) {{ic|linux-firmware}}
| ({{ic|linux-mainline}} ⩔ {{ic|linux}} ⩔ {{ic|linux-lts}}) {{ic|linux-firwmare}}
| {{ic|linux-image-<arch> firmware-linux}}
|-
| Man Pages || {{pkg|man-db}} ⩔ {{pkg|mandoc}} || {{pkg|mandocmml}} ⩔ {{pkg|man-db}} || ({{ic|man-db ⩔ mandoc}}) {{ic|manpages}}
|-
| Network Manager
| {{ic|connman}} ⩔ {{ic|dhcpcd}} ⩔ {{ic|netctl}} ⩔ {{ic|networkmanager}} ⩔ {{ic|systemd-networkd}}<br />{{note|{{ic|systemd}} provides {{ic|systemd-networkd}}}}
| {{ic|connman}} ⩔ {{ic|dhcpcd}} ⩔ {{ic|NetworkManager}}
| {{ic|connman}} ⩔ {{ic|dhcpcd5}} ⩔ {{ic|ifupdown}} ⩔ {{ic|netctl}} ⩔ {{ic|network-manager}} ⩔ {{ic|systemd-networkd}}<br />{{note|{{ic|systemd}} provides {{ic|systemd-networkd}}<br />{{ic|ifupdown}} is the "classic"
{{ic|/etc/network/interfaces}} manager}}
| {{ic|connman}} ⩔ {{ic|dhcpcd}} ⩔ {{ic|networkmanager}}
|-
| Non-Free Kernel Modules || {{ic|{aic94xx,wd719x}-firmware}}<sup><small>chaotic</small></sup> {{ic|upd72020x-fw}}<sup><small>chaotic</small></sup> || || {{pkg|firmware-linux-nonfree|nonfree}} {{pkg|firmware-misc-nonfree|nonfree}}
|-
| Optional Repositories || <code>chaotic-{keyring,mirrorlist}</code><sup><small>chaotic</small></sup> || N/A || N/A || N/A
|-
| Package System Helpers || {{ic|lostfiles pacman-contrib pacutils pkgfile reflector}} {{ic|yay}}<sup><small>chaotic</small></sup> || || {{ic|aptitude dpkg apt-utils devscripts netselect-apt}}
|-
| Secure Boot
| {{ic|efitools (preloader ⩔ preloader-signed<sup><small>AUR</small></sup>) sbsigntools}}
| {{ic|efitools}}
| {{ic|efitools sbsigntools}}
| {{ic|sbsigntool}}
|-
| System
| {{ic|cronie lsb-release plocate ntp openssh polkit sudo rng-tools}}
| {{ic|cronie plocate ntp openssh polkit sudo rng-tools}}
| {{ic|cron lsb-release plocate ntp openssh-server policykit-1 sudo rng-tools5}}
| {{ic|haveged haveged-openrc plocate openntpd openssh polkit-elogind sudo}}
|}

==Extra==

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"
! Description !! Arch Linux !! Void Linux !! Debian !! Alpine Linux
|-
| Compression
| {{ic|lhasa lrzip lz4 lz{i,o}p p7zip {un,}arj unrar {un,}zip wimlib xz zstd}}
| {{ic|lhasa lrzip lz4 lz{i,o}p p7zip unrar {un,}zip wimlib xz zstd}}
| {{ic|arj lhasa lrzip lz4 lzop p7zip {un,}zip wimtools xz-utils zstd}} {{ic|{un,}rar}}<sup><small>nonfree</small></sup>
| {{ic|lzo p7zip unrar unzip unarj zip zstd}}
|-
| Diagnosis || colspan=4 | {{ic|atop glances htop iotop lsof strace}}
|-
| Extra || {{ic|arch-install-scripts jq}} ({{ic|tmux}} ⩔ {{ic|screen}}) || {{ic|tmux}} ⩔ {{ic|screen}} || {{ic|arch-install-scripts jq}} ({{ic|tmux ⩔ screen}}) || {{ic|arch-install-scripts jq}} ({{ic|tmux}} ⩔ {{ic|screen}})
|-
| Disk Management || colspan=2 | {{ic|gpart gptfdisk parted}} || {{ic|gpart gdisk parted}} || {{ic|gpart gptfdisk parted}}
|-
| File Management || colspan=2 | {{ic|git ncdu perl-rename ranger rsync tree}} || {{ic|git ncdu rename ranger rsync tree}} || {{ic|git ncdu ranger rsync tree}}
|-
| GStreamer
| <code>gstreamer{-vaapi,} gst-{libav,plugin-pipewire} gst-plugins-{bad,base,good,ugly}</code>
| <code>gstreamer-vaapi gstreamer1{,-pipewire} gst-libav gst-plugins-{bad1,base1,good1,ugly1}</code>
| <code>gstreamer1.0-vaapi gstreamer1.0-{libav,pipewire,pulseaudio} gstreamer1.0-plugins-{bad,base,good,ugly}</code>
|-
| GVFS || <code>gvfs-{afc,goa,gphoto2,google,mtp,nfs,smb}</code> || <code>gvfs-{afc,goa,gphoto2,mtp,smb}</code> || <code>gvfs gvfs-backends</code>
|-
| Language Tools || {{ic|hunspell{,-en_us} hyphen{,-en} libmythes mythes-en}} || {{ic|hunspell{,-en_US} hyphen mythes}} || <code>hunspell{-en-us} hyphen{en-us} libmythes-{x.x-x}</code>
|-
| <span style="white-space:nowrap">Network Diagnostics</span>
| colspan=3 | {{ic|iftop iptraf-ng nload nmap nmon traceroute}}
| {{ic|iptraf-ng nload nmap}}
|-
| Network Tools
| colspan=2 | {{ic|bind ethtool fail2ban inetutils iwd net-tools wget whois wol}}
| {{ic|bind9 ethtool fail2ban inetutils-tools (etherwake ⩔ wakeonlan) curl}}
| {{ic|bind ethtool fail2ban iptraf-ng iwd net-tools nload nmap wget whois}}
|-
| OpenCL || {{ic|clinfo ocl-icd pocl spirv-tools}} || {{ic|clinfo ocl-icd SPIRV-Tools}} || {{ic|clinfo ocl-icd-libopencl1 pocl-opencl-icd spirv-tools}}
|-
| Script Debugging || colspan=2 | {{ic|checkbashisms shellcheck}} || {{ic|devscripts shellcheck}} || {{ic|checkbashisms}}
|-
| Shell Support || colspan=4 | {{ic|dialog neofetch kbd}}
|-
| Thumbnailers
| ({{ic|ffmpegthumbs}} ⩔ ({{ic|ffmpegthumbnailer tumbler}})) {{ic|exe-thumbnailer}}<sup><small>chaotic</small></sup>
| {{ic|ffmpegthumbs}} ⩔ ({{ic|ffmpegthumbnailer tumbler}})
| ({{ic|ffmpegthumbs}} ⩔ ({{ic|ffmpegthumbnailer tumbler}})) {{ic|exe-thumbnailer}}
|-
| TPM 2.0 || <code>tpm2-{abrmd,tools}</code> || <code>tpm2-{tss,tools}</code> || <code>tpm2-{abrmd,tools}</code>
|-
| Video Acceleration
| {{ic|libva-utils vdpauinfo}} || || {{ic|vainfo vdpauinfo}}
|-
| Vulkan || <code>vulkan-{mesa-layers,tools}</code> || {{ic|Vulkan-Tools}} || {{ic|vulkan-tools mesa-vulkan-drivers}}
|-
| Xorg
| <code>xdg-{utils,user-dirs} xorg-{server,xauth,xdpyinfo,xhost,xinit,xrandr,xwininfo}</code>
| <code>xdg-{utils,user-dirs} xorg-minimal xdpyinfo xhost xrandr xwininfo</code>
| <code>xdg-{utils,user-dirs}</code> <code>xserver-xorg-core xauth x11-utils xinit xrandr x11-xserver-utils</code>
| <code>elogind eudev xorg-{server,xdpyinfo,xrandr} xf86-input-libinput</code>
|-
| Display Managers || colspan=2 | {{pkg|gdm}} ⩔ {{pkg|lightdm}} ⩔ {{pkg|lxdm}} ⩔ {{pkg|sddm}} ⩔ {{pkg|xdm}} || {{pkg|gdm3}} ⩔ {{pkg|lightdm}} ⩔ {{pkg|lxdm}} ⩔ {{pkg|sddm}} ⩔ {{pkg|xdm}}
|-
| Xorg Video Drivers
| colspan=2 | <code>xf86-video-{amdgpu,ati,intel,nouveau,openchrome,vesa}</code>
| <code>xserver-xorg-video-{amdgpu,ati,intel,nouveau,openchrome,vesa}</code>
| <code>xf86-video-{amdgpu,ati,intel,modesettings,nouveau,openchrome,vesa}</code>
|-
| ZSH
| {{pkg|bullet-train-oh-my-zsh-theme-git|AUR}} {{pkg|oh-my-zsh-git|chaotic}} {{ic|powerline powerline-fonts zsh zsh-completions zsh-syntax-highlighting}}
| {{ic|zsh zsh-autosuggestions zsh-completions zsh-syntax-highlighting}}
| {{ic|zsh zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-theme-powerlevel9k powerline fonts-powerline}}
| {{ic|zsh <nowiki>$(apk search zsh-completion | sed 's/-[0-9.]*-r[0-9]*//g' | tr '\n' ' ')</nowiki> zsh-syntax-highlighting}}
|}

==GPU Support==

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"
! Chipset !! Generation !! Xorg !! VA-API !! VDPAU !! OpenCL !! Vulkan
|- style="background-color:#fee"
| rowspan=4 | AMD || GCN 1 || rowspan=2 | {{pkg|xf86-video-amdgpu}} ⩔ {{pkg|xf86-video-ati}} || rowspan=4 | {{pkg|libva-mesa-driver}} || rowspan=4 | {{pkg|mesa-vdpau}} || Not Supported || rowspan=2 | {{pkg|vulkan-radeon}}
|- style="background-color:#fee"
| GCN 2 || {{pkg|rocm-opencl-runtime|AUR x86_64 only}}
|- style="background-color:#fee"
| GCN 3,4,5 || rowspan=2 | {{pkg|xf86-video-amdgpu}} || rowspan=2 | {{pkg|opencl-amd}} ⩔ {{pkg|opencl-mesa}} || rowspan=2 | {{pkg|vulkan-radeon}} ⩔ {{pkg|amdvlk}}
|- style="background-color:#fee"
| RDNA 1,2
|- style="background-color:#eef"
| rowspan=6 | Intel || Gen 4 GMA ≥4500 || rowspan=6 | {{pkg|xf86-video-intel}} || rowspan=3 | {{pkg|libva-intel-driver}} || rowspan=6 | {{pkg|libvdpau-va-gl}} || Not Supported || rowspan=2 | Not Supported
|- style="background-color:#eef"
| Gen 5 Westmere<br /><span style="white-space:nowrap">Gen 6 Sandy Bridge</span> || rowspan=2 | {{pkg|intel-opencl}}
|- style="background-color:#eef"
| Gen 7 Ivy Bridge<br />Gen 7 Haswell || rowspan=4 | {{pkg|vulkan-intel}}
|- style="background-color:#eef"
| Gen 8 Broadwell<br />Gen 8 Braswell || rowspan=2 | {{pkg|intel-media-driver}} {{pkg|intel-hybrid-codec-driver|AUR}} || rowspan=3 | {{pkg|intel-compute-runtime}}
|- style="background-color:#eef"
| Gen 9 Skylake
|- style="background-color:#eef"
| <span style="white-space:nowrap">Gen 9 Apollo Lake</span><br />and later || {{pkg|intel-media-driver}}
|- style="background-color:#efe"
| rowspan=4 | NVIDIA || [https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/CodeNames.html#NV50 Tesla] || {{pkg|nvidia-340xx-dkms|AUR}}<br />⩔ {{pkg|nouveau}} || rowspan=3 | {{pkg|libva-vdpau-driver}} ⩔<br />({{pkg|libva-mesa-driver}} {{pkg|nouveau-fw|AUR}}) || {{pkg|nvidia-340xx-utils}} ⩔ ({{pkg|mesa-vdpau}} {{pkg|nouveau-fw|AUR}}) || {{pkg|nvidia-340xx-utils}} <span style="white-space:nowrap">{{note|FOSS driver doesn't support OpenCL.}}</span> || Not Supported
|- style="background-color:#efe"
| [https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/CodeNames.html#NVC0 Fermi] || {{pkg|nvidia-390xx-dkms|AUR}}<br />⩔ {{pkg|nouveau}} || {{pkg|nvidia-390xx-utils}} ⩔<br />{{pkg|mesa-vdpau}} {{pkg|nouveau-fw|AUR}}) || colspan=2 | {{pkg|nvidia-390xx-utils}} {{note|FOSS driver doesn't support OpenCL or Vulkan.}}
|- style="background-color:#efe"
| [https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/CodeNames.html#NVE0 Kepler] || {{pkg|nvidia-470xx-dkms|AUR}}<br />⩔ {{pkg|nouveau}} || {{pkg|nvidia-470xx-utils}} ⩔<br />({{pkg|mesa-vdpau}} {{pkg|nouveau-fw|AUR}}) || colspan=2 | {{pkg|nvidia-470xx-utils}} {{note|FOSS driver doesn't support OpenCL or Vulkan.}}
|- style="background-color:#efe"
| [https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/CodeNames.html#NV110 Maxwell]<br />and later || ({{pkg|nvidia}} ⩔ {{pkg|nvidia-lts}} ⩔ {{pkg|nvidia-dkms}})<br />⩔ {{pkg|nouveau}} || {{pkg|libva-vdpau-driver}} {{note|FOSS driver doesn't support this gen yet.}} || {{ic|nvidia-utils}} || colspan=2 | {{pkg|nvidia-utils}} {{note|FOSS driver doesn't support OpenCL or Vulkan.}}
|}

===Package Name Translation===

{| class="wikitable" text-align: center;"
! Arch !! Alpine !! Debian !! Void !! Licenses !! Notes
|-
| amdvlk || <span style="color: red;">not available</span> || <span style="color: red;">not available</span> || amdvlk || MIT || AMD's stand-alone Vulkan driver (as opposed to Mesa's)
|-
| intel-compute-runtime || intel-compute-runtime || intel-opencl-icd || || MIT || Modern Intel OpenCL driver for Broadwell-and-later CPUs
|-
| intel-media-driver || intel-media-driver || intel-media-va-driver[-nonfree] || intel-media-driver || MIT BSD || Modern Intel VA-API driver for Broadwell-and-later CPUs
|-
| intel-opencl || || || || Custom || Legacy Intel OpenCL for pre-Broadwell CPUs
|-
| libva-intel-driver || libva-intel-driver || i965-va-driver[-nonfree] || libva-intel-driver || MIT || Legacy Intel VA-API driver for pre-Broadwell CPUs
|-
| libva-mesa-driver || mesa-va-gallium || mesa-va-drivers || mesa-vaapi
|-
| libvdpau-va-gl || libvdpau-va-gl || libvdpau-va-gl1 || libvdpau-va-gl
|-
| libva-vdpau-driver || libva-vdpau-driver || vdpau-driver-all || libva-vdpau-driver
|-
| mesa-vdpau || mesa-vdpau-gallium || mesa-vdpau-drivers || mesa-vdpau
|-
| nouveau-fw || linux-firmware-nvidia || firmware-misc-nonfree<sup><small>?</small></sup> || linux-firmware-nvidia
|-
| nvidia || <span style="color: red;">not available</span> || nvidia-driver || nvidia
|-
| nvidia-390xx-dkms || <span style="color: red;">not available</span> || nvidia-legacy-390xx-driver || nvidia390
|-
| nvidia-340xx-dkms || <span style="color: red;">not available</span> || nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver || <span style="color: red;">not available</span>
|-
| opencl-amd || || || || Custom || ROCr based OpenCL on Vega or later GPUs
|-
| opencl-mesa || <span style="color: red;">not available</span> || mesa-opencl-icd || mesa-opencl
|-
| rocm-opencl-runtime || || || || MIT || Radeon Open Compute OpenCL runtime
|-
| vulkan-intel || mesa-vulkan-intel || rowspan=2 | mesa-vulkan-drivers || mesa-vulkan-intel || rowspan=2 | Custom || rowspan=2 | Mesa's Vulkan drivers
|-
| vulkan-radeon || mesa-vulkan-ati || mesa-vulkan-radeon
|-
| xf86-video-* || xf86-video-* || xserver-xorg-video-* || xf86-video-*

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-06T00:05:03Z

BrainwreckedTech: Fixed Platform info for Windows 10 and 8.1

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | IA-32, x86-64
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-06T00:00:37Z

BrainwreckedTech: Added info boxes for currently supported versions of Windows

<div style="float: right;">

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Current Version: Windows 11
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 11 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-06-24
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2021-10-05
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Previous Version: Windows 10
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 10 Logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-15
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-07-29
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2025-10-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

{| class=wikitable style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | In Extended Support: Windows 8.1
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Windows 8 logo.svg|256px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developer
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Microsoft
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| RTM
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-08-27
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| General Availability
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2013-10-17
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Support Ends
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2023-01-10
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C, C++, C#, assembly language
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARMv8
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
|}
|}

</div>

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

File:Windows 8 logo.svg

2022-07-05T23:50:21Z

BrainwreckedTech: English Windows 8 logo

== Summary ==
English Windows 8 logo

File:Windows 10 Logo.svg

2022-07-05T23:41:33Z

BrainwreckedTech: Logo of Windows 10

== Summary ==
Logo of Windows 10

File:Windows 11 logo.svg

2022-07-05T23:29:10Z

BrainwreckedTech: English: Logo of Windows 11.

== Summary ==
English: Logo of Windows 11.

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:48:38Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Hardware */ Fix missing closing curly brackets

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:48:12Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Hardware */ Added winget information

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

{{bc|choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software}}
{{bc|winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark CPUID.CPU-Z CPUID.HWMonitor REALiX.HWiNFO}}

{{ic|winget does not have packages for [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD chipset drivers] nor [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel chipset drivers].

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:41:48Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Fonts */ Added winget information

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

{{bc|choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for any font.

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:39:22Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Cloud Storage */ Added info

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

{{bc|choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync sugarsync}}
{{bc|winget install Dropbox.Dropbox Google.Drive}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have packages for [https://spideroak.com/opendownload/ SpiderOak services] nor [https://www1.sugarsync.com/apps/ SugarSync]

Neither client has a package for [https://www.pcloud.com/download-free-online-cloud-file-storage.html pCloud Drive].

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:29:17Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Internet */ Added winget command line

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | </nowiki>'''ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install [ Hibbiki.Chromium | Google.Chrome | </nowiki>'''eloston.ungoogled-chromium'''<nowiki> | Mozilla.Firefox ] Nextcloud.NextcloudDesktop qBittorrent.qBittorrent SyncTrayzor.SyncTrayzor Mozilla.Thunderbird</nowiki>}}

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:19:17Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Communication */ Added winget command line

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

{{bc|choco install mumble pidgin skype}}
{{bc|winget install Mumble.Mumble Pidgin.Pidgin Microsoft.Skype}}

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:17:54Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Office */ Added winget command line

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

{{bc|choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice}}
{{bc|winget install gnome.Dia LibreCAD.LibreCAD TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice.HelpPack ONLYOFFICE.DesktopEditors}}

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:15:27Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Virtualization */ Added winget info

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

{{bc|choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack}}
{{bc|winget install SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU Oracle.VirtualBox}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for the [https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html#extpack Virtualbox Extension Pack].

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:11:06Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Video */ Added command line for winget

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

{{bc|choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc}}
{{bc|winget install HandBrake.HandBrake mpv.net OBSProject.OBSStudio VideoLAN.VLC}}

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:07:50Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Grpahics */ Added winget command line

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

{{bc|choco install gimp inkscape paint.net}}
{{bc|winget install GIMP.GIMP Inkscape.Inkscape paint.net}}

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:04:28Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Power-User Utitlies */ Added info for HxD

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD20 HxD].

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T22:02:25Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports) */ Added winget info

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

{{bc|choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming}}
{{bc|winget install Git.Git Xming.Xming}}

{{ic|winget}} does not have a package for [https://sourceforge.net/projects/getgnuwin32/files/getgnuwin32/ GnuWin32]. It does have a small subset of individual utilities that can be found with {{ic|winget search gnuwin32}}.

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T21:52:25Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Standard Utilities */ Added nowiki tag to stop MediaWiki interpreting brackets

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|<nowiki>choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install</nowiki>}}
{{bc|<nowiki>winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium</nowiki>}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T21:51:22Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Standard Utilities */ Implemented bc template

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

{{bc|choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install}}
{{bc|winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium}}

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T21:50:43Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Other Programs */ Add Applications section

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

===Applications===

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T21:49:42Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* GSudo */ Implemented bc template

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

{{bc|choco install gsudo}}
{{bc|winget install gerardog.gsudo}}

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T21:48:37Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Power-User Utitlies */ Added winget command line

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

choco install gsudo

winget install gerardog.gsudo

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium

====Power-User Utitlies====

{{bc|choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge}}
{{bc|winget install uvncbvba.UltraVnc WinDirStat.WinDirStat WinMerge.WinMerge}}

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T20:54:55Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Grpahics */ Added registry edit for Edit with GIMP

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

choco install gsudo

winget install gerardog.gsudo

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium

====Power-User Utitlies====

choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

=====Edit with GIMP=====

If you want to keep the association with Windows' Photos for image viewing but be able to get a right-click option to edit with GIMP:

{{hc|edit-with-gimp.reg|2=
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP]
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\Edit with GIMP\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\GIMP 2\\bin\\gimp-2.10.exe\" \"%1\""}}

{{bc|reg import edit-with-gimp.reg}}

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T19:57:31Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Other Programs */ Made gsudo its own section

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

===GSudo===

Windows Terminal is a per-user application (installed in {{ic|C:\Users\$USER}}) not a system application (installed in {{ic|C:\Program Files}}). This breaks the {{ic|Run As Administrator}} function.

choco install gsudo

winget install gerardog.gsudo

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium

====Power-User Utitlies====

choco install hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T19:51:00Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Standard Utilities */ Added winget command line

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

winget install 7zip.7zip [ Canneverbe.CDBurnerXP | LIGHTNINGUK.ImgBurn | '''ChristianKindahl.InfraRecorder''' ] Greenshot.Greenshot KDE.KDEConnect DominikReichl.KeePass VSCodium.VSCodium

====Power-User Utitlies====

choco install gsudo hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-07-05T19:45:14Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Other Programs */ Added mention of winget

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on [https://chocolatey.org/install Chocolatey] (Windows 10 and earlier) or {{ic|winget}} (pre-installed in Windows 11) for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

===WinGet===

{{ic|winget}} comes pre-installed in Windows 11.

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

====Power-User Utitlies====

choco install gsudo hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Ungoogled Chromium Extensions

2022-07-04T01:58:05Z

BrainwreckedTech: Added info bar

{| class=wikitable align=right style="margin-left: 0.5em; width: 24em;"
|+ style="font-size: large;" | Ungoogled Chromium
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Chromium Logo.png|128px]]
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;"
| Developers
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Eloston, The ungoogled-software group and its contributors
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Initial Release
| style="padding-left: 1em" | 2015-12-14
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Repository
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Written in
| style="padding-left: 1em" | C++ primarily, HTML, CSS, JavaScript for UI and test suite
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Engine
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Blink, V8
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important;"
| Operating Systems
| style="padding-left: 1em" | Windows, Linux, Android, macOS, BSDs
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| Platforms
| style="padding-left: 1em" | x86-64, ARM, ARM64
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| License
| style="padding-left: 1em" | BSD-3-Clause License
|-
| Website
| style="padding-left: 1em" | https://ungoogled-software.github.io
|}
|}

* Change the flag {{ic|chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling}} to {{ic|Always prompt for install}}.
* [https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store/releases Chromium Web Store]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kihobnjokffgdfnhjdfiaibalbgfolic Clear History]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eimadpbcbfnmbkopoojfekhnkhdbieeh Dark Reader]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mcbpblocgmgfnpjjppndjkmgjaogfceg FireShot]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mlomiejdfkolichcflejclcbmpeaniij Ghostery]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mhajlicjhgoofheldnmollgbgjheenbi Passwords for Nextcloud Browser Extension]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gebbhagfogifgggkldgodflihgfeippi Return YouTube Dislike]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ongnhfbnfbpfpcmnjahklmklncjblmmo Save Tab URLs]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dapehldnfebpbfpfknddmlhghjlbjhdb Secure Password Generator]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm uBlock Origin]

File:Chromium Logo.png

2022-07-04T01:50:13Z

BrainwreckedTech: Chomium Logo

== Summary ==
Chomium Logo

Main Page

2022-07-03T16:56:28Z

BrainwreckedTech: Added link to Ungoogled Chromium Extensions

__NOTOC__
<h1>Welcome To The Brainwrecked Wiki!</h1>

<div style="display: flex; flex-flow: row wrap; grid-gap: 1em; margin-top: 2.5em;">

<div style="flex-basis: 25em; min-width: 25em; flex-grow: 1;">
[[File:System-Install-Icon.png|48px|left]] <h2>Installation Manuals</h2>

<div style="float:left">
<ul>
<li>[[Drive Partitioning]] ''← Read First!''</li>
<li>[[Installing A Windows Desktop]]</li>
<li>General Linux Installation<sup><small>NEW</small></sup></li>
<ul>
<li>[[Linux Base Utilities]]</li>
<li>[[Linux System Configuration]]</li>
<li>[[Linux Services]]</li>
<li>[[Linux Boot Loader]]</li>
</ul>
<li>Distro-Specific Installation Guides</li>
<ul>
<li>[[Installing An Arch Desktop]]</li>
<li>[[Arch Post-Installation Checklist]]</li>
</ul>
<li>Legacy Installation Guides (Obsolete/Out of Date)</li>
<ul>
<li>[[Installing An Ubuntu Desktop]]</li>
<li>[[Installing A Server]]</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

<div style="flex-basis: 25em; min-width: 25em; flex-grow: 1;">
[[File:Servers.png|x48px|left]] <h2>Common Server Applications</h2>

<div style="float:left">
<ul>
<li>[[SSH]]</li>
<li>[[Fail2Ban]]</li>
<li>[[MariaDB]]</li>
<li>[[NginX]]</li>
<li>[[Let's Encrypt]]</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

<div style="flex-basis: 25em; min-width: 25em; flex-grow: 1;">
[[File:Cloud-Server.png|x48px|left]] <h2>Self-Hosting</h2>

<div style="float:left">
<ul>
<li>[[PHP-FPM]]</li>
<li>[[Redis]]</li>
<li>[[Self-Hosted E-Mail]]</li>
<li>[[Gitea]]</li>
<li>[[OnlyOffice Document Server]]</li>
<li>[[Firefox Sync Server]]</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

<div style="flex-basis: 25em; min-width: 25em; flex-grow: 1;">
[[File:Gnome-Preferences-System.png|48px|left]] <h2>Advanced Tweaking Manuals</h2>

<div style="float:left">
<ul>
<li>[[Deleting Extraneous Files]]</li>
<li>[[Package List Backup And Restoration]]</li>
<li>[[Using Swap Files Instead Of Swap Partitions]]</li>
<li>[[Manual Software RAID Creation]]</li>
<li>[[Encrypting An Existing Partition]]</li>
<li>[[Custom Kernels On Ubuntu]]</li>
<li>[[Ungoogled Chromium Extensions]]</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

<div style="flex-basis: 25em; min-width: 25em; flex-grow: 1;">
[[File:Gnome-Accessories-Text-Editor.png|48px|left]] <h2>Contributing</h2>

<div style="float:left">
<ul>
<li>Everyone is welcome to contribute.</li>
<li>An account is required to begin editing.</li>
<li>You will have to contact BrainwreckedTech to get editing approval. Sorry, too much spam.</li>
<li>Please read the [[Style Guide]] and adhere to it.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

Ungoogled Chromium Extensions

2022-07-03T16:55:57Z

BrainwreckedTech: BrainwreckedTech moved page Ungoogled Chrome Extensions to Ungoogled Chromium Extensions without leaving a redirect: Chrome -> Chromium

* Change the flag {{ic|chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling}} to {{ic|Always prompt for install}}.
* [https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store/releases Chromium Web Store]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kihobnjokffgdfnhjdfiaibalbgfolic Clear History]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eimadpbcbfnmbkopoojfekhnkhdbieeh Dark Reader]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mcbpblocgmgfnpjjppndjkmgjaogfceg FireShot]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mlomiejdfkolichcflejclcbmpeaniij Ghostery]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mhajlicjhgoofheldnmollgbgjheenbi Passwords for Nextcloud Browser Extension]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gebbhagfogifgggkldgodflihgfeippi Return YouTube Dislike]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ongnhfbnfbpfpcmnjahklmklncjblmmo Save Tab URLs]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dapehldnfebpbfpfknddmlhghjlbjhdb Secure Password Generator]
* [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm uBlock Origin]

Ungoogled Chromium Extensions

2022-07-03T16:54:18Z

BrainwreckedTech: Initial version of the page

Self-Hosted E-Mail

2022-06-20T17:57:17Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Rainloop */ Disable wiki markup on URL

<div style="float:left; margin-right:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em;">__TOC__</div>

Setting up your own e-mail service from scratch can be a time-consuming task, but it also allows the ultimate control over your e-mail at no additional cost. Create any account(s) you want from any domain you own, and relieve yourself of the snooping from free e-mail service providers. All with the help of free software from Postfix, Dovecot, ISPmail (administer addresses), and Rainloop (web mail).

Do note that many, if not all, residential ISPs block port 25 to combat spam from any potentially botted customer PC on the ISP's network. SMTP by itself is ''not'' a secure protocol '''''at all'''''. As such, most SMTP servers are configured by default to reject unauthenticated plaintext requests to send mail from any IP that isn't localhost. The most common solution to this is to purchase Virtual Private Server (VPS) service, which can cost as little as US$3.00 per month. Another solution would be to purchase a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service with dedicated IP address and PTR record.

= Prerequisites =

; [[:Category:Firewall|Firewall]]
: Make sure ports 25, 465, 587, 993, and 995 are open.
; [[:Category:Database|Database]]
: Allows for the divorce of email addresses from UNIX/LDAP usernames.
; [[:Category:Web Server|Web Server]]
: For web applications and Let's Encrypt SSL certificates.
; [[Let's Encrypt]]
: Allows the use of SSL-secured transmission instead of plaintext.
; [[Redis]]
: Rspamd uses this to cache recently seen mail servers and spam scores.

= Required Packages =

These packages are needed to set up your own e-mail service.

{{bc|pacman -Syu --needed dovecot pigeonhole postfix rspamd swaks}}

= Postfix Configuration =

== Create MariaDB Databases for Postfix ==

{{bc|
CREATE DATABASE MAIL;
CREATE USER 'mailuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<password>';
CREATE USER 'mailadmin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<password>';
GRANT ALL ON MAIL.* TO 'mailadmin'@'localhost';
GRANT SELECT ON MAIL.* TO 'mailuser'@'localhost';
}}

{{bc|<nowiki>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `MAIL`.`virtual_domains` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
</nowiki>}}

{{bc|<nowiki>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `MAIL`.`virtual_users` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`domain_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`email` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
`password` varchar(150) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `email` (`email`),
FOREIGN KEY (domain_id) REFERENCES virtual_domains(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
</nowiki>}}

{{bc|<nowiki>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `MAIL`.`virtual_aliases` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`domain_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`source` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
`destination` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
FOREIGN KEY (domain_id) REFERENCES virtual_domains(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
</nowiki>}}

== Configure Postfix to Use MariaDB ==

{{hc|/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-mailbox-domains.cf|2=
user = mailuser
password = <password>
hosts = unix:/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
dbname = MAIL
query = SELECT 1 FROM virtual_domains WHERE name='%s'
}}

{{hc|/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-mailbox-maps.cf|2=
user = mailuser
password = <password>
hosts = unix:/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
dbname = MAIL
query = SELECT 1 FROM virtual_users WHERE email='%s'
}}

{{hc|/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-alias-maps.cf|2=
user = mailuser
password = <password>
hosts = unix:/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
dbname = MAIL
query = SELECT destination FROM virtual_aliases WHERE source='%s'
}}

{{hc|/etc/postfix/mysql-email2email.cf|2=
user = mailuser
password = <password>
hosts = unix:/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
dbname = MAIL
query = SELECT email FROM virtual_users WHERE email='%s'
}}

{{bc|<nowiki>
sudo postconf virtual_mailbox_domains=mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-mailbox-domains.cf
sudo postconf virtual_mailbox_maps=mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-mailbox-maps.cf
sudo postconf virtual_alias_maps=mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-alias-maps.cf,mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-email2email.cf
sudo chgrp postfix /etc/postfix/mysql-*.cf
sudo chmod 640 /etc/postfix/mysql-*.cf
</nowiki>}}

== Configure Postfix for E-mail Filtering ==

Add the following lines to the end of the {{ic|/etc/postfix/master.cf}} file:

{{hc|/etc/postfix/master.cf|2=
...
submission inet n - - - - smtpd
-o syslog_name=postfix/submission
-o smtpd_tls_security_level=encrypt
-o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
-o smtpd_sasl_type=dovecot
-o smtpd_sasl_path=private/auth
-o smtpd_sasl_security_options=noanonymous
-o smtpd_sender_login_maps=mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-email2email.cf
-o smtpd_sender_restrictions=reject_sender_login_mismatch
-o smtpd_sasl_local_domain=$myhostname
-o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
-o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=reject_non_fqdn_recipient,reject_unknown_recipient_domain,permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
...
dovecot unix - n n - - pipe
flags=DRhu user=vmail:vmail argv=/usr/libexec/dovecot/deliver -f ${sender} -d ${recipient}
}}

{{bc|<nowiki>
sudo postconf virtual_transport=lmtp:unix:private/dovecot-lmtp
sudo postconf smtpd_sasl_type=dovecot
sudo postconf smtpd_sasl_path=private/auth
sudo postconf smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
sudo postconf smtpd_tls_security_level=may
sudo postconf smtpd_tls_auth_only=yes
sudo postconf smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/letsencrypt/live/<domain>/fullchain.pem
sudo postconf smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/letsencrypt/live/<domain>/privkey.pem
sudo postconf smtp_tls_security_level=may
sudo postconf smtpd_milters=inet:127.0.0.1:11332
sudo postconf non_smtpd_milters=inet:127.0.0.1:11332
sudo postconf milter_protocol=6
sudo postconf milter_mail_macros="i {mail_addr} {client_addr} {client_name} {auth_authen}"
</nowiki>}}

= Dovecot Configuration =

{{bc|
sudo groupadd -g 5000 vmail
sudo useradd -g vmail -u 5000 vmail -d /srv/imap -m
sudo chown -R vmail:vmail /srv/mail
sudo cp /usr/share/doc/dovecot/example-config/dovecot.conf /etc/dovecot
sudo cp -r /usr/share/doc/dovecot/example-config/conf.d /etc/dovecot
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf|2=
...

# Protocols we want to be serving.
# Don't include submission -- postfix does that.
protocols = imap pop3 lmtp sieve
....

# Add these lines to the end of the file
# Or just before the include blocks

service auth {

unix_listener auth-client {
group = postfix
mode = 0660
user = postfix
}

unix_listener auth-master {
group = vmail
mode = 0660
user = vmail
}

user = root

}

service managesieve-login {

inet_listener sieve {
port = 4190
}

}

service managesieve {
}

protocol sieve {
managesieve_max_line_length = 65536
managesieve_implementation_string = dovecot
log_path = /var/log/dovecot-sieve-errors.log
info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-sieve.log
}

plugin {
sieve = ~/dovecot.sieve
sieve_global_path = /etc/dovecot/sieve/default.sieve
sieve_dir = ~/sieve
sieve_global_dir = /etc/dovecot/sieve/global/
}

lda_mailbox_autocreate = yes
lda_mailbox_autosubscribe = yes

protocol lda {
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins autocreate sieve quota
postmaster_address = postmaster@mydomain.com
hostname = mail.mydomain.com
auth_socket_path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
log_path = /var/log/dovecot-lda-errors.log
info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-lda.log
}

protocol lmtp {
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins autocreate sieve quota
log_path = /var/log/dovecot-lmtp-errors.log
info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-lmtp.log
}
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-auth.conf|2=
...
#!include auth-system.conf.ext
!include auth-sql.conf.ext
...
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext|2=
...
#userdb {
# driver = sql
# args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
#}
...
userdb {
driver = static
args = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/srv/mail/%n@%d
}
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf|2=
...
mail_location = maildir:/srv/mail/%n@%d/Maildir
...
namespace inbox {
...
separator = .
...
}
...
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-master.conf|2=
...
service lmtp {
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
group = postfix
mode = 0600
user = postfix
}
...
}
...
service auth {
...
# Postfix smtp-auth
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
mode = 0660
user = postfix
group = postfix
}
...
}
...
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf|2=
...
ssl = yes
...
ssl_cert = </etc/letsencrypt/live/<domain>/fullchain.pem
ssl_key = </etc/letsencrypt/live/<domain>/privkey.pem
...
ssl_ca = </etc/letsencrypt/live/<domain>/chain.pem
...
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/15-mailboxes.conf|2=
...
mailbox INBOX.Drafts {
special_use = \Drafts
auto = subscribe
}
mailbox INBOX.Junk {
special_use = \Junk
auto = subscribe
autoexpunge = 30d
}
mailbox INBOX.Trash {
special_use = \Trash
auto = subscribe
autoexpunge = 30d
}
mailbox INBOX.Sent {
special_use = \Sent
auto = subscribe
}
...
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/20-imap.conf|2=
...
protocol imap {
# Space separated list of plugins to load (default is global mail_plugins).
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins imap_sieve
...
}
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/20-lmtp.conf|2=
...
protocol lmtp {
# Space separated list of plugins to load (default is global mail_plugins).
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins sieve
...
}
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf|2=
...
sieve_after = /etc/dovecot/sieve-after
...
sieve_plugins = sieve_imapsieve sieve_extprograms
...
# From elsewhere to Junk folder
imapsieve_mailbox1_name = Junk
imapsieve_mailbox1_causes = COPY
imapsieve_mailbox1_before = file:/etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-spam.sieve

# From Junk folder to elsewhere
imapsieve_mailbox2_name = *
imapsieve_mailbox2_from = Junk
imapsieve_mailbox2_causes = COPY
imapsieve_mailbox2_before = file:/etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-ham.sieve

sieve_pipe_bin_dir = /etc/dovecot/sieve
sieve_global_extensions = +vnd.dovecot.pipe
}
}}

{{bc|<nowiki>sudo mkdir /etc/dovecot/sieve{-after,}</nowiki>}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/sieve-after/spam-to-folder.sieve|2=
require ["fileinto","mailbox"];

if header :contains "X-Spam" "Yes" {
fileinto :create "INBOX.Junk";
stop;
}
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-spam.sieve|2=
require ["vnd.dovecot.pipe", "copy", "imapsieve"];
pipe :copy "rspamd-learn-spam.sh";
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-ham.sieve|2=
require ["vnd.dovecot.pipe", "copy", "imapsieve"];
pipe :copy "rspamd-learn-ham.sh";
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext|2=
driver = mysql
connect = host=/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock dbname=MAIL user=mailuser password=<password>
default_pass_scheme = SHA256-CRYPT
password_query = SELECT email as user, password FROM virtual_users WHERE email='%u';
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/sieve/rspamd-learn-spam.sh|2=
#!/usr/bin/env sh
exec /usr/bin/rspamc learn_spam
}}

{{hc|/etc/dovecot/sieve/rspamd-learn-ham.sh|2=
#!/usr/bin/env sh
exec /usr/bin/rspamc learn_ham
}}

{{bc|<nowiki>
sudo sievec /etc/dovecot/sieve-after/spam-to-folder.sieve
sudo sievec /etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-spam.sieve
sudo sievec /etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-ham.sieve
sudo touch /var/log/{dovecot-lda-errors.log,dovecot-lda.log}
sudo touch /var/log/{dovecot-sieve-errors.log,dovecot-sieve.log}
sudo touch /var/log/{dovecot-lmtp-errors.log,dovecot-lmtp.log}
sudo mkdir -p /etc/dovecot/sieve/global
sudo chown vmail: -R /etc/dovecot/sieve
sudo chown vmail:mail /var/log/dovecot-*
sudo chown root:root /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
sudo chmod 600 /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
sudo chmod 600 /etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-{spam,ham}.sieve
sudo chmod 700 /etc/dovecot/sieve/rspamd-learn-{spam,ham}.sh
sudo chown vmail:vmail /etc/dovecot/sieve/learn-{spam,ham}.sieve
sudo chown vmail:vmail /etc/dovecot/sieve/rspamd-learn-{spam,ham}.sh
</nowiki>}}

= Rspamd Configuration =

{{bc|sudo mkdir /etc/rspamd/conf.d}}

{{hc|/etc/rspamd/override.d/milter_headers.conf|2=
extended_spam_headers = true;
}}

{{hc|/etc/rspamd/override.d/classifier-bayes.conf|2=
autolearn = true;
}}

{{bc|
sudo mkdir /var/lib/rspamd/dkim
sudo chown _rspamd:_rspamd /var/lib/rspamd/dkim
sudo rspamadm dkim_keygen -d <domain> -s $(date +%Y%m%d)
}}

{{hc|/var/lib/rspamd/dkim/<domain>.YYYYMMDD.key|2=
<nowiki>-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
[base64 key]
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----</nowiki>
}}

The second part of the output of {{ic|rspamadm dkim_keygen}} can be directly pasted into a DNS zone if you are running your own server. If you only have control of your domain name through a 3rd party:

{| class="wikitable"
! Type !! Host !! Value
|-
| TXT || @ || <nowiki>v=spf1 a mx ip4:<ip-address> -all</nowiki>
|-
| TXT || _dmarc || <nowiki>v=DMARC1; p=none; sp=none; rf=afrf; pct=100; ri=86400</nowiki>
|-
| TXT || YYYYMMDD._domainkey || <nowiki>v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz0123456789...</nowiki>
|}

{{hc|/etc/rspamd/local.d/dkim_signing.conf|2=
path = "/var/lib/rspamd/dkim/$domain.$selector.key";
selector_map = "/etc/rspamd/dkim_selectors.map";
}}

{{hc|/etc/rspamd/dkim_selectors.map|2=
<domain> YYYYMMDD
}}

{{bc|sudo systemctl enable --now rspamd}}

= ISPmail Admin =

Start with the [[Arch_Post-Installation_Checklist#Non-Proxied_Web_Site|Non-Proxied Web Site template]].

Then, in the site's root:

{{bc|<nowiki>
sudo wget 'https://www.ima.jungclaussen.com/dwn/dwn.php?v=0.9.6&f=.tar.gz'
sudo tar -xvf 'dwn.php?v=0.9.6&f=.tar.gz'
sudo mv ispmail*/htdocs/* ./
sudo rm -r 'dwn.php?v=0.9.6&f=.tar.gz' ispmail*
</nowiki>}}

Then edit the configuration file:

{{hc|<ispmail_root>/cfg/config.inc.php|2=
<?php

// @package ISPmail_Admin
// @author Ole Jungclaussen
// @version 0.9.0

// SHOW PHP ERRORS (DEBUGGING)

// ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
// ini_set('display_errors', 1);
// error_reporting(-1);

// DATABASE ACCESS

define('IMA_CFG_DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1');
define('IMA_CFG_DB_PORT', '3306');
define('IMA_CFG_DB_USER', 'mailadmin');
define('IMA_CFG_DB_PASSWORD', '<password>');
define('IMA_CFG_DB_DATABASE', 'MAIL');

// PASSWORD HASHES (enable only *one*)

define('IMA_CFG_USE_SHA256_HASHES', true);
// define('IMA_CFG_USE_MD5_HASHES', true);

// ACCESS CONTROL: uncomment the type you want to use.

define('IMA_CFG_LOGIN', IMA_LOGINTYPE_ACCOUNT);
// define('IMA_CFG_LOGIN', IMA_LOGINTYPE_ADM);
// define('IMA_CFG_LOGIN', IMA_LOGINTYPE_ADMAUTO);

// ADMINISTRATOR'S NAME AND PASSWORD

define('IMA_CFG_ADM_USER', 'admin'); // admin username
define('IMA_CFG_ADM_PASS', '<password>'); // admin password

// LISTS
// Spread long lists on multiple pages. Set number of maximum entries
// per page. Changes take effect after login/logout. If not defined,
// defaults to 65535.

// define('IMA_LIST_MAX_ENTRIES', 200);
?>
}}

After [[Arch_Post-Installation_Checklist#Finalization|finalization]] you should now be able to log in and set up your virtual mailboxes.

= Rainloop =

Start with the [[Arch_Post-Installation_Checklist#Non-Proxied_Web_Site|Non-Proxied Web Site template]].

Change the following sections of the nginx conf file:

{{hc|/etc/nginx/sites-available/<domain>.conf|2=
...
location ~ /data {
deny all;
}
...
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi.conf;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
...
}}

Download Rainloop

{{bc|<nowiki>
sudo cd /srv/http/<domain>
sudo wget https://www.rainloop.net/repository/webmail/rainloop-community-latest.zip</nowiki>
}}

Extract the zip file

{{bc|sudo unzip rainloop-community-latest.zip}}

Set the correct permissions on the files

{{bc|
sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
}}

Set the correct owner on the whole web root

{{bc|sudo chown -R http:http /srv/http/<dir>}}

After you [[Arch_Post-Installation_Checklist#Finalize|finalize the setup]], you should now be able to access the Admini Panel at {{ic|<nowiki>http://<domain>/?admin</nowiki>}}. The default login is admin:12345

From the Admin Panel, add your domain under Domains. Use the public-facing domain for the Name, and {{ic|localhost}} for the IMAP and SMTP servers.

Under Login, set the Default Domain to {{ic|localhost}}.

Optionally, you can enable contacts. You will need to manually set up a database and user, but that is the only configuration needed to do on your part.

For Security, you should enable all of the Security options. You should also change the Admin Panel Access Credentials.

Click on the power-off icon in the upper-right corner to finish with the Admin Panel.

Navigate to {{ic|<nowiki>http://<domain></nowiki>}} to log in and access your mail.

PHP-FPM

2022-05-10T12:17:27Z

BrainwreckedTech: Added PHP-FPM info box and logo

{| class=wikitable align=right style="margin-left: 0.5em"
|
{| style="background-color:unset !important;"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center" | [[File:Php-fpm.png|300px]]
|-
| First Appeared || 2007-06-19
|-
| Original Author || Andrei Nigmatulin
|- style=" vertical-align:top !important"
| License || PHP License<br>(OSI and FSF Approved)
|-
| Web Site || https://www.php.net
|-
| Documentation || [https://www.php.net/manual/en/install.fpm.php FastCGI Process Manager (FPM)]
|-
| See Also: || [https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/PHP_Programming PHP Programming] at Wikibooks
|}
|}

PHP-FPM is the recommended solution to run a FastCGI server for PHP for Nginx.

= Prerequites =

; [[:Category:Web Server|Web Server]]
: Serve PHP pages

= Required Packages =

{{bc|1=sudo pacman -Syu --needed php-<nowiki>{acpu,fpm,gd,imagick,intl,redis,sodium}</nowiki>}}

= Configuration =

Look for and edit the following lines in {{ic|/etc/php/php.ini}}:

{{hc|/etc/php/php.ini|2=
[PHP]
open_basedir = /srv/http/:/home/:/tmp/:/usr/share/pear/:/usr/share/webapps/:/dev/urandom:/proc/meminfo
include_path = ".:/php/includes:/usr/share/pear"
upload_max_filesize = 8M

extension=apcu
extension=dba
extension=exif
extension=gd
extension=gettext
extension=iconv
extension=imagick
extension=imap
extension=intl
extension=sodium
extension=ldap
extension=mysqli
zend_extension=opcache
extension=pdo_mysql
extension=soap

[Date]
date.timezone = <timezone>

[Pdo_mysql]
pdo_mysql.cache_size = 2000

[opcache]
opcache.enable=1
opcache.enable_cli=1
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
opcache.revalidate_freq=1
opcache.save_comments=1
}}

== tmpfs for PHP Sessions ==

{{hc|/etc/php/php.ini|2=
[Session]
session.save_path = "/srv/phptmp"
}}

Find the id and gid of the mysql user and group:

{{hc|$ id mysql|2=
uid=27(mysql) gid=27(mysql) groups=27(mysql)
}}

{{hc|/etc/fstab|2=
# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
...
tmpfs /srv/phptmp tmpfs rw,noatime,gid=27,uid=27,size=100M,mode=0750 0 0
...
}}

{{note|1=If you're using ZFS, add<tt> x-systemd.after=zfs.mount </tt>to the mount options.}}

= Finalization =

Then make sure the {{ic|php-fpm}} service is enabled and running:

{{bc|sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm}}

File:Php-fpm.png

2022-05-10T11:48:37Z

BrainwreckedTech: Logo for PHP-FPM

== Summary ==
Logo for PHP-FPM

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-03-29T21:53:53Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* Pre-Download */

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft keeps its ISO updated.

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on Chocolatey for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

====Power-User Utitlies====

choco install gsudo hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Installing A Windows Desktop

2022-03-29T21:51:04Z

BrainwreckedTech: /* BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT */

=Pre-Setup=

==BIOS Time Set To UTC vs Local Time==

Windows 8 and 10 have support for setting the time to UTC and may even detect if the system time is in UTC or local time.

There are still a couple of bugs as noted below, but the trade-off may be worth it to you. Every other OS expects the clock to be set to UTC.

* Windows will not sync to time servers if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.
* Windows may hang if running during the switch to and away from DST if told that the BIOS clock is UTC.

If you are unsure of how UTC relates to your time zone, you can use Google to [https://www.google.com/search?q=UTC+time query UTC time].

==Partitioning==

Please read [[Drive Partitioning]] first as it contains a lot of good information.

===BIOS+MBR vs UEFI+GPT===

Windows falsely ties GPT with UEFI and MBR with BIOS.

It's strongly suggested to use UEFI with GPT when possible as it allows for at least 128 partitions. In general, you can let Microsoft (and OEMs) do whatever they want to your hard drive as it's nearly impossible to deplete the alotment of partitions.

If your system uses legacy BIOS with MBR, you may wish to partition the drive yourself, especially if you plan on installing a second OS onto the drive.
* Any bootable Windows parition '''''must''''' occur on a primary partition
* MBR is limited to 4 primary paritions
** One of which can be an extended partition (which then lets you create unlimited logical partitions)

===Parition Alignment===

Starting with Vista, Windows will align partitions to 1MiB boundaries, so basic partitioning via Windows Setup is OK.

===Shrinkinng NTFS Partitions===

Windows Vista introduced the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, even those currently in use. This can be incredibly useful on OEM PCs if you want to make room for a second OS.

If you're trying to end a Windows partition at a particular boundary, you may want to under-allocate and then use something like GNU <tt>parted</tt> to re-create the Windows partition at the boundary you want and then use {{ic|diskpart}} with {{ic|expand filesystem}} when you get back into Windows.

===Microsoft Reserved Partition===

Starting with 7, Windows will create a Microsoft Reserved partition when given a GPT disk with no partitions:
* Windows 7 & 8: 128MiB
* Windows 10: 16MiB

===Windows Recovery Parition===

Starting with 8, Windows will create a Windows Recovery partition:
* Windows 8: 300MB as the first partition, shown during volume selection
* Windows 10: 450MB as the last partition, hidden during volume selection
This partition is different from an OEM recovery partition.

==Pre-Download==

You may also wish to download video card drivers before hand, as AMD and NVIDIA usually offer drivers that are more up-to-date than what's available via Windows Update. Download either [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Driver Auto-Detect] or [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ NVIDIA GeForce Experience]

Use [http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com Windows Updates Downloader] to download security updates for your version of Windows.

*Use <tt>FOR %U IN (*) DO START /W %U /QUIET /NORESTART</tt> to execute all security updates in a given folder.

Download Anti-virus such as [http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal Avira] or [https://www.kaspersky.com/free-cloud-antivirus Kaspersky] if Windows' built-in Defender isn't enough for you.

=During Setup=

==Administration==

The default in Windows is that the first user created is part of the Administrators group and subsequent accounts are Standard Users. This wiki recommends you choose one of the following:

# Create one account not named Administrator that will be part of the Administrators group and use that for administrative duties while creating Standard User accounts for daily use. This allows you to have laxer password complexity on the account that acts as an Administrator.
# Create an account for yourself that you will later drop to Standard User after re-enabling the Administrator account using <tt>net user administrator /active:yes</tt>. This route requires that you know full-well that people will try to attack the Administrator account but you feel confident in your password complexity.

Use a short name rather than a full name when creating user accounts to get short directory names. (E.g., {{ic|john}} instead of {{ic|John Smith}}) You can use {{ic|netplwiz}} to change full details. Changes to the name in User Accounts in Control Panel only affect the full name.

==Microsoft Account==

Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft ''really, really'' wants you to use a Micrsoft Account to log into Windows. While the prospect of not having to tune settings on every individual machine you own might be a nice prospect for some, others won't like the privacy implications of tying your Windows usage to an account under Microsoft's complete purvue.

Privacy implications aside, one useful feature of using a Microsoft Account is that Microsoft allows you to manage your Windows licenses. To tie a Windows license for a machine to your Microsoft Account, use your Microsoft Account as the first account created during Windows Setup. Should something go horribly wrong, Microsoft Tech Support will be looking for this tie. Once the Windows license is associated with your account, you can stop using and delete the Microsoft Account from the machine if you want.

=Post Setup=

==Common Configuration Options==

===DPI settings===

For HTPC setups, 96 DPI is unreadable from 9 feet away.

* Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Display → Set Custom text size (DPI)

This will only affect your login. To make this change to the login screen, you need to edit the registry.

NB: <tt>word</tt> values are hexadecimal, not decimal. 0x60 is 90 decimal, 0x78 is 120 decimal, and 0x90 is 144 decimal.

reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /d 90 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

===Re-Enable the Administrator Account===

{{bc|net user administrator /active:yes
net user administrator <new-password>}}

===Disable Search Indexing===

* Control Panel > Indexing Options
* Control Panel > File Explorer Options > Search
* Drive Properties > Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

{{bc|<nowiki>sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch</nowiki>}}

===Temporarily Disable System Restore===

Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, some Hotfixes, and some third-party installers will all create a restore point. No sense having this running during the initial setup of Windows as you're so close to sqaure one anyway.

rstrui.exe

===Hibernation===

For desktop computers, or computers with SSDs, you may not want to hibernate.

powercfg -h off

===Power Management===

For at least the duration of setting up Windows, you may want to keep the computer fully awake.

===Page File===

With the RAM that most computers have nowadays, it makes little sense to have much of a swap file. You still want some space so that Windows can swap out parts of memory that aren't really being used. Some Windows programs will balk with the lack of a swap file.

wmic pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=512,MaximumSize=512

===Disable Fast Startup===

Windows Fast Startup does a hybrid sleep where everything is closed down on the software side, but the hardware is put into a sleep state before shutdown. If you multi-boot, this can be more of a hindrance than a feature. The major cause of concern is that mounted filesystems in Windows remain in a "in-use" state (the "dirty bit") and unsafe to mount.

* Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > (left pane) Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck Turn on fast startup

===Set Windows to use RTC in UTC===

'''''Only do this if your BIOS clock is set to UTC instead of local time!'''''

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_QWORD /f

Replace {{ic|QWORD}} with {{ic|DWORD}} for 32-bit Windows.

==Tweaks==

* Disable Homegroups
** Leave the homegroup
** Disable HomeGroup services
** Edit registry
*** Take ownership of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
*** Add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree=qword:0

==Other Programs==

It's recommended to rely on Chocolatey for program installation and to keep your programs updated. However, some applications are auto-updating and it's best to install them directly.

* [https://www.amd.com/en/support AMD Adrenaline (Radeon and AMD chipset drivers)]
* [https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?channel=stable&platform=win&arch=x86 Discord]
* [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience NVIDIA GeForce Experience]
* [https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe Steam]
* Partition Tool
** [https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html AOEMI Partition Assistant] (for functionality)
** [http://www.pcdisk.com/index.html Active@ Partition Manager] (for information)
** Avoid EaseUS Partition Master and Mini-Tool Partition Wizard as they're [https://blog.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bundleware/ bundleware].
* Windows Terminal
** [https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/latest GitHub] (users must update manually)
** [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701 Microsoft Store] (updates automatically)

===Chocolatey===

In PowerShell:

{{bc|<nowiki>Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')</nowiki>)}}

====Standard Utilities====

These are basic utilties recommended for every user.

choco install 7zip.install [ cdburnerxp | imgburn | '''infrarecorder''' ] chocolateygui greenshot kdeconnect-kde keepass.install vscodium.install

====Power-User Utitlies====

choco install gsudo hxd ultravnc windirstat winmerge

====GNU/Linux Utilities (Windows Native Ports)====

choco install git.install gnuwin32-coreutils.install wget xming

====Audio====

choco install audacity audacity-ffmpeg audacity-lame eac mediamonkey

====Cloud Storage====

choco install dropbox google-backup-and-sync onedrive spideroak sugarsync

====Fonts====

choco install jetbrainsmono lato robotofonts sourcecodepro ubuntu.font

====Grpahics====

choco install gimp inkscape paint.net

====Hardware====

choco install amd-ryzen-chipset crystaldiskmark cpu-z hwinfo.install hwmonitor intel-chipset-device-software

====Internet====

choco install [ chromium | firefox | googlechrome | '''ungoogled-chromium''' ] nextcloud-client qbittorrent syncthing thunderbird

====Communication====

choco install mumble pidgin skype

====Office====

choco install dia foxitreader librecad libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-help onlyoffice

====Virtualization====

choco install qemu virtualbox virtualbox.extensionpack

====Video====

choco install handbrake.install mpvnet.install obs-studio.install vlc

===Not Taken Care Of With Chocolatey===

CPU Burn-in | Joystick2Mouse 3 | LADSPA for Audactiy | Lightscribe

=Ongoing=

==Extend Evaluation Periods==

If you are using an Enterprise Evaluation edition of Windows, you can re-arm the 90-day evaluation period up to 3 times:

slmgr /rearm

Linux System Configuration

2022-03-16T01:42:32Z

BrainwreckedTech: Added Configurations for Void

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"
! Description !! Alpine !! Arch !! Debian !! Void
|-
| Laptop Lid Switch Fix
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/elogind/logind.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
...</nowiki>}}
|}
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/systemd/logind.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/elogind/logind.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Time Zone
| <code>ln -s /etc/zoneinfo/<Country>/<City> /etc/localtime</code>
| colspan=3 | <code>ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Country>/<City> /etc/localtime</code>
|-
| Locale Availability
| <code>apk add musl-locales</code>
| colspan=2 | <code>${EDITOR} /etc/locale.gen;</code><br /><code>locale-gen</code>
|-
| Locale Selection
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/profile.d/locale.sh|2=
<nowiki>LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US
LC_COLLATE=POSIX
LC_MESSAGES=C
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8</nowiki>}}
|}
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/locale.conf|2=
<nowiki>LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US
LC_COLLATE=POSIX
LC_MESSAGES=C
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Keymap
| <code>setup-keymap</code>
| rowspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/vconsole.conf|2=
<nowiki>KEYMAP=us
FONT=Lat2-Terminus16</nowiki>}}
|}
| <code>dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration</code><br /><code>setupcon</code>
| rowspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/rc.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
KEYMAP=us
...
FONT=Lat2-Terminus16
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Console Font
| <code>${EDITOR} /etc/conf.d/consolefont;</code><br /><code>rc-update add consolefont boot</code>
| <code>dpkg-reconfigure console-setup</code>
|-
| Hostname
| colspan=4 |<code>echo "hostname" > /etc/hostname</code>
|-
| Hosts
| colspan=4 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/hosts|2=
<nowiki># Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.

127.0.0.1 localhost.local.lan localhost
::1 localhost.local.lan localhost
127.0.1.1 hostname.local.lan hostname</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Initramfs
| <code>${EDITOR} /etc/mkinitfs.conf; mkinitfs</code>
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/mkinitcpio.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
# Open-source drivers
MODULES+=(amdgpu i915 nouveau radeon)
# Proprietary NVIDIA
MODULES+=(nvidia nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm)
# QEMU virtual machines
MODULES+=(bochs_drm cirrus qxl virtio-gpu)
...
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect)
HOOKS+=(modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck)
HOOKS+=(keymap consolefont)
...
# Only for filesystems already compressed with zstd
COMPRESSION="cat"
...</nowiki>}}
<code>mkinitcpio -P</code>
|}
|-
| User Creation
| colspan=4 | <code>useradd -m -u <nnnn> -g users -G wheel,games,video,audio,optical,storage,scanner,power <username></code>
|-
| Passwords
| colspan=4 | <code>passwd <username></code>
|-
| Package Manager
|
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"
|
{| style="text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/pacman.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
# If using ArchZFS, sometimes ArchZFS is behind Official Arch
IgnorePkg = <kernel> <kernel>-headers zfs-<kernel> zfs-utils
...
# Misc options
ILoveCandy
#UseSyslog
Color
#NoProgressBar
CheckSpace
#VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 5
...
[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
...
[archzfs]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/archzfs-mirrorlist

[zfs-<kernel>] # zfs-linux|zfs-linux-lts|zfs-linux-zen
Server = http://kernels.archzfs.com/$repo/

[chaotic-aur]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/chaotic-mirrorlist

[andontie-aur]
Server = https://aur.andontie.net/$arch</nowiki>}}

{{hc|/etc/pacman.d/archzfs-mirrorlist|2=<nowiki>
# France (origin)
Server = http://archzfs.com/$repo/$arch
# Germany/Duetschland
Server = http://mirror.sum7.eu/archlinux/archzfs/$repo/$arch
Server = https://mirror.biocrafting.net/archlinux/archzfs/$repo/$arch
# India
Server = https://mirror.in.themindsmaze.com/archzfs/$repo/$arch
# United States
Server = https://zxcvfdsa.com/archzfs/$repo/$arch</nowiki>}}

{{bc|# ArchZFS
pacman-key --recv-key DDF7DB817396A49B2A2723F7403BD972F75D9D76
pacman-key --lsign-key DDF7DB817396A49B2A2723F7403BD972F75D9D76}}
{{bc|# Andontie AUR
pacman-key --recv-key B545E9B7CD906FE3
pacman-key --lsign-key B545E9B7CD906FE3}}
{{bc|# Chaotic AUR (only needed if chaotic-keyring is not installed)
pacman-key --recv-key 3056513887B78AEB
pacman-key --lsign-key 3056513887B78AEB}}
|}
|}
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"
| For Debian:
{| style="text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/apt/sources.list|2=
<nowiki>deb http://deb.debian.org/debian <release> main contrib nonfree
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian <release>-updates main contrib nonfree
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian <release>-security main contrib nonfree
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian <release>-backports main contrib nonfree

deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian <release> main contrib nonfree
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian <release>-updates main contrib nonfree
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian <release>-security main contrib nonfree
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian <release>-backports main contrib nonfree</nowiki>}}
|}
|}
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"
| For Ubuntu:
{| style="text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/apt/sources.list|2=
<nowiki>deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release> main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release>-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release>-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release>-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu <release> partner

deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release> main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release>-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release>-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ <release>-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu <release> partner</nowiki>}}
|}
|}
To enable multilib on Debian-based distros:<br />
<code>dpkg --add-architecture i386</code>
|-
| NanoRC
| colspan=4 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"
|
{| style="text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/nanorc|2=
<nowiki>set boldtext
set casesensitive
set constantshow
set locking
set whitespace "»·"

set titlecolor bold,lightwhite,blue
set promptcolor lightwhite,lightblack
set statuscolor bold,lightwhite,green
set errorcolor bold,lightwhite,red
set spotlightcolor black,lime
set selectedcolor lightwhite,magenta
set stripecolor ,yellow
set scrollercolor cyan
set numbercolor cyan
set keycolor cyan
set functioncolor green

include /usr/share/nano/*.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano-syntax-highlighting/*.nanorc</nowiki>}}
| style="vertical-align:top" |
{{hc|/root/.nanorc|2=
<nowiki># nano < 5.0 (Ubuntu 20.04 = 4.8)
set titlecolor brightwhite,magenta
set statuscolor brightwhite,magenta
set errorcolor brightwhite,red

# 6.0 < nano >=5.0 (Debian 11 Bullseye = 5.2)
# set titlecolor bold,lightwhite,magenta
# set statuscolor bold,lightwhite,magenta
# set errorcolor bold,lightwhite,red
# set scrollercolor magenta

# nano >=6.0 (Arch, Void)
# set promptcolor black,yellow
# set spotlightcolor black,orange

# All of nano
set selectedcolor brightwhite,cyan
set stripecolor ,yellow
set numbercolor magenta
set keycolor brightmagenta
set functioncolor magenta
</nowiki>}}
|}
|}
|-
| sudo
| colspan=4 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
|
echo '%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/0_privilege
echo '%users ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/dmidecode -t 17' > /etc/sudoers.d/dmidecode
echo 'Defaults passprompt="[sudo] password for %U: "' > /etc/sudoers.d/prompt
echo 'Defaults rootpw' > /etc/sudoers.d/rootpw
|}
|-
| PolicyKit rootpw
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/polkit-1/rules.d/49-rootpw_global.rules|2=
<nowiki>// Always authenticate Admins by prompting for the root password
// similar to the rootpw option in sudo

polkit.addAdminRule(function(action, subject) {
return ["unix-user:root"];
});</nowiki>}}
|}
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/49-rootpw_global.rules|2=
<nowiki>// Always authenticate Admins by prompting for the root password
// similar to the rootpw option in sudo

polkit.addAdminRule(function(action, subject) {
return ["unix-user:root"];
});</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Sticky bit directories
| colspan=3 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/sysctl.d/stickybit.conf|2=
<nowiki># Allow the creation regular files in world-writable sticky directories
# when the file owner doesn't match that of the directory

fs.protected_regular=0</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| NTP Client<br >([Open]NTP)
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/ntpd.conf|2=
<nowiki>server [server1]
server [server2]
server [server3]
restrict default kod limited nomodify nopeer noquery notrap
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict ::1
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| NTP Client<br >(systemd-timesyncd)
|
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
[Time]
NTP=[your-local-server]
FallbackNTP=[closest-remote-server]
...</nowiki>}}
<code>timedatectl set-ntp true</code>
|}
|-
| NTP Server
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/ntpd.conf|2=
<nowiki>server [server1]
server [server2]
server [server3]
server 127.127.1.0
fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10
restrict default kod nomodify notrap noquery
restrict 192.168.10.0 mask 255.255.255.0 kod nomodify notrap
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict ::1
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Plymouth
|
|
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| <pre>cd /usr/share/plymouth
cp arch-logo.png themes/spinner/watermark.png
cd themes
cp -r <theme> <theme>-custom
cd <theme>-custom
mv <theme>.plymouth <theme>-custom.plymouth</pre>
|}
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/usr/share/plymouht/themes/<theme>-custom/<theme>.plymouth|2=<nowiki>
...
WatermarkHorizontalAlignment=.5
WatermarkVerticalAlignment=.6
...</nowiki>}}
|}
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/plymouth/plymouth.conf|2=<nowiki>
...
Theme=<theme>-custom
...</nowiki>}}
|}
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/sysctl.d/20-quiet-printk.conf|2=
<nowiki>kernel.printk = 3 3 3 3</nowiki>}}
|}
{{ic|setterm -cursor on >> /etc/issue}}
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/mkinitcpio.conf|2=<nowiki>...
HOOKS=(...udev plymouth autodetect...)
...</nowiki>}}
<code>mkinitcpio -P</code>
|}
|-
| SMARTd
| colspan=3 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/smartd.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
DEVICESCAN -n standby,15,q -s (S/../.././02)
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Limit Logs
|
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/systemd/journald.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
SystemMaxUse=64M
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Reduced service timeout
|
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/systemd/system.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
DefaultTimeoutStartSec=30s
DefaultTimeoutStopSec=15s
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| systemd-resolved<br />local host name resolution
|
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/nsswitch.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
hosts: files mymachines myhostname resolve dns
...</nowiki>}}
|}
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/systemd/resolved.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
Domains=your.local.domain
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| systemd-resolved<br />with avahi
|
| colspan=2 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/systemd/resolved.conf|2=
<nowiki>...
MulticastDNS=no
...</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Default Editor
| colspan=3 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/profile.d/editor.sh|2=
<nowiki>export EDITOR=nano</nowiki>}}
|}
|-
| Video Acceleration
| colspan=3 |
{| style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:left;"
| {{hc|/etc/profile.d/video-accel.sh|2=
<nowiki>#!/usr/bin/env sh

gmn() {
lscpu | grep Model: | sed 's/\s\+//g' | cut -d: -f2
}

case "$(lsmod)" in
*amdgpu*) ldn=radeonsi; vdn=$ldn;;
i915*) [ $(gmn) -gt 60 ] && ldn=iHD || ldn=i965; vdn=va_gl;;
*nouveau*) ldn=nouveau; vdn=$ldn;;
*nvidia*) ldn=vdpau; vdn=nvidia;;
esac

[ -n "$ldn" ] && export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=$ldn
[ -n "$vdn" ] && export VDPAU_DRIVER=$vdn</nowiki>}}
|}
|}