After installing Windows 10/11

Install:

You can use https://uupdump.net/ to build up an ISO file (even from Linux or Mac, the options enable you to keep the file size down) and just drop into https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy and you're good to go.

If you're already running Windows you can do "Reset this PC" for a more convenient ISO download option.

Personal preference:

Disconnect from the internet before install.
Uncheck all options under "Choose privacy settings for your device."

Debloat:

You can run these after a clean install:

DISCLAIMER: USE THESE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Node.js and Chocolatey:

You can download and install Node.js from https://nodejs.org/

It includes Chocolatey https://chocolatey.org/ and Build Tools in final step.

This is a convenient way to get Chocolatey if you need Node.js anyway.

WSL(2):

To install and enable WSL2: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

These days this should be enough to get you going (installs Ubuntu by default):

wsl --install

To install a distro from terminal: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-manual

To disable Windows PATH in WSL (helps if you're installing Node.js in WSL2 as well):

# sudo vim /etc/wsl.conf
[interop]
appendWindowsPath = false

You can check https://gist.github.com/ruandre/2d5618ce5be5123462300c7f418536e2 for Arch-like access to software on Debian

You can check https://gist.github.com/ruandre/3f150a6acb042a66f2adc5bef44c789d for an example .bashrc

To run GUI apps: https://github.com/microsoft/wslg 🤷

'Alternatives' to WSL:

Git Bash: https://gitforwindows.org/
Cygwin: https://www.cygwin.com/
Gow https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow (unmaintained).

Note: these can also be used alongside WSL.

Windows Terminal:

You can install by grabbing the latest release from:

https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases

And running: Add-AppxPackage FILE_NAME.msixbundle

Or you can install from Windows Store, or via Chocolatey, winget, etc.

For context menus*: https://github.com/lextm/windowsterminal-shell

*This requires PowerShell 7 which you can grab here:

https://aka.ms/powershell-release?tag=stable

See https://gist.github.com/ruandre/2310e500ac7afb1ea0bff041407cb233 for example Profile.ps1

Docker:

The latest versions of Docker Desktop support WSL2:

https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop

If it eats too much disk space, check this for a solution:

microsoft/WSL#4699 (comment)

'Alternative' to Docker: https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads + https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Chocolatey:

You can grab it here: https://chocolatey.org/install You can search for packages here: https://chocolatey.org/packages

Basic commands are:

# to install mpv (for example):
choco install -y mpv

# to update all packages:
cup all

You can also use winget (windows package manager) to grab apps, for example:

winget search powertoys
winget install powertoys --source winget

More info: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/

You can also try https://scoop.sh/ as an alternative.

Apps:

Useful software on Windows (personal preference, ymmv):

https://mpv.io/ (for playing video files, cross-platform)
https://www.irfanview.com/ (image viewer/editor if you grab plugins - has Photoshop 'save to web'-like feature)
https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/ (rename stuff, also try PowerRename via PowerToys; and stdrename)
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys (Linux-ish features: window 'zones', global shortcuts, rofi-like runner, etc.)
https://www.rapidee.com/en/download (what's on the PATH? a bit better than built-in env var settings; shows missing, etc.)
https://meldmerge.org/ (so-so on Windows but haven't found any good alternatives, GREAT on Linux)
https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner (clean up)
https://www.iobit.com/en/advanceduninstaller.php (clean up; I don't use this anymore so can't really vouch)
https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free or https://windirstat.net/ (where'd the space go?)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns (stop pesky resource hogs, similar feature in ccleaner)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer (ditto)
http://www.turnipsoft.co.uk/freda/ (free epub reader, for cli https://github.com/wustho/epr)
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/ (PDF, CBZ/CBR, DjVu, etc. reader)
https://www.foobar2000.org/ (the best music player ❤️, on Linux try https://deadbeef.sourceforge.io/)
https://www.mp3tag.de/en/ (for music collection)
https://www.audacityteam.org/ (audio editing)
https://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm (codecs)
https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut ('edit' video files)
https://handbrake.fr/ (convert video files)
https://obsproject.com/download (record screen, stream, etc.)
https://kdenlive.org/en/ (video editing, have only used on Linux)
https://www.figma.com/downloads/ or https://icons8.com/lunacy (web/graphic design, vector)
https://krita.org/en/ (painting)
https://godotengine.org/ (game dev)
https://www.blender.org/ (3d)
https://runjs.dev/ (repl/interactive sandbox, useful if you're a JS dev)
https://www.sublimetext.com/ (great performance, cross-platform code editor)

Dev stuff:

felipepodesta/win10-11.md