tveyben / boxstarter

To quickly get up and running with a new Windows box

Boxstarter

To quickly get up and running with a new Windows box with a minimum of manual intervention needed

Straight to the point

Open this URL in a MS browser on the just installed Windows 10 box:
https://boxstarter.org/package/nr/url?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tveyben/boxstarter/main/bootstrap.txt

Wait ~1,5h Handle to few installers that require manuel intervention (they are executed last)

TLDR; How to use

• Install Windows 10 and go through the OOBE

  • Continue in selected Languague = English (United States) = Yes
  • Select Region (Must be done via the mouse as no keyboard knowledge exists)
  • Select Keyboard Layout
  • Secondary keyboard layout = SKIP
  • Get a drink (as Windows now does "important things" and reboots)
  • Network connection (perhaps only occuring if using wifi, I was not getting prompted when using Etherent)
    • Allow PC to be discoverable = ENABLE
  • License Agreement = Accept
  • Setup = For personal use
  • Account = Offline account
    • Like "The Good Old Times" - a completely standalone PC
  • Sign in = Limited Experience
    • Ignore the nudging to make an online account
  • User account = [my initials]
    • As this gets used for the name of the home folder and I don't want my full name for that
  • No password
    • To avoid the nonsense socalled "security questions". Password will be set later after completing the installation
  • Location usage = No
  • Find my device = No
  • Diagnostic data = Required only
  • Improve inking = No
  • Tailored experience = No
  • Advertising ID = No
  • Customise experience = Skip
  • Lenovo: Protect your device = Skip (Presumably only applicable for Lenovo PCs?)
  • Windows 11 free upgrade = Decline Upgrade (Maybe in a few years time when it's stable and mature)
  • Decline Upgrade once more (They're nudging quite hard...)
  • Get another drink (as Windows now does more "important things" and reboots)
  • Set a password for the account

• Launch boxstarter

  • Either via PowerShell (Win x, a), then paste the following command
    • start https://boxstarter.org/package/nr/url?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tveyben/boxstarter/main/bootstrap.txt
  • Or paste the URL into a MS browser (not Chrome)
    • https://boxstarter.org/package/nr/url?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tveyben/boxstarter/main/bootstrap.txt
  • Then
    • Select "Open" to open this file
    • Select "Run" to execute the script
  • Select "Yes" to allow Boxstarter.WebLaunch to make changes...
  • Enter your account password so BoxStarter can reboot and login in again
    • If you don't trust the script change your password after installation (eg. use a "throw away one time password")
      • NB.: Password cannot be blank :-)

• Sit back and enjoy the "working smart - not hard"

  • There will be a few reboots
  • Some installers require GUI response to complete the installation
    • ncap (wireshark)
  • Other launch to allow configuration
    • Discord
    • PowerToys
    • Samsung Magician

• Complete the WSL2/Ubuntu installation

  • Launch "Ubuntu 20.04 LTS"
  • Provide a "UNIX username" and a password

TODO

• Add user based configuration (aka dotfiles)

• Complete the WSL setup

  • Configure vcxsrv (for WSL2 GUI)
  • Link to my *nix dotfiles repo