8 | This is especialy applicable after a Windows update 9 | Start --> Disk Cleanup 10 | Check Windows Defender action recommendations from the taskbar pulldown menu 11 | This includes virus scanning 12 |13 | - Run CCleaner 14 | - Run Windows Defender Anti-virus scan (offline mode takes ~20 minutes) 15 | - Run Malwarebytes 16 | - Check Google Chrome version and update to latest version 17 |
18 | chrome://version/ 19 | chrome://settings/help/ 20 |21 | 22 | # Cool tricks 23 | - Add Desktop and URL Address field to taskbar 24 |
25 | Right click --> Toolbars --> Desktop & Address 26 |27 | 28 | # Windows 10 God Mode 29 | Create a new folder and name the folder: 30 |
31 |
32 | GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
33 |
34 |
35 | # Power Toys
36 | At time of this writing, supported features include FancyZones and Shortcut Guide.
37 | Recently added is Text Extractor which uses OCR to convert text from a snippet into notepad.
38 | 39 | Install using choco 40 | After the install, you can periodically check for updates from the app itself. 41 |42 | 43 | # Sharp Keys 44 | UPDATE: User PowerToys to remap your keys! 45 | 46 | Use this application to quickly customize your keys. For example, replacing the CAPS LOCK with cntl key. 47 |
48 | Install the msi from https://github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys 49 |50 | 51 | # X-Mouse Controls 52 | Use this application to cause window where mouse hovers to become active but not bring window forward 53 |
54 | Download and install the application as Administrator from https://joelpurra.com/projects/X-Mouse_Controls/ 55 | Execute the file as Administrator then apply "Activate window tracking" 56 |57 | 58 | # Fix blurry text 59 |
60 | Start --> Type 'Performance' --> Adjust the appearance and performance of windows 61 | --> Visual Effects Tab --> Custom radio button 62 | --> Disable everything except "Smooth edges of screen fonts" 63 | 64 | Tip: You may want to also keep Enable peek (Win+,) 65 |66 | 67 | # Exporting/Importing Putty Settings and Sessions 68 |
69 | - Open command prompt as current user (not as Administrator) 70 | - Type regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SimonTatham 71 | - Right-click and export as putty.reg to your Desktop 72 | - Copy putty.reg to your new PC 73 | - Open regedit as current user then import file 74 | - Done! 75 |76 | 77 | # Speedup Chrome 78 | Disable Chrome extensions you're not using 79 | 80 | # Check for Harmful Software in Chrome Settings 81 | Chrome --> Settings --> Advanced --> Reset and Cleanup --> Cleanup computer --> Find (This may take awhile) 82 | 83 | # Speedup Taskbar 84 |
85 | Right click taskbar 86 | Select Taskbar settings 87 | Select Color 88 | Disable Transparency effects 89 |90 | 91 | # Speedup Start Menu 92 |
93 | Disable Cortana from GUI and registry98 | 99 | # How to restart monitor drivers in case one of your screens is blacked out after waking up Win10 from Sleep 100 |
94 | Regedit --> HKEY_CURRENT_USER --> Desktop --> MenuShowDelay 20 (400 is default)
95 | Task Manager --> Startup tab --> Disable all apps (especially `Windows Defender notification icon in startup`)
96 | Rebuild your index (last resort)
97 |
101 | Cntl+Win+Shift+b 102 | Hit any of the buttons on the monitor that is blacked out 103 |104 | 105 | # Speedup Windows 10 106 |
107 | - Upgrade memory 108 | - Update outdated drivers (especially the video driver) 109 | - Run indexing troubleshooter 110 | Start --> Troubleshoot 111 | (or Settings --> Troubleshoot --> Select 'Search and Indexing' and run the troubleshooter for 'search 112 | for indexing is slowing down the computer) 113 | - Disable remote desktop access 114 | - Restart your computer instead of powering down (powering down uses a snapshot when powered back on) 115 | - Disable Windows tips 116 | Settings --> Notifications --> Disable "Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows 117 | - Optimize paging 118 | Start --> Type 'Performance' 119 | Adjust the appearance and performance of windows --> Advanced 120 | Virtual memory --> change the paging file size 121 | (Select Custom size and set Initial size (MB) and Maximum size (MB) to the Recommended 122 | total paging file size for all drives. 123 | - Disable apps that launch during startup 124 | But keep the "Windows Defender notification icon" 125 | - Delete programs you don't use 126 | - Use a high performance power plan 127 | - Disable Startup apps using CCleaner. CCleaner shows more apps, services, and scheduled tasks that get started during startup In my case, Adobe was slowing things down significantly. Your situation your differ but the idea is to disable apps and services you don't need running during Startup. 128 |129 | 130 | # Command Prompt 131 |
132 | - Issue `prompt` to change the prompt 133 | - Issue `title` to change the title bar 134 | - Change the registry to autorun commnands in the command prompt window all the time; 135 | this allows things like prompt and title settings to persist after closing the command prompt window 136 | 137 | Open Regedit 138 | --> Computer 139 | --> HKEY_CURRENT_USER 140 | --> SOFTWARE 141 | --> Microsoft 142 | --> Command Processor 143 | --> [Create New String Value: Autorun] 144 | --> Right-click `Autorun` 145 | --> Modify 146 | --> [Value Data: prompt $D $B $T $B $P$G && cd desktop && title David Lin's Command Prompt] 147 | 148 | - F7 will display history of commands you've entered 149 | - [command] | clip will send output to the Clipboard 150 | - [command 1] && [command 2] where && will run [command 2] if [command 1] succeeds 151 | - [command 1] & [command 2] where & will always run [command 2] 152 | - [command 1] || [command 2] where || will run [command 2] if [command 1] fails 153 | - You can drag and drop files/folders into the command prompt and it will automatically type the path for you 154 | - From file explorer, you can type `cmd` in the path field and a command prompt will open in the specified path 155 | - You can right-click and `Mark` text then paste what was marked 156 | - If you click the upper left corner image and select `Default`, you can change the command prompt window's default settings (e.g. font size) 157 | - If you click the upper left corner image and select `Properties`, you can change the command prompt window's present settings 158 | - [command] /? provides context help on command issued 159 |160 | 161 | # Package Management 162 | Installing and Using Chocolatey (with PowerShell) 163 | - Blog: https://jcutrer.com/windows/install-chocolatey-choco-windows10 164 | 165 |
166 | Start
167 | --> Type `powershell`
168 | --> Right-click Windows Powershell
169 | --> Choose "Run as Administrator"
170 |
171 | Paste the following:
172 | ===================================================================
173 | Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
174 | ===================================================================
175 |
176 | --> Answer Yes if prompted
177 | --> Close and reopen an elevated PowerShell window to start using choco
178 |
179 | Choco is now installed and can be used from a PowerShell prompt or a regular command prompt windows to install many different software packages. Whichever one you use, just make sure you run choco from an elevated powershell/command prompt window.
180 |
181 |
182 | ## Useful Choco commands
183 | 184 | choco upgrade chocolatey 185 | choco search [keyword] -v 186 | choco install [packagename] 187 | choco upgrade [packagename] 188 | choco uninstall [packagename] 189 | choco info [packagename] 190 | choco list --local-only 191 |192 | 193 | ## Advanced Choco commands 194 |
195 | choco install [packagename] --yes 196 | choco search [packagename] --exact --verbose 197 | choco search [packagename] --order-by-popularity 198 |199 | 200 | ## Other Useful Software to Install with Choco 201 |
202 | choco install python3 --pre - Python 3 203 | choco upgrade python3 --pre - Python 3 upgrade 204 | choco install -y vim - Vim 205 | choco install -y vscode - Visual Studio Code 206 | choco install -y keepass.install - Keepass 207 | choco install -y treesizefree - TreeSize Free 208 | choco install -y ccleaner - CCleaner 209 | choco install -y malwarebytes - Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 210 | choco install -y gimp - Gimp 211 | choco install -y virtualbox - Virtualbox 212 | choco install -y chrome - Google Chrome Browser 213 | choco install -y git – Git cli Client for Windows 214 | choco install -y github – Official GUI-Based Git Client 215 | choco install -y 7zip – Archive utility to compress/uncompress zip, tar, gz, bzip and other formats. 216 | choco install -y SublimeText3 – An excellent markdown & source code editor. 217 | choco install -y vlc – An open-source media player 218 | choco install -y putty – An open-source SSH client 219 | choco install -y keepass – An open-source Password Manager 220 | choco install -y greenshot – My favorite screenshot utility for Windows 221 | choco install -y imagemagick.app – A suite of cli tools for working with and converting images 222 | choco install -y gitcam - A cool tool that makes screen recordings super easy 223 | choco install -y youtube-dl - YouTube to MP3 converter 224 | choco install -y ffmpeg - Required for youtube-dl 225 | choco install -y heidisql - SQL client 226 | choco install -y meld - Visual diff and merge tools. Helps you compare files, directories, and version controlled projects 227 | choco install -y curl - Client URL command line tool and library for transferring data with URLs; good for testing REST APIs 228 | choco install -y zoomit - Sysinternals tool used to zoom, annotation, and record screen for presentations 229 |230 | 231 | # Chocolatey Packages 232 | [Packages](https://chocolatey.org/packages) 233 | 234 | 235 | # Installing WSL2 236 | - Pre-requisities 237 | - WSL 2 is only available in Windows 11 or Windows 10, Version 1903, Build 18362 or later 238 | - Type msinfo32 from the PowerTools search bar and confirm Hyper-V is supported and enabled 239 | - Or just run the following from PowerShell (as Administrator): 240 | 241 | dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart 242 | 243 | - Install WSL from Command Prompt (as Administrator) 244 | - wsl.exe --install (use if this is your first install) 245 | - wsl --set-default-version 2 (to verify, type "wsl -l -v" in Powershell or Windows Command Prompt) 246 | 247 | - Install a Linux distro from the Microsoft Store 248 | - Access distro from the Windows Terminal 249 | 250 | - Official documentation [here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install) 251 | 252 | # Useful WSL2 Commands 253 | - From Powershell/Command Prompt 254 | - msinfo32 (to verify Hyper-V is supported and enabled; Hyper-V is required by WSL) 255 | - wsl status 256 | - wsl --update (updates WSL package from Windows Store and kernel version) 257 | - wsl --list --verbose (or simply wsl -l -v) 258 | - wsl --set-default-version 2 259 | - lsb_release -a (from Ubuntu running in WSL) 260 | 261 | # Updating WSL2 262 | - There should be no need for you to update WSL2 provided you have the following setting enabled under the Advanced options settings: 263 |  264 | 265 | 266 | # ZoomIt 267 | [Download](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/zoomit) 268 |
269 | TBD 270 |271 | 272 | # Sysinternals 273 | [Documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/) 274 |
275 | TBD 276 |277 | 278 | # Userful Shortcuts 279 |
280 | Shift + Windows key + [left/right arrow] Move present window to another monitor 281 | Shift + Windows Key Disables all CAPS if you find yourself in this situation 282 |283 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------