Rebuild Windows PC - 202302win

[scottmuc]

Yay for Repaving!

As much as possible is documented inline in this issue template. In case of problems you may find help by viewing all the previous repave issues. Have fun!

Prep

• [x] backup stuff if you think you need it.

  Instructions

  • Desktop
  • Downloads
  • Documents

[x] prepare USB device with a Windows installer.

Instructions

Here's the latest documentation I followed to make a USB installer.

Repave

• [x] boot to the USB.

  Instructions

  • Hit F12 while machine is rebooting to load boot menu.
  • The drive that is less than 50GB is likely the bootable USB device.

[x] wipe old partitions.

[x] run Windows installer.

Post Paving

• [x] Set machine hostname

  Instructions

  This can come in handy for all services that have recorded the machines hostname for security verification. The timestamp in the name and other metadata can make future auditing a bit easier.

  The convention is YYYYMMDD-something meta.

  Test if this can be done in powershell.

• [x] Install Chocolatey

  Instructions

  • https://chocolatey.org/install

[x] Install BoxStarter

Instructions

• choco install Boxstarter

[x] Install Boostrap BoxStarter Package

Instructions

Thanks Rich Turner for your excellent example!

Launch Powershell with elevated privileges:

Install-BoxstarterPackage -DisableReboots -PackageName https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scottmuc/infrastructure/main/homedirs/windows/boxstarter.bootstrap.ps1

[x] Windows update

[x] Install Main BoxStarter Package

Instructions

Thanks Rich Turner for your excellent example!

Launch Powershell with elevated privileges:

Install-BoxstarterPackage -DisableReboots -PackageName $(Join-Path -Path $Env:USERPROFILE -ChildPath "workspace/infrastructure/main/homedirs/windows/boxstarter.ps1")

[x] Configure Brave

Instructions

Do the following:

• Ensure 1 Password extension works
• Getpocket installed
• Unhook extension is installed (and support the author)
• Set searrch engine to DuckDuckGo

[x] Install and configure Google Drive

[x] Turn off all Windows notification sounds

[ ] Setup Radeon Software

Instructions

I'm not sure what to do here. Here are a couple helpful links:

• https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-kb205
• https://raptoreumcalculator.com/blog/radeonsoftware-exe-windows-complaining-about-missing-mfplat-dll-mf-dl-and-mfreadwrite-dll-files/
• https://www.amd.com/en/support

[x] Install and configure Samsung Magician

Instructions

Download the installer and run it. Enable the performance profile.

• [x] Run Novabench

  Instructions

  Score should be around:

  • CPU 1600
  • RAM 260
  • GPU 1000
  • Disk 340

[x] Make this template slightly better

[scottmuc]

Things noted up until the point of beginning to setup Brave:

• Document the selection of Windows Home N edition (N is EU version)
• what difference does region selection at install time do? Would selecting US stop all the German text from showing up?
• investigate the benefits to linking my machine to my MS Live account
• bug in boxstarter.bootstrap.ps1 - need to refreshenv before executing the git clone command
• this templates has incorrect path to boxstarter.ps1
• note that I manually delete a lot of cruft from the taskbar: Cortana, Task View, Edge, Explorer, Store, Mail, Meet Now
• note that I disable all windows sounds
• note that I need to pair my speakers and X Box controller
• how can I get Steam to install without being configured to start on boot?

[scottmuc]

When chatting with @willoleary6, I learned of an update that got pushed that messed up a lot of people's Start menu. I noticed the new search box with the reinstall. I don't think I had any issues because I've always disabled it:

Set-BoxstarterTaskbarOptions `
  -Size Small `
  -Dock Top `
  -DisableSearchBox

reference

[scottmuc]

Found this answer around changing the windows SoundScheme. This looks like a good candidate to put in a separate, self-contained, script.

[scottmuc]

Novabench has a new look and feel. The numbers seem off compared to previous runs. Normally the CPU is around 1600, GPU at 1000 and Disk at 360. Only the RAM score is consistent. I'll try running Elden Ring and see if I have any issues.

[scottmuc]

Played Elden Ring for about 30min and it seemed fine for me. Going to enable the in-game FPS counter and see what it says. Unfortunately I've never run with that enabled before so I don't have a baseline.

So far so good. Have a couple scripts to attempt and some details to add to the repave issue template and I can call this one done.

[scottmuc]

Looks like extracting logic into separate files isn't possible with Boxstarter. I believe that's because the intent of the tool is to take a single script and wrap it in a Chocolatey type package for execution. I could "compile" into a single script, but I think I'll avoid that step for now.

What I find missing is the main() function extraction that I've done with my shell script automation.

Tagging @jsnprtr to join in the fun!

[scottmuc]

I'm now rethinking on how I'm approaching Boxstarter. I might separate things into stuff that Boxstarter handles (because it can manage reboots, etc...) and things that setup my home directory without elevated privileges. Not entirely sure.

[scottmuc]

Found a good resource from Microsoft with some example uses of boxstarter: https://github.com/microsoft/windows-dev-box-setup-scripts

I don't particularly like how it's structured. It's a bit odd to make a web request if you can clone locally. To me this feels like an overly complicated way to arrange concerns. It makes sense in a world where the Boxstarter code is never cloned to the machine being configured... but for workstation automation, why adhere to that constraint?

More and more this is suggesting to limit the scope of Boxstarter to what it does best, and separately do the rest with a PowerShell script outside the context of a Boxstarter/Chocolatey execution.

While reading a few issues in the Microsoft repo, I found a comment referencing this treasure trove of Windows automation. By the looks of their setup, I think minimizing the Boxstarter scope is a reasonable path to go.

[scottmuc]

From a paving perspective, I'm considering this done. I'll probably still push commits referencing this repave issue since it has a lot of the notes on what to do next.

[scottmuc]

Confirmed that I'm getting 60fps in Elden Ring, so all good for now.