Some tasteful changes to Windows, for efficiency.

Tags: ricing, windows

Table of contents

Get yourself a package manager

iwr -useb get.scoop.sh | iex

Install some packages

How about a tasty 🍨 scoop for a smooth experience. Installing it is a breeze.

You don’t need many, but there are some that I always get right off the bat:

SimpleWall

An absolutely fantastic firewall and monitor for network traffic. It allows you to lock down your system and control the ingress and egress traffic by prompt.

$ scoop info simplewall

Name: simplewall
Description: Simple tool to configure Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) which
             can configure network activity on your computer.
Version: 3.4.3
Website: https://www.henrypp.org/product/simplewall
License: GPL-3.0-only (https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0-only.html)

AltDrag

AltDrag is this wonderful software I discovered a couple years ago which brings some of the convenience towards window movement and resize I’m used to from most window managers I’ve used in the Linux ecosystem.

Truth be told I do not use this as frequently when using the laptop as a laptop, however when I dock to my desk and use a mouse it becomes essential.

$ scoop info altdrag

Name: altdrag
Description: Easily drag windows when pressing the Alt key
Version: 1.1
Website: https://stefansundin.github.io/altdrag/
License: GPL-3.0-or-later (https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0-or-later.html)

Luckily being readily available in the scoop extras bucket one can install it simply enough.

$ scoop install altdrag

Once installed I set it up to run at start, and remap the key from Alt to Win (left). If you choose not to remap the main key and remain a user of Alt as your hotkey, you may have to add to the Blacklist. Software like Photoshop, 3DS Max and Blender did not appreciate removal of the Alt key.

AltDrag.ini

[General]
AutoFocus=0
Aero=0
InactiveScroll=0
AutoSnap=1
MDI=0
Language=en-US

[Input]
LMB=Move
MMB=Resize
RMB=Resize
MB4=Nothing
MB5=Nothing
Scroll=Nothing
LowerWithMMB=0
Hotkeys= 5B

[Blacklist]
ProcessBlacklist=
Blacklist=Volume Control|Windows.UI.Core.CoreWindow,#32770
Snaplist=*|BaseWindow_RootWnd,*|SkinWnd,*|ChatSkinWnd,*|USurface_33202

[Advanced]
HookWindows=1
AutoRemaximize=1
FocusOnTyping=0
SnapThreshold=20
MultipleInstances=0
AlwaysElevate=0

[Performance]
Cursor=1
MoveRate=2
ResizeRate=5

[Update]
CheckOnStartup=0
Beta=0

Hide your wife, hide your kids, hide your .dotfiles

I run this script to go through and make Hidden any files preceeded with a ..

Get-ChildItem "C:\" -recurse -force | Where-Object {$_.name -like ".*" \ 
-and $_.attributes -match 'Hidden' -eq $false} | Set-ItemProperty \
-name Attributes -value ([System.IO.FileAttributes]::Hidden)

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