Windows Developer Config
Opinionated setups for Windows dev boxes. Idempotent. CI-tested.
Your dev environment should help you ship, not become another project to debug. Try the new Windows developer configuration and spend less time setting up, more time building something awesome.
🎯 Pick your setup
Three developer setups live in this repo. Pick the one that matches what you want:
| You want... |
Go to |
| A complete dev workstation: tools, OS settings, WSL, and terminal. One command, restarts once. |
Windows Dev Config |
| A polished WSL shell: zsh/bash, Starship, CLI tools, and a themed terminal profile. Interactive or unattended. |
WSL Comfort |
| A single language toolchain: Node, Python, SQL, PowerShell, .NET, Rust, Go, Java, PHP, WinForms, or WinUI 3. One command each. |
Workloads |
🖥️ Windows Dev Config
Turns a fresh Windows 11 box into a clean, distraction-free dev workstation in one shot.
A set of PowerShell scripts that installs dev tools, applies opinionated Windows settings, and sets up WSL + Ubuntu through the required reboot. Nothing to clone, nothing to install first. Idempotent, so it's safe to re-run on an existing machine.
Open any PowerShell window — elevated or not — and run:
Standard
irm https://aka.ms/devconfig/standard/setup.ps1 | iex
Full experience
irm https://aka.ms/devconfig/full/setup.ps1 | iex
⚠️ It will restart your machine, once. Enabling WSL needs a Windows optional feature that requires a restart. You get a 10-second warning, and a scheduled task resumes setup after you sign back in and accept the UAC prompt. Save your work before you start.
What you get
Standard Experience
- Dev tools: Windows Terminal, PowerShell 7, Git, GitHub CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, VS Code, .NET SDK 10, Python 3.14 + uv, Node.js LTS + nvm, Coreutils for Windows, Windows App CLI, Oh My Posh, and PowerToys.
- Terminal: PowerShell 7 as the default profile, Oh My Posh in your prompt, Cascadia Mono NF as the default font, and a GitHub Copilot profile in the dropdown.
- Windows settings: Dark theme, long paths, File Explorer defaults, Start/Search settings, and Do Not Disturb
- WSL: WSL platform + Ubuntu, including the restart and the automatic resume afterwards.
Full
- Everything from standard
- Windows settings: Developer Mode, Sudo, widgets off, and Edge policies, additional Start/Search/System Tray settings
- Remote Desktop: Enabled and firewall settings set
Full details — every setting it changes, how to undo them, and troubleshooting: windows-dev-config/README.md.
🐧 WSL Comfort
Also known as Comfort Shell. An interactive setup for a polished Windows + WSL shell environment.
WSL Comfort stands apart. It supports both interactive and non-interactive modes, and lets you pick and choose individual components. The Windows side handles WSL, the distro, the Cascadia Code Nerd Font, and a themed Windows Terminal profile. The Linux side runs inside the distro and configures the shell itself.
.\wsl-comfort\install.ps1
Interactive by default. Use -NonInteractive for unattended runs; the bootstrap also takes --minimal for a smaller setup. The Linux half is standalone, so you can copy comfort-shell-bootstrap.sh onto any Ubuntu host and run it directly.
What you can pick
- Your choice of shell: zsh or bash.
- Optional Starship prompt.
- Optional modern CLI tools:
fzf, rg, fd, bat, eza, zoxide, jq.
- Optional clipboard and
open shims (pbcopy, pbpaste, open).
- Optional Homebrew.
- Optional Git defaults.
- A themed Windows Terminal profile using Cascadia Code Nerd Font.
Full details: wsl-comfort/readme.md.
🧪 Single-language workloads
Just want one toolchain? Pick a row. Each workload ships a configuration.winget file plus a matching install.ps1 shim that applies it and refreshes PATH in the current session.
Most of the single-language workloads use winget configure. If you've never used it before, enable it once:
winget configure --enable
[!IMPORTANT]
If winget is being invoked from a non-elevated environment, the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (aka.ms/vcredist) must also be installed — without it winget configure fails with an internal error. Install it once with the command for your machine's architecture:
# x64:
winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64
# ARM64:
winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.arm64
If that fails or winget configure is still not recognized, see Troubleshooting. Windows Dev Config doesn't use winget configure and needs none of this.
| Workload |
Installs |
Run |
| TypeScript |
Node.js LTS + global typescript |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\typescript\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| PHP |
PHP 8.5 |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\php\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| .NET |
.NET SDK 10 |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\dotnet\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| Go |
Go (rolling) |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\go\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| Java |
Microsoft Build of OpenJDK 25 LTS |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\java\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| Rust |
Rust stable via rustup |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\rust\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| Python |
Python 3.14 + uv |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\python\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| SQL |
Lightweight SQL Developer: SQL Server + sqlcmd + VS Code extension |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\sql\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| PowerShell |
PowerShell 7 + VS Code PowerShell extensions + PSScriptAnalyzer settings |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\powershell\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| WinForms |
.NET SDK 10 + Windows Forms desktop workload |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\winforms\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| WinAppCLI |
Developer Mode + .NET SDK 10 + Windows App Development CLI |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\winappcli\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
| WinUI 3 |
.NET SDK 10 + Visual Studio Community + Windows App SDK / WinUI 3 + WinAppCLI |
winget configure -f .\Workloads\winui\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity |
Want the PATH refresh in your current shell? Use the matching shim instead of calling winget configure directly:
.\Workloads\python\install.ps1
Heads up: WinForms and WinUI 3 pull down several gigabytes of Visual Studio components. Fine on a real workstation, painful on a small VM.
🩺 Troubleshooting
"Unrecognized command: configure"
Run winget configure --enable. If winget configure is still not recognized after that, Workloads/_common/assert-winget-configure.ps1 tells you whether App Installer is too old, policy has disabled configuration, or something else needs fixing.
winget configure fails with "internal error" / error code -2146233079
This usually means the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable is missing — winget configure depends on it when invoked from a non-elevated environment. Install it once with the command for your architecture, then re-run:
# x64:
winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64
# ARM64:
winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.arm64
See aka.ms/vcredist for the standalone installer. The repo's Workloads/_common/enable-winget-configure.ps1 script also installs it automatically as part of enabling winget configure.
A workload says it succeeded but python / node / the tool isn't on PATH
Open a new terminal, or run the matching install.ps1 shim to refresh PATH in the current session.
Windows Dev Config rebooted the machine and looks stuck
It registered a scheduled task named WindowsDevConfigResume, so the run picks itself back up about 30 seconds after you sign back in. A window opens on its own and finishes the WSL setup. If nothing appears after a couple of minutes, run the one-liner again — it's safe to re-run and skips everything already done. More detail in windows-dev-config/README.md.
Comfort Shell bootstrap fails because WSL is missing
Run .\wsl-comfort\install.ps1 on the Windows side instead. It installs WSL first.
WSL install fails with wsl --install ... failed with exit code -1
WSL needs hardware virtualization available to the OS. Two common root causes:
On bare metal: virtualization (VT-x / AMD-V) is disabled in BIOS/UEFI. Reboot into firmware settings, enable it, save, and reboot back into Windows. The exact label varies by vendor — check your motherboard or laptop manufacturer's documentation if you can't find it.
Inside a VM: the host hasn't exposed nested virtualization to the guest. For a Hyper-V host, run this from an elevated PowerShell session on the host (with the guest VM powered off):
Set-VMProcessor -VMName <VM_NAME> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true
Other hypervisors have their own equivalent settings — check your hypervisor's documentation.
🐛 Reporting issues
Hit a bug, a stale doc, or a setup that fails on your machine? Open an issue at github.com/microsoft/WindowsDeveloperConfig/issues. Include your Windows build (winver), the exact command you ran, and the failing output. This helps us triage faster.
❤️ Contributing
Contributions of all kinds are welcome: bug reports, doc fixes, new workloads, voice-and-tone tweaks. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, then read src/docs/development.md for the CI matrix, the "how to add a language" walkthrough, and how the sign pipeline works.
Note on the repo layout: the src/ tree is the source of truth. The top-level windows-dev-config/, Workloads/, and wsl-comfort/ folders are Authenticode-signed release copies regenerated by the sign pipeline, so please don't edit them directly. Full details in src/docs/development.md.
The single source of truth for every flow (paths, build/run commands, ids, language metadata) is src/manifest.yml. The Command Palette extension, the CI harness, and the per-flow shims all read from it, so keep it in sync when you add or rename a flow.
这是微软的一个仓库，提供三套各有主见的 PowerShell 配置方案，用于配置 Windows 开发机：一个完整的开发工作站安装器、一个名为 WSL Comfort 的 WSL/Linux shell 美化工具，以及各语言单独的工具链安装器。