Chocolatey Computer Refresh

Description:

So I decided to wipe all data from my computer the other day and did the following steps to set it up again:

First, get all the installed programs

   # Old computer
   Get-CimInstance win32_product | Select-Object Name, PackageName, InstallDate | out-file c:\scripts\soft2.txt
   Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDate | out-file c:\scripts\soft.txt

   #appwiz.cpl

I had planned to just follow my original post about this but found that it was a little outdated, so here is my newer post on what I did.

To Resolve:

1. Open PS as administrator and run the following commands and close and reopen to get a new session:

   # new computer
   Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
   [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072
   Invoke-Expression ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
   

   • Run:

   $packages = ( 
   "7zip",
   "bulkrenameutility",
   "cryptsync",
   "everything",
   "firefox",
   "firefox-dev --version=76.0.7-beta --pre",
   "mediamonkey",
   "git",
   "greenshot",
   "microsoftazurestorageexplorer",
   "nomacs",
   "notepadplusplus",
   "realtek-hd-audio-driver",
   "steam",
   "vlc",
   "vscode"
   )
   
   choco feature disable -n=showDownloadProgress
   
   foreach ($package in $packages)
   {
      choco install $package -y --limitoutput
   }
   

2. Then I installed my paid software like Microsoft Office by signing into my Microsoft account and installing from there.

3. Choco commands that might be useful:

   # see installed packages
   choco list --localonly
   
   # see packages with upgrades avail
   choco outdated
   
   # update all (not recommended)
   choco upgrade all --noop / cup all -y
   
   # update selected packages
   choco upgrade notepadplusplus googlechrome atom 7zip
   

4. You could also try this with the native ‘Package Management’ module but I kept getting errors on some packages in testing:

   Install-PackageProvider chocolatey
   Set-PackageSource -Name chocolatey -Trusted
   Install-Package -Name adobereader -ProviderName Chocolatey
   Find-Package -Name firefox, winrar, notepadplusplus, putty, dropbox | Install-Package
   Install-Package -Name "everything" -ProviderName Chocolatey