Setup Work Laptop

4 minute read

Description:

So at each place I work, I like to setup a folder structure on my Windows Laptop that keeps my files locally under the C:\scripts folder directory while also backing them up to my company’s Onedrive and my home PC for offline backup. Here is how I set it up. Obviously I would remove the offline backup part if company policies do not allow any data to leave the company laptop. See my dot files post for some references to these settings.

To Resolve:

  1. Create folder c:\scripts and under that create c:\scripts\sync.bat with the following contents:

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    @ECHO OFF
PowerShell.exe -NoProfile ^
-Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell.exe -ArgumentList '-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""%~dpn0.ps1""'}"
Pause
    • and then create c:\scripts\sync.ps1 with the following contents:
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    robocopy "C:\scripts\company" "C:\Users\myuser\OneDrive - My Company\company" /mir /xd '.git'
robocopy "C:\Users\myuser\OneDrive - My Company\company" "\\192.168.50.50\backup" /mir /np /ndl /log:"c:\scripts\robocopy.log"

  2. Now create a folder called C:\scripts\company replacing company with a short version of the company name. Under that folder we will store all documents that will be backed up to OneDrive:

    • apps - This just holds config information for any apps I install. Similar to /etc
    • docs-personal - Documents I don’t want others to see but still back up to Onedrive. Stuff like paycheck info, any communications between me and one other person meant to be personal, or just sensative info in general.
    • docs-work - All work related documents, not afraid to share. This is the folder I will share with a Team sharepoint when I leave the company.
    • repo - Any/all code repos. The idea is to have different workspaces point to these folders based on what I’m working on.
      • Workspaces can be found under C:\scripts\company\apps\vscode\*.code-workspace

  3. Now that folders are setup. I would then install all the software needed (assuming you have admin rights to your laptop - might be able to do this without it though):

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    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'))

$packages = ( 
   "7zip",
   "azure-cli",
   "everything",
   "git",
   "greenshot",
   "k9s",
   "keepass",
   "kubernetes-cli",
   "kubernetes-helm",
   "microsoftazurestorageexplorer",
   "notepadplusplus",
   "terraform",
   "vscode"
)

choco feature disable -n=showDownloadProgress

foreach ($package in $packages)
{
   choco install $package -y --limitoutput
}

# Install the OpenSSH Client
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0

  4. After installing programs, I would then configure them like I usually do. Here is a list of extensions in VSCode I would then install as well as my default user settings:

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    $extensions = @(
   "hashicorp.terraform",
   "liwei.relax-eyes-theme",
   "ms-vscode-remote.remote-ssh",
   "ms-vscode.powershell",
   "redhat.vscode-yaml",
   "vscode-icons-team.vscode-icons",
   "yzane.markdown-pdf"
)

foreach ($ext in $extensions)
{
   Write-Output "Installing extension: $ext ..."
   code --install-extension $ext
   Write-Output "Installing extension: $ext ...Completed"
}

  5. That’s about it. I would then normally pin VSCode to my taskbar and edit it’s target location to point to a workspace at C:\scripts\company\apps\vscode\default.code-workspace which points to a folder at C:\scripts\company\repo\notes for example where I store all my notes. I would then create other workspaces depending on the languages I work on such as:

    • C:\scripts\company\apps\vscode\powershell.code-workspace which points to C:\scripts\company\repo\powershell
    • C:\scripts\company\apps\vscode\python.code-workspace which points to C:\scripts\company\repo\python
    • C:\scripts\company\apps\vscode\terraform.code-workspace which points to C:\scripts\company\repo\terraform

    • and so on…

    • When I say points to, I mean these workspace files are super basic and just look like this:
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    {
   "folders": [
      {
            "path": "C:\\scripts\\company\\repo\\notes"
      }
   ],
   "settings": {}
}

    • I still keep all my config at the User Settings level for Vscode, but use Workspaces to logically seperate what I’m working on because I don’t like to see long trees of folders so I use workspaces alot.

    • Lastly, I usually have a function in my PSProfile that will start workspaces on demand since somedays I just stay in my default workspace all day and don’t need to launch all my workspaces.

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    Function Start-Workspaces
{
   [Cmdletbinding()]
   Param
   (
      [Parameter(Mandatory = $false, ValueFromPipeline = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $false, Position = 0)]
      [Switch]$All
   )  

   If ( $all )
   {
      code C:\scripts\company\repo\powershell
      code C:\scripts\company\repo\python
      code C:\scripts\company\repo\terraform
   }
   Else
   {
      code C:\scripts\company\repo\powershell
   }
}
Set-Alias -Name "sw" -Value "Start-Workspaces"

  6. Since I use SSH Client on my Windows Laptop to connect to a remote linux server where I do most of my git interactions, I usually run this script to ensure my service is running and my keyfiles are added to my ssh auth agent:

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    $Service = Get-Service -Name "SSH-Agent"

If ( $Service.Status -eq "Stopped" )
{
   Write-Output "SSH Agent service was stopped, starting..."
   Start-Service $Service
   Write-Output "SSH Agent service was stopped, starting...Completed"
}

Write-Output "Running ssh-add..."
ssh-add -l
Write-Output "Running ssh-add...Completed"

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