Working in Windows is inevitable if the office are still tied with Microsoft services. Here's some tips on how to make Windows 10 Pro work for you. This document gets updated ocassionally.

## Desktop account

- Create a local Windows user at first and set it up as an administrator. This allows you to be particular with the dirname C:\Users\{username}. I tend to stick with the username used in github as it's prominent in git bash, e.g. paoloumali-sw@pc. This saves you from extra effort on aesthetics later on.
- Login with the local desktop account. Once in, create a Microsoft account for your google office email (applicable if you have G Suite enabled on an office domain). Having both MS and Google associated on one email may prove useful later on when you need to integrate services using MS and Google APIs as you'll be sticking with just one email. To bring most of your desktop configuration on Windows, switch the account to use a Microsoft-based account. This can be done in MS Settings > Accounts. It will change your login but it will use the same C:\Users\{userDir}
- If company use a work email, which provisions licenses like Microsoft Office, etc., simply go to MS Settings > Accounts > Access work or school and add your email there.

## Files in the cloud

You may need to bring files with you and have them accessible anywhere you go, any pc you use. The easy option is to have files in the cloud. Google drive may be a better option if you're using Android, but I already went with OneDrive so I'll stick with it for now.

### OneDrive

Your Microsoft account will get 5GB free OneDrive space. This won't be enough for work. Unlink that account and switch to the MS work email given you. It usually has 1TB space. During setup, it will ask you for the desire dir loc for OneDrive. I tend to bring all my docs and files on a separate drive partition on a user dir, e.g. H:\paoloumali-sw.

### MS User dirs

You will use mostly Downloads, Desktop, Documents, Pictures (Win key + Print Screen goes to a screenshots folder under it). From these, only Downloads need not roam. I moved them to the H partition.

- H:\paoloumali-sw\Downloads
- H:\paoloumali-sw\OneDrive - SW\Desktop
- H:\paoloumali-sw\OneDrive - SW\Documents
- H:\paoloumali-sw\OneDrive - SW\Pictures

### Project dirs

Use this for any code projects. Most will be on a git repo so they need not roam

- H:\paoloumali-sw\projects
- H:\paoloumali-sw\projects\php
- H:\paoloumali-sw\projects\ruby\rails\blog1

## Chrome

Most work now are done in a hosted web app. All you need is a browser. I use Chrome since we use mostly Google-based service. Also, Chrome persona is handy.

- Settings > On startup > Continue where you left off
- Settings > Downloads > Location change to your Downloads folder in H drive.

### Browser extensions

- LastPass
- Grammarly
- Tab Modifier (allow rules like one tab all the time for SF domain, etc)

## Git Bash

Microsoft now has WSL but I tend to go back to using Git bash.

### Dotfiles

I keep a private repo of my dotfiles. Some items that are useful

```
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.bash_aliases
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.bash_history
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.bash_profile
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.bash_ssh_aliases
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.bashrc
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.editorconfig
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.gitconfig
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.gitignore_global
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.minttyrc
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.ssh/
# better vim
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.vim/
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.vim_runtime/
/h/paoloumali-sw/dotfiles/.viminfo
```

## Suggested drive partitions

- C for Windows
- H for project specific files, symlinked user folders like Downloads, Desktop, etc.
- F for public files, media, e.g. _dev_installers, linux isos
- E for work specific apps like installation for slack, git, ruby, nodejs, etc