Essential Things to Do after Clean Windows Install

Sat 03 Jun 2017, 20:50

I finally reinstalled Windows today after I've been meaning to do it for months. I went with Windows 7 for fun. I have nothing against Windows 10, really, but I just wanted 7 for fun. A few hours later I installed Windows 10 instead.

Anyway, I decided to write down all the things I need to do to get a barely functioning (for me) install of Windows, inspired by Casey Liss.

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Before wiping C:

• Backup the entirety of C:\Users\youruser\
• Check for save files in %appdata% cough Dark Souls 3 cough Lego Star Wars cough Minecraft cough and back them up
• Copy Windows ISO to USB using Rufus
• Copy drivers and preferably a Ninite installer (see below) to the USB
• Shut down PC
• Unplug ethernet and other peripherals that aren't necessary during installation
• Power on PC, and boot from USB

Installation of Windows

Nothing to point out here. If the drive is over 500 GB, I recommend partitioning it to have ~200 GB for the OS, and the rest for storage.

Post-Installation

Drivers

(Preferably these will already be downloaded onto a USB or other HDD)

• Install motherboard drivers if needed (on Windows 7):
  • LAN
  • Audio
  • Chipset
  • USB 3
• Install graphics card drivers after internet is connected (so it can install .NET Framework and other requirements)
  • If Nvidia: uncheck Nvidia Geforce Experience
• Reboot

Monitors

• Enable 144 Hz on main monitor
• Set other monitor position to be in the middle:

For Windows 10: Disable Tracking

• Download and run DWT
• Check all boxes except the ones that warn you and apply

Activate

Depends on your situation, but Windows should be activated before moving on

Installing software

• Browse to Ninite and make an installer with (preferably this installer has been done before and stored on USB or other HDD so you don't need to browse with IE):
  • Chrome
  • Essentials
  • qBittorrent
  • 7-Zip
  • WinRAR
  • VLC
  • Spotify
  • Dropbox
  • Python (2.7)
  • Filezilla
  • Notepad++
  • Classic Start (if Windows >7)
  • LibreOffice
  • SumatraPDF
  • Steam
  • Everything (if on Windows 10, you need to use a beta version in order to add network drives)
• Reboot

Map Network Drives

• Map M: to Media1 (Plex storage)
• Map N: to Media2 (Plex storage)
• Map O: to Media3 (Plex storage)
• Map X: to Dump (NAS)
• Map Y: to Home (NAS)

Set up Dropbox and 1Password

• Set up Dropbox and wait for 1Password folder in Apps folder to sync
• Install 1Password 4 (at time of writing, version 6 is horrible and doesn't work without an 1Password Account)

Set up Google accounts in Chrome

• Go to YouTube, and log in using first account
• Go to Gmail, and add the other account
• Go to YouTube, and change back to the first account
• Add bookmark titled "Gmail" and point it to https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox
• While we're in Gmail, copy the 1Password license key and put it in 1Password

Set up WhatPulse

(If you know your WhatPulse password without needing 1Password, I would do this as soon as you get network drivers working, for accuracy's sake)

• Install WhatPulse, cancel the WinPcap install to avoid network monitoring)
• Log in
• Disable "Open window at startup"

iCloud Bookmarks

• Install iCloud Control Panel
• Reboot
• Sign in to Apple account
• Uncheck iCloud Drive and Photos, but set up Chrome bookmarks

Set up other software

Google Chrome: - Install uBlock Origin - Install 1Password Addon - Visit an English website and set "Never translate from English"

Spotify: - Log in - Enable scrobbling to Last.fm - Disable Right Sidebar/Activity Feed

Steam: - Log in - Add game libraries that are present on other HDDs - Make sure Interface Language is English - Install CS:GO and GTA V if they weren't on the other HDD (but pause their downloads for now)

Everything: - Disable "Run as administrator" under settings - Under Index > Folders, add network drives - Under Keyboard, enable "New Window" shortcut to Alt+Space (to fake Spotlight on macOS)

qBitorrent: - Drag left sidebar to the left as far as possible to hide it - Right click column headers, and disable the hashtag (#) - Open Settings - Downloads: - Change default save folder to X:/Dump - Enable "Append .!qB extension to incomplete files" - BitTorrent: - Seed torrents until their ratio reaches 0.00 and then Pause Them

Filezilla: - Add connection for lambdan.se

Capture Card (PEXHDCAP60L) and AmarecTV

• Open up Windows Audio Mixer
  • Go to Recording Tab
  • Right click Line-In and click Properties
  • In Volume/Levels tab, set volume to 6
  • In Listen tab, enable "Listen to this device"
• Install PEXHDCAP60L Driver, version 1.1.0.142.5
• Install x264vfw codec
• Reboot
• Extract amarectv310.zip
• Install live_setup300
• Change region settings in Windows to English/UK to prevent errors when opening AmarecTV.exe
• Configure Amarec
  • Disable hotkeys (under Hotkey tab)
  • Enable live output under Graph 3 (Live)
    • Framerate 60 fps
    • Resize 1920x1080
    • Output Line 1
    • Apply
  • Configure Recording Tab
    • Video Compressor: Other Codec
      • Hit Update Codec List
      • Select x264vfw and configure it:
        • Preset Ultrafast
        • Zero Latency: checked
        • Rate Control: "Single pass - ratefactor-based (CRF)"
        • Ratefactor between 13 and 17, depends on your mood
        • In Extra command line box add --keyint 1
      • Apply
  • Pick capture card in Device List, and hit Device setting
    • Set up the capture card settings page to look like this, apart from the Color Range, set that to your taste:
  • Set up presets accordingly:

Install and configure more software

• Install MPC-HC x86
• Install KatMouse
• Install Mediainfo GUI Version
  • Open it and enable Windows Explorer integration, and set default output to HTML
• Install Subtitle Edit
  • Restore User Dictionary and OCR Replacements
• Install Sublime Text 3
  • Enable Explorer integration during installation
• Install HWMonitor
• Install MakeMKV
  • Register/enter license
  • Open up settings
    • Video Tab:
      • SemiAuto
      • Path: X:/MakeMKV (where X: is a big HDD)
    • Language Tab:
      • Preferred Language: swe
    • General Tab:
      • Enable Expert Mode
    • Advanced Tab:
      • Default profile: FLAC
      • Default selection rule: -sel:all,+sel:audio&(swe|eng),+sel:subtitle&(swe),+sel:(favlang|nolang|single),-sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,-10:swe,-sel:(havemulti|havecore)
• Windows 7: Install Virtual CloneDrive
• Install Air Video HD Server
  • Set it up like this:

Set up transcode-video, ffmpeg and youtube-dl

• Follow installation instructions here to download and install the tools: https://ryanchristensen.net/how-to-rip-and-transcode-blurays/
• Also download Mediainfo CLI and copy mediainfo.exe to the Ruby bin folder
• Also download youtube-dl and copy youtube-dl.exe to the Ruby bin folder
• When trying gem install video_transcoding it is very likely a SSL error will occur, do this to fix:
  • Download GlobalSignRootCA.pem
  • Open up cmd and do gem which rubygems, and navigate to that folder
  • Go into ssl_certs folder and paste GlobalSignRootCA.pem in there
  • Now gem install video_transcoding should work

Set up cygwin/babun

• Download babun
• Ensure these packages/tools are installed:
  • screen
  • vim
  • ssh
  • wget
  • curl
  • nano
  • ssh-copy-id
• Generate ssh key using ssh-keygen -t rsa and copy it to server using ssh-copy-id user@server
• Download vim configuration from https://github.com/lambdan/config and copy it to ~
• Install configuration files from https://github.com/lambdan/config/tree/master/babun

Set up OBS for streaming

• Download and install OBS
• Configure it with your Twitch streaming key
• Configure recording path
• Leave the rest of the settings to when you're gonna actually stream

Restore save files

• From backup you made of your user folder earlier restore all the save files you want

Final Things

• Pin/remove things from the taskbar to have it in this order (left to right):
  • Chrome
  • Explorer
  • Connect to RDP
  • Babun/Cygwin
  • Snipping Tool
  • Spotify
  • Steam
  • HWMonitor
  • MakeMKV
  • qBittorrent
• Always show qBittorrent in traybar next to clock

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That should be pretty much it for the essentials. After this, I will add whatever is needed whenver it is needed, things such as Origin, Uplay, Battle.net, Skype, Discord, TeamViewer, etc.