Dev Configuration

A WinGet Configuration (DSC) file that sets up a clean, lightweight, distraction-free developer workstation. The goal is a PC state that devs actually love using: no clutter, no noise, just the tools you need.

This mirrors the curated environment currently provided by Cloud PC, so developers get a consistent experience regardless of device.

The flow is a single DSC document (dev-config.winget) that handles everything end-to-end: elevation, the OS tweaks, the apps, the fonts, the shell prompt, and the WSL platform + Ubuntu install (including the reboot dance).

Author: Hamza Usmani.

Table of Contents

• Goals
• Prerequisites
• Usage
• What this configures
• Configuration details
  • Phase resources (elevation + WSL)
  • Apps
  • Theme and OS
  • File Explorer
  • Taskbar
  • Start, Search, Notifications
  • Services and features
  • Edge
  • Fonts
  • Windows Terminal
  • PowerShell profile
• Customization
• Design decisions
• Known caveats

Goals

• A PC devs actually want to use. Clean Explorer, dark theme, no pop-ups, no recommendations, no widgets. Just your code and your tools.
• Cloud PC parity. Same tooling, OS settings, and policies as the current Cloud PC image.
• One command. winget configure -f dev-config.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity takes a fresh Windows machine to fully ready, including WSL + Ubuntu (with an auto-resume across the required reboot).
• Idempotent. Safe to re-run on existing machines to apply updates or fix drift. Every resource has a testScript or DSC-native idempotency.

Prerequisites

• Windows 11 (latest).
• winget with the DSC v3 processor available (the file uses Microsoft.WinGet/Package, Microsoft.Windows/Registry, and Microsoft.DSC.Transitional/*).
• Administrator rights — the ElevationCheck resource will auto-relaunch winget elevated via Start-Process -Verb RunAs if you started in an unelevated session, but you'll need to consent at the UAC prompt.
• The Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable when invoking winget from a non-elevated environment. Without it, winget configure fails with an internal error. See aka.ms/vcredist or install via winget (see the Usage callout below).
• The repo on disk. winget configure reads a local file path, and the bootstrap is what installs Git, so on a fresh machine you'll either git clone (if Git is already installed) or download the repo as a ZIP from GitHub and extract it before running.
• Hardware virtualization must be available to the OS before WSL can install. On bare metal, this means virtualization (VT-x / AMD-V) is enabled in BIOS/UEFI. Inside a VM, it means the host has exposed nested virtualization to the guest. See the Usage callout below.

Usage

# x64:
winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64

# ARM64:
winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.arm64

Get the files first (skip if you already have the repo locally):

# Git already installed:
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/WindowsDeveloperConfig.git
cd WindowsDeveloperConfig\windows-dev-config

# Otherwise, download and extract the ZIP:
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/microsoft/WindowsDeveloperConfig/archive/refs/heads/main.zip -OutFile WindowsDeveloperConfig.zip
Expand-Archive .\WindowsDeveloperConfig.zip -DestinationPath .
cd .\WindowsDeveloperConfig-main\windows-dev-config

Full setup (recommended):

winget configure -f dev-config.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity

This is the canonical invocation documented in the header of dev-config.winget.

What to expect:

1. The first phase applies all OS tweaks, installs apps, installs Cascadia Code/Mono Nerd Fonts, and configures Windows Terminal and the PowerShell profile.
2. WSL platform components install; the DSC reboots the machine and registers a RunOnce resume.
3. After login, winget configure resumes automatically and installs the default Ubuntu distro.
4. Open Ubuntu from the Start menu to complete its first-launch setup (create a UNIX username and password).

The configuration is idempotent, so it is safe to re-run after reboot or at any later point.

What this configures

• 14 apps via winget (PowerShell 7, Git, GitHub CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, VS Code, .NET SDK 10, Python 3.14, UV, Node.js LTS, NVM for Windows, Coreutils for Windows, Windows Application CLI, plus optional Oh My Posh and PowerToys).
• WSL + Ubuntu, installed via 3 transitional script resources that bracket a reboot (Phase 2/3/4 below).
• ~24 registry settings for theme/OS, Explorer, Taskbar, Search, Start, Notifications, Edge, Sudo, and the Widget service.
• Cascadia Code & Cascadia Mono Nerd Fonts downloaded from the microsoft/cascadia-code GitHub release and registered per-user.
• 5 script resources beyond the WSL phases:
  • ElevationCheck — re-launches winget elevated if not already admin.
  • darkTheme — applies the built-in dark.theme to switch to dark mode.
  • InstallCascadiaCodeNerdFonts — downloads and installs the Nerd Font variants of Cascadia Code/Mono.
  • SetCascadiaNfAsDefault — sets Cascadia Mono NF as the default font face in Windows Terminal's settings.json.
  • ps7default — sets PowerShell 7 as Windows Terminal's default profile.
  • ohMyPoshProfileSet — adds oh-my-posh init pwsh | Invoke-Expression to $PROFILE and dot-sources it.

Configuration details

All resources are dscv3 ($schema: .../DSC/main/schemas/2023/08/config/document.json, metadata.winget.processor.identifier: dscv3). Every resource that touches HKLM or runs elevated tools depends on ElevationCheck.

Package resources use Microsoft.WinGet/Package with source: winget and useLatest: true (except Python.Python.3.14, Microsoft.dotnet.SDK.10, and OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS, which are pinned by id).

Phase resources (elevation + WSL)

All app resources that need WSL present depend on InstallUbuntu so the OS work happens before the reboot — but the WSL install is still part of the same winget configure invocation thanks to the RunOnce resume.

Apps

Theme and OS

Dark theme is applied via a RunCommandOnSet resource named darkTheme (not via registry):

The remaining theme/OS entries below are Microsoft.Windows/Registry.

File Explorer

Taskbar

Start, Search, Notifications

Services and features

Edge

HKLM policies, applied via Microsoft.Windows/Registry:

Fonts

Windows Terminal

PowerShell profile

Customization

• Pick and choose packages. Comment out any Microsoft.WinGet/Package block to skip that install — most have no dependsOn chain beyond InstallUbuntu (exceptions: GitHubCLI and GitHubCopilot depend on Git; PowerToysAOT depends on PowerToys; ohMyPoshProfileSet depends on OhMyPosh).
• Pin or unpin versions. Switch id: Python.Python.3.14 (pinned) to id: Python.Python.3 if you want to drift forward, or switch OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS to OpenJS.NodeJS for current. Vice versa for the unpinned packages.
• Toggle registry values. Most settings are DWord: 0 or DWord: 1; flip the value to invert the behavior.
• Re-enable commented-out tweaks. HideDesktopIcons ships commented out (it over-fires on some user setups). Uncomment to enable.
• Change the WSL distro. Edit the wsl --install -d Ubuntu --no-launch line inside the InstallUbuntu resource.
• Change the terminal font. Edit $fontFace = 'Cascadia Mono NF' inside SetCascadiaNfAsDefault, or change the $WantedFonts array in InstallCascadiaCodeNerdFonts to install a different Cascadia variant.
• Skip the dark theme step. Comment out the darkTheme resource if you prefer light mode (or want to set it manually).

Design decisions

Known caveats