Windows

In this post I explain how I configure a Windows 11 that I’m going to use for software development, testing or demos. I don’t need frills since it won’t have sensitive data, I want its essence, bare-bones, with few applications, some browsing and that’s it. In the end it became a technical exercise – removing everything I can, ads, Edge, extras, installing minimal drivers, a local account, having it boot and be available as soon as possible. Note: a year later I decided to create a new decent Windows 11 (2025). …

Dualboot means having two operating systems on the same computer and choosing which one to boot during the boot phase. My goal is to prepare my PC for dualboot and install Windows 11 Pro. Normally you install Windows first and then Linux, but in my case I already have Linux (Ubuntu) working perfectly and using the entire 4TB disk. I’m going to “add” Windows to enable dualboot. I describe the entire process, how I did it, how I resized the hard drive, added Windows and customized the boot menu. …

In environments where you need to operate multiple computers simultaneously, efficiency is key. There are several products that mimic the functionality of a KVM switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse), which historically allowed you to use a single keyboard and mouse to control multiple computers by physically turning a dial. In this post I describe how I install and use Barrier, a software KVM solution, without the need for additional hardware. My use case involves controlling three computers with a single keyboard and mouse. Two of them are desktops – a Mac and a Windows PC. The third is a Windows/Linux laptop. The difficulty lies with the Mac, where I encountered a curious and nearly insurmountable challenge. …

In this post I cover how to customize VSCode. I work with GitHub in a cross-platform, multi-account environment and want to sync my settings, use the same extensions, and leverage licenses. I explain the multi-account topic, synchronization of my global and per-project preferences (settings), and extensions. I normally use Windows, Linux, and macOS, and I’ve chosen VSCode as my editor/IDE. The goal is to have a unified work experience – launch VSCode on any operating system, clone a personal or professional project, keeping the same extensions and settings, and even using the options to connect to a host, tunnel, WSL, etc. …