Setup instructions

You will find below the instructions to set up you computer for Powercoder Web Development Bootcamp.

Please read them carefully and execute all commands in the following order.

If you get stuck, don't hesitate to ask a teacher for help 🙋

Let's start 🚀

Zoom

To be able to interact when we are not in the same physical room, we will be using Zoom, a video conferencing tool.

⚠️ If you already have Zoom installed, please make sure that the version is at least 5.6.

Go to zoom.us/download.

Under Zoom Client click the Download button.

Open the file you have just downloaded to install the app.

Open the Zoom app.

If you already have a Zoom account, sign in using your credentials.

If not, click on the Sign Up Free link:

You will be redirected to Zoom's website to complete a form.

When it's done, go back to the Zoom app and sign in using your credentials.

You should then see a screen like this:

You can now close the Zoom app.

GitHub account

Have you signed up to GitHub? If not, do it right away.

👉 Upload a picture and put your name correctly on your GitHub account. This is important as we'll use an internal dashboard with your avatar. Please do this now, before you continue with this guide.

Windows version

Before we start, we need to check that the version of Windows installed on your computer is compatible with this setup instructions.

Windows 10 or Windows 11

To be able to set up your computer, you need to have Windows 10 or Windows 11 installed.

To check your Windows version:

Press Windows + R
Type winver
Press Enter

✔️ If the first words of this window are Windows 10 or Windows 11 you're good to go 👍

❌ If not, you cannot proceed with this setup. You have to upgrade to Windows 10 first 👇

Upgrade to Windows 10

Download Windows 10 from Microsoft
Install it. It should take roughly an hour, but this depends on your computer.
When the installation is over, execute the commands above ☝️ to check that you now have Windows 10.

ℹ️ Windows 11 upgrade is rolling out now, which means it may or may not be available for your computer just yet.

⚠️ If you have Windows 10 installed, you don't need to upgrade to Windows 11 to proceed with this setup.

Latest updates

Once you're sure that you're using Windows 10 or 11, you need to install all the latest updates.

Open Windows Update:

Press Windows + R
Type ms-settings:windowsupdate
Press Enter
Click on Check updates

✔️ If you see a green check mark and the message "You're up to date", you're good to go 👍

⚠️ If you have a red exclamation mark and the message "Update available", please install them and repeat the process until it says that you are up to date ➿

❌ If you have an error message about Windows not being able to apply updates, please contact a teacher.

Activate Windows Update Service to fix Updates

Some antiviruses and pieces of software deactivate the Update service we need, resulting in the error you see. Let's fix that!

Press Windows + R
Type services.msc
Press Enter
Double Click Windows Update Service
Set its Startup to Automatic
Click on Start
Click on Ok Then let's try updates again!

Minimum version

Some of the tools we need to install have been release with the 1903 version or above of Windows 10 so we need to make sure you have at least this one.

Press Windows + R
Type winver
Press Enter

Check the Version number:

✔️ If it says at least 1903, you are good to go 👍

❌ If it is below 1903, please contact a teacher.

Virtualization

We need to ensure that the Virtualization options are enabled in the BIOS of your computer.

For many computers, this is already the case. Let's check:

Press Windows + R
Type taskmgr
Press Enter
Click on the Performance tab
Click on CPU

✔️ If you see "Virtualization: Enabled", you're good to go 👍

❌ If the line is missing or if the virtualization is disabled, please contact a teacher before trying to activate the Virtualization

Activate Virtualization

We need to access the BIOS / UEFI of the computer to activate it.

Press Windows + R
Type shutdown.exe /r /o /t 1
Press Enter
Wait for the computer to shutdown
Click on Troubleshoot
Click on Advanced Options
Click on UEFI Firmware Settings
Click on Restart

You need to activate the virtualization option for your processor here:

Most of the time, in the advanced settings, the CPU settings, or the Northbridge settings
The option can be called differently according to your computer:
- Intel: Intel VT-x, Intel Virtualization Technology, Virtualization Extensions, Vanderpool...
- AMD: SVM Mode or AMD-V
Save the changes after activation and reboot the computer through the appropriate option

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

WSL is the development environment we are using to run Ubuntu. You can learn more about WSL here.

ℹ️ The following instructions depend on your version of Windows. Please execute only the instructions corresponding to your version 👇

Windows 11

If you are running Windows 11, we will install WSL 2 and Ubuntu in one command through the Windows Terminal.

⚠️ In the following instruction, please be aware of the Ctrl + Shift + Enter key stroke to execute Windows Terminal with administrator privileges instead of just clicking on Okor pressing Enter.

Press Windows + R
Type wt
Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter

⚠️ You may have to accept the UAC confirmation about the privilege elevation.

A blue terminal window will appear:

Copy the following command (Ctrl + C)
Paste it into the terminal window (Ctrl + V or by right-clicking in the window)
Run it by pressing Enter

wsl --install

✔️ If the command ran without any error, please restart your computer and continue below 👍

❌ If you encounter an error message (or if you see some text in red in the window), please contact a teacher

Windows 10

Install WSL 1

If you are running Windows 10, we will first install WSL 1 through the PowerShell Terminal.

⚠️ In the following instruction, please be aware of the Ctrl + Shift + Enter key stroke to execute Windows PowerShell with administrator privileges instead of just clicking on Okor pressing Enter.

Press Windows + R
Type powershell
Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter

⚠️ You may have to accept the UAC confirmation about the privilege elevation.

A blue terminal window will appear:

Copy the following commands one by one (Ctrl + C)
Paste them into the PowerShell window (Ctrl + V or by right-clicking in the window)
Run them by pressing Enter

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

✔️ If all three commands ran without any error, please restart your computer and continue below 👍

❌ If you encounter an error message (or if you see some text in red in the window), please contact a teacher

Upgrade to WSL 2

If you are running Windows 10, we will then upgrade WSL to version 2.

Once your computer has restarted, we need to download the WSL2 installer.

Go to the download page
Download "WSL2 Linux kernel update package"
Open the file you've just downloaded
Click Next
Click Finish

✔️ If didn't encounter any error message, you're good to go 👍

❌ If you encounter the error "This update only applies to machines with the Windows Subsystem for Linux", right click on the program and select uninstall; you shall be able to install it normally this time.

Make WSL 2 the default Windows Subsystem for Linux

If you are running Windows 10, we will set WSL default version to 2.

Now that WSL 2 is installed, let's make it the default version:

Press Windows + R
Type cmd
Press Enter

In the window which appears, type:

wsl --set-default-version 2

✔️ If you see "The operation completed successfully", you can close this terminal and continue to follow the instructions below 👍

❌ If the message you get is about Virtualization, please contact a teacher

Enable Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature

Follow the steps described here until you enable Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux

Enable Hyper-V Windows feature

Follow the steps described here until you enable the group Hyper-V

ℹ️ If you are running Windows 10 Home edition, Hyper-V feature is not available for your operating system. It's non-blocking and you can still continue to follow the instructions below 👌

Ubuntu

Installation

ℹ️ The following instructions depend on your version of Windows. Please execute only the instructions corresponding to your version 👇

Windows 11

If you are running Windows 11, after restarting you computer, you should see a terminal window saying WSL is resuming the Ubuntu installation process. When it's done, Ubuntu will be launched.

Windows 10

If you are running Windows 10, let's install Ubuntu throught the Microsoft Store:

Click on Start
Type Microsoft Store
Click on Microsoft Store in the list
Search for Ubuntu in the search bar
Select version without any number, just plain "Ubuntu"
Click on Install

⚠️ Don't install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS nor Ubuntu 20.04!

Uninstall wrong versions of Ubuntu

To uninstall a wrong version of Ubuntu, you just have to go to the Installed Program List of Windows 10:

Press Windows + R
Type ms-settings:appsfeatures
Press Enter

Find the software to uninstall and click on the uninstall button.

Once the installation is finished, the Install button becomes a Launch button: click on it.

First launch

At first launch, you will be asked some information:

Choose a username:
- one word
- lowercase
- no special characters
- for example: powercoders or your firstname
Choose a password
Confirm your password

⚠️ When you type your password, nothing will show up on the screen, that's normal. This is a security feature to mask not only your password as a whole but also its length. Just type your password and when you're done, press Enter.

You can close the Ubuntu window now that it is installed on your computer.

Check the WSL version of Ubuntu

Press Windows + R
Type cmd
Press Enter

Type the following command:

wsl -l -v

✔️ If the version of Ubuntu WSL is 2, you are good to go 👍

❌ If the version of Ubuntu WSL is 1, we will need to convert it to version 2.

Convert Ubuntu WSL V1 to V2

In the Command Prompt window, type:

wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2

✔️ After a few seconds, you should get the following message: The conversion is complete.

❌ If it does not work, we need to be sure that Ubuntu files are not compressed.

Check for Uncompressed Files

Press Windows + R
Type %localappdata%\Packages
Press Enter
Open the folder named CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows...
Right Click on the LocalState folder
Click on Properties
Click on Advanced
Make sure that the option Compress content is not ticked, then click on Ok.

Apply changes to this folder only and try to convert the Ubuntu WSL version again.

❌ If the conversion still does not work, please contact a teacher.

You can now close this terminal window.

Visual Studio Code

Installation

Let's install Visual Studio Code text editor.

Go to Visual Studio Code download page.
Click on "Windows" button
Open the file you have just downloaded.
Install it with few options:

When the installation is finished, launch VS Code.

Connecting VS Code to Ubuntu

To make VS Code interact properly with Ubuntu, let's install the Remote - WSL VS Code extension.

Open your Ubuntu terminal.

Copy-paste the following commands in the terminal:

code --install-extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl

Then open VS Code from your terminal:

code .

✔️ If you see WSL: Ubuntu in a green box in the bottom left corner of the VS Code window, you're good to go 👍

❌ Otherwise, please contact a teacher

Windows Terminal

Installation

ℹ️ The following instructions depend on your version of Windows.

If you are running Windows 11, the Windows Terminal is already installed and you can proceed to the next section 👇

If you are running Windows 10, let's install Windows Terminal, a real modern terminal:

Click on Start
Type Microsoft Store
Click on Microsoft Store in the list
Search for Windows Terminal in the search bar
Select Windows Terminal"
Click on Install

⚠️ DO NOT install Windows Terminal Preview, just Windows Terminal!

Uninstall wrong version of Windows Terminal

To uninstall a wrong version of Windows Terminal, you just have to go to the Installed Program List of Windows 10:

Press Windows + R
Type ms-settings:appsfeatures
Press Enter

Find the software to uninstall and click on the uninstall button.

Once the installation is finished, the Install button becomes a Launch button: click on it.

Ubuntu as the default terminal

Let's make Ubuntu the default terminal of your Windows Terminal application.

Press Ctrl + ,

It should open the terminal settings:

Change the default profile to "Ubuntu"
Click on "Save"
Click on "Open JSON file"

We have circle in red the part you will change:

First, let's ask Ubuntu to start directly inside your Ubuntu Home Directory instead of the Windows one:

Locate the "name": "Ubuntu",
Add the following line after it:

"commandline": "wsl.exe ~",

⚠️ Do not forget the comma at the end of the line!

Then, let's disable warning for copy-pasting commands between Windows and Ubuntu:

Locate the line "defaultProfile": "{2c4de342-...}"
Add the following line after it:

"multiLinePasteWarning": false,

⚠️ Do not forget the comma at the end of the line!

You can save these changes by pressing Ctrl + S

✔️ Your Windows Terminal is now setup 👍

This terminal has tabs: you can choose to open a new terminal tab by clicking on the + next to the current one.

From now on, every time we will refer to the terminal or the console it will be this one. DO NOT use any other terminal anymore.

VS Code Extensions

Installation

Let's install some useful extensions to VS Code.

Copy-paste the following commands in your terminal:

code --install-extension ms-vscode.sublime-keybindings
code --install-extension emmanuelbeziat.vscode-great-icons
code --install-extension github.github-vscode-theme
code --install-extension MS-vsliveshare.vsliveshare
code --install-extension dbaeumer.vscode-eslint
code --install-extension Rubymaniac.vscode-paste-and-indent
code --install-extension alexcvzz.vscode-sqlite

Here is a list of the extensions you are installing:

Live Share configuration

Visual Studio Live Share is a VS Code extension which allows you to share the code in your text editor for debugging and pair-programming: let's set it up!

Launch VS Code from your terminal by typing code and pressing Enter.

Click on the little arrow at the bottom of the left bar 👇

Click on the "Share" button, then on "GitHub (Sign in using GitHub account)".
A popup appears asking you to sign in with GitHub: click on "Allow".
You are redirected to a GitHub page in you browser asking you to authorize Visual Studio Code: click on "Continue" then "Authorize github".
VS Code may display additional pop-ups: close them by clicking "OK".

That's it, you're good to go!

Command line tools

Zsh & Git

Instead of using the default bash shell, we will use zsh.

We will also use git, a command line software used for version control.

Let's install them, along with other useful tools:

Open an Ubuntu terminal
Copy and paste the following commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y curl git imagemagick jq unzip vim zsh

These commands will ask for your password: type it in.

GitHub CLI installation

Let's now install GitHub official CLI (Command Line Interface). It's a software used to interact with your GitHub account via the command line.

In your terminal, copy-paste the following commands and type in your password if asked:

sudo apt remove -y gitsome # gh command can conflict with gitsome if already installed
curl -fsSL https://cli.github.com/packages/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https://cli.github.com/packages stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y gh

To check that gh has been successfully installed on your machine, you can run:

gh --version

✔️ If you see gh version X.Y.Z (YYYY-MM-DD), you're good to go 👍

❌ Otherwise, please contact a teacher

Oh-my-zsh

Let's install the zsh plugin Oh My Zsh.

In a terminal execute the following command:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

If asked "Do you want to change your default shell to zsh?", press Y

At the end your terminal should look like this:

✔️ If it does, you can continue 👍

❌ Otherwise, please ask for a teacher

GitHub CLI

CLI is the acronym of Command-line Interface.

In this section, we will use GitHub CLI to interact with GitHub directly from the terminal.

It should already be installed on your computer from the previous commands.

First in order to login, copy-paste the following command in your terminal:

⚠️ DO NOT edit the email

gh auth login -s 'user:email' -w

gh will ask you few questions:

What is your preferred protocol for Git operations? With the arrows, choose SSH and press Enter. SSH is a protocol to log in using SSH keys instead of the well known username/password pair.

Generate a new SSH key to add to your GitHub account? Press Enter to ask gh to generate the SSH keys for you.

If you already have SSH keys, you will see instead Upload your SSH public key to your GitHub account? With the arrows, select your public key file path and press Enter.

Enter a passphrase for your new SSH key (Optional). Type something you want and that you'll remember. It's a password to protect your private key stored on your hard drive. Then press Enter.

⚠️ When you type your passphrase, nothing will show up on the screen, that's normal. This is a security feature to mask not only your passphrase as a whole but also its length. Just type your passphrase and when you're done, press Enter.

You will then get the following output:

! First copy your one-time code: 0EF9-D015
- Press Enter to open github.com in your browser...

Select and copy the code (0EF9-D015 in the example), then press Enter.

Your browser will open and ask you to authorize GitHub CLI to use your GitHub account. Accept and wait a bit.

Come back to the terminal, press Enter again, and that's it.

To check that you are properly connected, type:

gh auth status

✔️ If you get Logged in to github.com as <YOUR USERNAME> , then all good 👍

❌ If not, contact a teacher.

Add Zsh Plugins

Open windows terminal (check that you're in a ubuntu environment)

Run the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Disable SSH passphrase prompt

You don't want to be asked for your passphrase every time you communicate with a distant repository. So, you need to add the plugin ssh-agent to oh my zsh:

First, open the .zshrc file:

code ~/.zshrc

Then:

Spot the line starting with plugins=
Add ssh-agent at the end of the plugins list

The list should look like:

plugins=(gitfast last-working-dir common-aliases zsh-syntax-highlighting history-substring-search pyenv ssh-agent)

✔️ Save the .zshrc file with Ctrl + S and close your text editor.

Node.js

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime to execute JavaScript code in the terminal. Let's install it with nvm, a version manager for Node.js.

In a terminal, execute the following commands:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | zsh
exec zsh

Then run the following command:

nvm -v

You should see a version. If not, ask a teacher.

Now let's install node:

nvm install 16.15.1

When the installation is finished, run:

node -v

If you see v16.15.1, the installation succeeded ✔️ You can then run:

nvm cache clear

❌ If not, contact a teacher

yarn

yarn is a package manager to install JavaScript libraries. Let's install it:

In a terminal, run the following commands:

npm install --global yarn
exec zsh

Then run the following command:

yarn -v

✔️ If you see a version, you're good 👍

❌ If not, ask for a teacher

SQLite

In a few weeks, we'll talk about databases and SQL. SQLite is a database engine used to execute SQL queries on single-file databases. Let's install it:

In a terminal, execute the following commands:

sudo apt-get install sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev

Then run the following command:

sqlite3 -version

✔️ If you see a version, you're good 👍

❌ If not, ask for a teacher

PostgreSQL

Sometimes, SQLite is not enough and we will need a more advanced tool called PostgreSQL, an open-source robust and production-ready database system.

Let's install it now.

Run the following commands:

sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev build-essential

sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql start

sudo -u postgres psql --command "CREATE ROLE \"`whoami`\" LOGIN createdb superuser;"

You can configure PostgreSQL to autostart, so you don't have to execute sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql start each time you open a new terminal:

sudo echo "`whoami` ALL=NOPASSWD:/etc/init.d/postgresql start" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/postgresql

sudo chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/postgresql

echo "sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql start" >> ~/.zshrc

Open a new terminal.

✔️ If you see a * Starting PostgreSQL 14 database server message, you're good to go 👍

❌ If not, contact a teacher.

Dashboard

Great you almost completed the setup! Now it's time to sign-up into your dashboard.

⚠️ before proceeding, be sure you have a github account. ⚠️

Open this webpage https://poco-dashboard.herokuapp.com, you'll see a central white button. Click on sign in with github

After that will be redirected to your personal page and you should se your avatar on the right.

In this page you'll be able to see your daily progress in the exercises.

WeSchool

It's our platform to see all the content of bootcamp and videos of the lectures. The link will be shared on Slack at the end of the day :)

Slack

Slack is a communcation platform pretty popular in the tech industry. You should already be logged in but in case download the app ⬇️

Installation

Download the Slack app and install it.

⚠️ If you are already using Slack in your browser, please download and install the desktop app which is fully featured.

Settings

Launch the app and sign in to powercoders organization.

Make sure you upload a profile picture :camera_with_flash:

The idea is that you'll have Slack open all day, so that you can share useful links / ask for help / etc.

To ensure that everything is working fine for video calls, let's test your camera and microphone:

Open the Slack app
In any channel message bar type /call --test and press Enter
Click on the "Start test" green button

✔️ When the test is finished, you should see green "Succeed" messages at least for your microphone and camera. 👍

❌ If not, contact a teacher.

You can also install Slack app on your phone and sign in powercoders!

Windows settings

Exchange files between Windows and Ubuntu

We need an easy way to transfer files from Windows to Ubuntu and vice versa.

In order to do that, let's create shortcuts to Ubuntu directories in the Windows File Explorer:

Open the Windows File Explorer (or use the shortcut WIN + E)
In the Address Bar, enter \\wsl$\ (or \\wsl$\Ubuntu if it does not work)
You now have acces to the Ubuntu file system
Dive into the Ubuntu file system in order to look for directories of interest
Drag the desired folders into the Address Bar in order to create shortcuts

Open the Windows File Explorer from the Ubuntu terminal

Another option to move files around is to open the Windows File Explorer from the Ubuntu terminal:

Open an Ubuntu terminal
Go to the directory you wish to explore
Run the explorer.exe . command (alternatively, use wslview .)
If you get an input output error message, run wsl --shutdown in a Windows PowerShell and reopen an Ubuntu terminal

Find your way in the Ubuntu File System

You might want to figure out the exact location of a Windows directory in the Ubuntu file system, or the other way around.

In order to convert a Windows path to and from an Ubuntu path:

Open an Ubuntu terminal
Use the wslpath "C:\Program Files" command in order to translate a Windows path into an Ubuntu path
Use the wslpath -w "/home" command in order to translate an Ubuntu path into a Windows path
In particular, the wslpath -w $(pwd) command returns the Windows path of the current Ubuntu directory

Pin apps to your taskbar

You are going to use most of the apps you've installed today really often. Let's pin them to your taskbar so that they are just one click away!

To pin an app to your taskbar, launch the app, right-click on the icon in the taskbar to bring up the context menu and choose "Pin to taskbar".

You must pin:

Your terminal
Your file explorer
VS Code
Your Internet browser
Slack
Zoom

Setup completed!

Your computer is now all set for Powercoders Web Development course 💪 👏

Enjoy the bootcamp, you will nail it 🚀

FilesExpand file tree

windows.md

Latest commit

History

windows.md

File metadata and controls

Setup instructions

Zoom

GitHub account

Windows version

Windows 10 or Windows 11

Latest updates

Minimum version

Virtualization

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Windows 11

Windows 10

Install WSL 1

Upgrade to WSL 2

Make WSL 2 the default Windows Subsystem for Linux

Ubuntu

Installation

Windows 11

Windows 10

First launch

Check the WSL version of Ubuntu

Visual Studio Code

Installation

Connecting VS Code to Ubuntu

Windows Terminal

Installation

Ubuntu as the default terminal

VS Code Extensions

Installation

Live Share configuration

Command line tools

Zsh & Git

GitHub CLI installation

Oh-my-zsh

GitHub CLI

Add Zsh Plugins

Disable SSH passphrase prompt

Node.js

yarn

SQLite

PostgreSQL

Dashboard

WeSchool

Slack

Installation

Settings

Windows settings

Exchange files between Windows and Ubuntu

Open the Windows File Explorer from the Ubuntu terminal

Find your way in the Ubuntu File System

Pin apps to your taskbar

Setup completed!