Windows Tricks Cheatsheet

WSL - Windows Subsystem for Linux

Before you can install WSL 2 it is necessary to ensure your processor is capable of supporting Virtualization, and VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS.

How to Find Out If Intel VT-x or AMD-V Virtualization Technology is Supported?

Next make sure Virtualization is configured in Windows, search for Turn Windows features on or off

Virtual Machine Platform - enabled
Windows Subsystem for Linux - enabled
Windows Hypervisor Platform - only enable if you want Hyper-V and have a license that supports it

It should also be possible to do this from the command line

$ dsim.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all
$ dsim.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart

Reboot your computer.

From the Microsoft Store install Windows Subsystem for Linux and Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS or Ubuntu.

Alternatively directly install Ubuntu from the command line.

$ wsl --install

A further reboot maybe necessary, but Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS or Ubuntu should now work.

$ wsl --list
$ wsl --help
$ wsl
Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

sjfke@wallace:~$                       # UNIX home directory, /home/sjfke
sjfke@wallace:~$ cd /mnt/c/Users/geoff # Change to Windows home directory
sjfk@eWALLACE:/mnt/c/Users/geoff$ ls   # Windows home directory

Oh My Posh

Note

Laptop must be configured to run scripts, PowerShell Scripting Cheatsheet - Introduction

$ Get-ExecutionPolicy -List

        Scope ExecutionPolicy
        ----- ---------------
MachinePolicy       Undefined
   UserPolicy       Undefined
      Process       Undefined
  CurrentUser    RemoteSigned
 LocalMachine       Undefined

Install Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store
Install oh-my-posh from the Microsoft Store, or from the command line.

$ winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s

Download Meslo LGM NF fonts and unzip them.
In the font folder select all the 73 font files, .ttf and right-click to install them.
Open Windows Terminal
- Settings > Windows PowerShell > Appearance > Color Scheme choose Campbell PowerShell
- Settings > Windows PowerShell > Appearance > Font face choose MesloLGM Nerd Font
Configure Oh My Posh prompt by choosing a Theme

$ Test-Path $PROFILE -PathType Leaf         # If FALSE, then create it using New-Item
$ New-Item -Path $PROFILE -Type File -Force # Create the PowerShell_profile.ps1 file

$ notepad $PROFILE                          # Choose your theme and Invoke it

$ Get-Content -Path $PROFILE
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\paradox.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\dracula.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\remk.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\jtracey93.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\mt.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\agnoster.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\agnosterplus.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

$ . $PROFILE                                # If errors open a new PowerShell

Update notifications via the Microsoft Store do not work, oh-my-posh update command line update alerts do not always trigger, so manually check on a regular basis, see Oh My Posh upgrades

$ oh-my-posh notice                                # Is an upgrade is available?

$ oh-my-posh version                               # Existing version
$ winget upgrade JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget # Upgrade
$ oh-my-posh version                               # New version

Summary of the oh-my-posh commands

$ oh-my-posh help        # help summary
$ oh-my-posh help --help # help on the 'help' command

Use Terminal Icons to add color and icons to oh-my-posh directory listings

$ Install-Module -Name Terminal-Icons -Repository PSGallery -Scope CurrentUser
$ Import-Module -Name Terminal-Icons

# Add to $PROFILE
$ Get-Content -Path $PROFILE
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\agnoster.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
Import-Module -Name Terminal-Icons

Warning

Exercise caution when installing from PowerShell Gallery

Want more, see My Ultimate PowerShell prompt with Oh My Posh and the Windows Terminal

Are Files Identical?

One novel approach is to use certutil to compute a hash to see if they are the same.

certutil supports hash algorithms: MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA384 SHA512
Commonly used hash algorithms being, SHA1 default, MD5 and SHA256

$ certutil -hashfile file1.txt
SHA1 hash of file1.txt:
2236964ee87bff078491008b506044391975e2a6
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

$ certutil -hashfile file1.txt MD5
MD5 hash of file1.txt:
4ead6a1f65b3f97d86a093dfb87a8be2
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

$ certutil -hashfile file1.txt SHA256
SHA256 hash of file1.txt:
dde3f13078dae2baf1d1a12ad3be20ce6cc0d370cbab0f579fca16dcc4791394
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

$ certutil -hashfile Fred_Flintstone.png SHA256
SHA256 hash of Fred_Flintstone.png:
a4c8843ce4fb12654ccbe7aa14256c7e0243739d42874d42b531e74bc27ba32c
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

$ sha256_hash = Invoke-Expression "certutil -hashfile Fred_Flintstone.png SHA256 | Select-Object -Index 1"
$ write($sha256_hash) # a4c8843ce4fb12654ccbe7aa14256c7e0243739d42874d42b531e74bc27ba32c

$ certutil -hashfile .\kustomize.exe SHA256
SHA256 hash of .\kustomize.exe:
2cd041a2e4d3533ffa6f5f03dc2d9e0828bae7931021cc5d11dfcd644bd8b4c0
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

Utility certutil is intended for manipulating certificates and so can do much more.

Base 64 Encode/Decode

$ [Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes("EncodeMe-in-Base64"))
RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0

$ [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String('RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0'))
EncodeMe-in-Base64

Using wsl, if installed

$ wsl
$ echo -n 'EncodeMe-in-Base64' | base64
RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0

$ echo -n 'RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0' | base64 -d
EncodeMe-in-Base64

Using Python, if installed

>>> import base64
>>> _ascii = "EncodeMe-in-Base64".encode("ascii")
>>> _b64bytes = base64.b64encode(_ascii)
>>> print(_b64bytes.decode("ascii"))
RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0

>>> import base64
>>> _ascii = "RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0".encode("ascii")
>>> _b64bytes = base64.b64decode(_ascii)
>>> print(_b64bytes.decode("ascii"))
EncodeMe-in-Base64