Build 2026: adopt winget configure, WindowsDeveloperConfig, WSL Comfort, and language workloads

[richeney]

Overview

Build 2026 introduced several tools that directly improve this repo's Windows setup story. This issue tracks the work needed to adopt them.

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1. 🛠 Microsoft.Coreutils

Add installation of Microsoft.Coreutils — native Linux-style CLI utilities (ls, cp, rm, grep, cat, etc.) built on uutils/coreutils in Rust, running directly on Windows without WSL.

winget install Microsoft.Coreutils

This should be included in the winget configure configuration file (see §4 below).

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2. 🖥 Windows Dev Config — selective adoption

github.com/microsoft/WindowsDeveloperConfig ships three setups:

Setup	Description
Windows Dev Config	Full workstation: tools, OS settings, WSL, terminal
WSL Comfort	Polished WSL shell: zsh/bash, Starship, modern CLI tools
Workloads	Single language toolchains: Node, Python, .NET, Rust, Go, …

Since primary coding is in WSL rather than native Windows, the full Windows Dev Config is overkill. Adopt selectively:

• Skip the full windows-dev-config/dev-config.winget (it opinionates OS settings, Start Menu, installs VS Code, Oh My Posh, etc. in ways that may clash).
• Adopt WSL Comfort (§3) and language Workloads (§4) from this repo.
• Cherry-pick any useful resources/DSC resources from windows-dev-config/dev-config.winget worth incorporating into a custom config file.

winget configure must be enabled first (one-time):

winget configure --enable

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3. 🐧 WSL Comfort Shell (test + document)

WSL Comfort (wsl-comfort/install.ps1) sets up a polished WSL environment with:

• Choice of zsh or bash
• Starship prompt
• Modern CLI tools: fzf, ripgrep, fd, bat, eza, zoxide, jq
• Clipboard shims (pbcopy, pbpaste, open)
• Optional Homebrew
• Themed Windows Terminal profile with Cascadia Code Nerd Font

It is interactive by default (pick and choose components) or fully unattended with -NonInteractive. The Linux half (comfort-shell-bootstrap.sh) can be run standalone on any Ubuntu host.

Actions:

• Test .\wsl-comfort\install.ps1 on a fresh WSL install
• Evaluate overlap with existing bashrc_user_customisations and playbook.yml (Oh My Posh vs Starship, existing tool installs)
• Decide: replace existing WSL bootstrap with comfort shell, or use alongside it?
• Document the chosen approach in README.md under the WSL section

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4. 📦 Language workloads via winget configure

Add language toolchains using the WindowsDeveloperConfig workload configs:

Language	Installs	Config path
Node / TypeScript	Node.js LTS + global typescript	Workloads/typescript/configuration.winget
Python	Python 3.13 + uv	Workloads/python/configuration.winget
.NET	.NET SDK 10	Workloads/dotnet/configuration.winget
Rust	Rust stable via rustup	Workloads/rust/configuration.winget
Go	Go (rolling)	Workloads/go/configuration.winget

Each workload ships a configuration.winget file and a matching install.ps1 shim (which also refreshes PATH in the current session).

# Example — run from a local clone of WindowsDeveloperConfig
winget configure -f .\Workloads\rust\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity
# Or use the shim for PATH refresh in current session:
.\Workloads\rust\install.ps1

Note: Go and Docker are already in TO_ADD.md — workloads cover Go; Docker can be addressed separately.

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5. 🔄 Migrate to a winget configure configuration file

The current README.md Windows section contains ~20+ individual winget install lines. Replace (or supplement) these with a single declarative winget configure YAML/.winget configuration file in the repo.

Benefits:

• Idempotent — safe to re-run after a PC reset
• Declarative — version-controlled, diff-friendly
• Composable — can reference workload configs or inline DSC resources
• Single command to apply: winget configure -f .\setup.winget --accept-configuration-agreements

Actions:

• Create windows/setup.winget (or similar path) covering the existing winget install package list
• Include Microsoft.Coreutils (§1)
• Reference or inline the desired language workloads (§4)
• Update README.md Windows section to reference winget configure as the primary install path, keeping old winget install lines as fallback/reference or removing them

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References

• Build 2026: Furthering Windows as the trusted platform for development
• github.com/microsoft/WindowsDeveloperConfig
• WSL Comfort Shell readme
• winget configure docs
• Dev Configs for Windows — Microsoft Learn