Ari's Windows Tips

I have for maintained a collection of UNIX Tips for some years and UNIX type operating system have been my choice for three decades. However, after I started playing correspondence chess on International Correspondence Chess Federation the open source chess database Scid vs. PC was no longer quite enough. So instead of installing Xubuntu on my new laptop I left Windows 10 on it, in order to be able to use the premier chess database Chessbase. Instead of building a dual boot system I decided to give Windows 10 and Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 a chance.

Do bear in mind that this is a personal document and the last time I have really administrated Windows systems was when Windows NT4 was brand new. That makes me a complete beginner as far as modern Windows systems are concerned.

Docker

Deleting all images and containers

docker-clear.bat

@echo off
FOR /f "tokens=*" %%i IN ('docker ps -aq') DO docker rm %%i
FOR /f "tokens=*" %%i IN ('docker images --format "{{.ID}}"') DO docker rmi %%i

Git Bash

While Git is an excellent version control system, it also provides a reasonable collection of UNIX command line tools including vim, cut, ssh, openssl, awk and grep. If you're an UNIX dinosaur like me, do install it.

Setting the Path

I needed Python interpreter, but after the installation the Python executable was not in my path. It turned aout, that there are several ways of setting the path.

Python

Add Python directories to your path, for example:

c:\users\ari\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32
c:\users\ari\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\Scripts

Using an Android Tablet as Second Monitor

My laptop has a 14" screen and for what I do need a dual, preferably three, monitor system so I started to wonder whether I could use my Android tablet as a second monitor. After very little googling I found the page 6 Ways to Use Your Android as Second Monitor For Your Computer. I ended up installing Splashtop Wired XDisplay Free which seemed to work well enough with my low end tablet, so I paid 7.99 € for the version in which the session is not limited to ten minutes.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

WSL 2, release in May of 2020, provides a way of running a full Linux enviroments on top of Windows provided that the build of Windows 10 is recent enough (Version 2004, Build 19041 or higher).

Listing the installed Linux systems

PS C:\Users\hauva> wsl --list
Windows Subsystem for Linux Distributions:
Ubuntu-20.04 (Default)
PS C:\Users\hauva> wsl --list --verbose
  NAME            STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-20.04    Running         2

Setting the WSL version of a Linux system

wsl --set-version Ubuntu-20.04 2

Shutting down Linux systems

wsl --shutdown

Shutting down everything

wsl -t <DistroName>

Running screen under WSL

screen fails to start under Ubuntu 20.04 complaining about the rights of directory /run.

sudo /etc/init.d/screen-cleanup start
screen

And, voilà, screen works.

hauva69/ariswindowstips