Do you need something to create and edit code in style?! Let’s install VS Code with a bit of privacy!
First, download and Install VS Code via > https://code.visualstudio.com
Run the installer
On the installer, click Yes > Next > Next > Click all the boxes (if you want) > Install > Finish
Now that we have this wonderful popup from VS Code telling us we’re being recorded for quality and training purposes - let’s get rid of that and remove some other call-homey type stuff.
To get our bit of privacy, we need to edit the VS Code settings. These settings are located in the settings.json file or also are available via the GUI.
The settings.json file is stored in the %APPDATA%\Code\User folder.
If there’s no file there, just create a blank file named settings.json in that location and open it with VS Code.
The settings below will give you pretty good privacy (heh).
{
"extensions.autoUpdate": false,
"telemetry.enableTelemetry": false,
"telemetry.enableCrashReporter": false,
"update.enableWindowsBackgroundUpdates": false,
"update.mode": "none",
"extensions.autoCheckUpdates": false
}
Next, now that Bill Gates can’t see our precious code, let’s install the PowerShell extension!
Click on the little boxes “Extensions” and search for “powershell”. Select the one with “Microsoft” and about 2M downloads at the time of this writing. Click Install. It installs with the PowerShell ISE theme, it huuurts us precious!!!
HURRY! Click the Dark+ theme before our eyes burn off!
Aaah that’s better.
We need a space to work in so let’s create a workspace. A workspace is basically just a collection of folders that you can work with on the left-hand column at once. If you’re not working on a ton of stuff you could just have one workspace, or if you’re editing multiple projects, you could create many workspaces to help stay organized.
For now we’re going to create a local workspace and keep it organized so later we can move it to a network share and ahem - definitely not use it for a code repository, we’d for sure pay for a TFS server or Azure DevOps Server!
In VS Code, just click File > Save Workspace As…
For my workspace, I created a new folder Workspaces. For the workspace file, I called it “General” for general scripts and projects.
Then click "Add Folder” I created a new folder called “Scripts” to store scripts in.
Just drop any scripts or files (may I suggest the Rename-SecurityGPO.ps1 from our wonderful GitHub repo?) into the Scripts folder and voila, you have scripts!
TanktopArmy GitHub - https://github.com/tanktopArmy/scripts/