This post will be used to document how I prefer to setup a fresh installation of Windows Server. Specifically, I am using Windows Server 2022 Standard Core.

Install and Configure OpenSSH: #

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name "OpenSSH.Server"

Now start the sshd service:

Start-Service sshd

Then let’s make sure the service starts on boot:

Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'

Make sure it’s allowed through the firewall (it should have been automatically added when installed):

Get-NetfirewallRule -Name *ssh*

If the rule doesn’t exist, create it with the following:

New-NetFirewallRule -Name sshd -DisplayName 'OpenSSH Server (sshd)' -Enabled True -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -LocalPort 22

Now you’ll be able to SSH into your Windows machine.

Set Powershell as the default shell via SSH: #

Run the following Powershell snippet to set Powershell as the default shell when you login via SSH:

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH" -Name DefaultShell -Value "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -PropertyType String -Force

User management: #

Let’s create an admin user. I like the SConfig command for this:

SConfig

At the time of writing you can use option 3 Add local administrator to create a new admin user and password.

Elevating privileges: #

I liked the following explanation on elevating privileges in Powershell:

windows core run command with elevated privileges

TL;DR you can run the following commands to create an alias called Enter-AdminPSSession:

function Enter-AdminPSSession {
  Start-Process -Verb RunAs (Get-Process -Id $PID).Path
}

Set-Alias psa Enter-AdminPSSession

Then run it:

Enter-AdminPSSession

If you want this to be permanent, add the above snippet to $Home\[My ]Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Profile.ps1.

Package Management: #

Chocolatey: #

I really like Chocolatey for managing packages.

Install Chocolatey with the following command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Then make sure Chocolatey’s default location is added to your $PATH so you can run it:

$env:PATH = "C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin;$env:PATH"

Place that in $Home\[My ]Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Profile.ps1 if you want it to be permanent.

The syntax for finding, installing or uninstalling packages is pretty simple (using vim as my example):

choco search vim

choco install -y vim 

choco uninstall -y vim 

Built in package management: #

Here are some relevant cmdlets I know of for installing packages via Powershell:

Find-Package, Install-Package, Uninstall-Package

Get-WindowsCapability, Add-WindowsCapability, Remove-WindowsCapability

Find-Module, Install-Module, Uninstall-Module

I won’t go into each of them, but check out Microsoft’s documentation on each cmdlet for more information.

Wireguard: #

I use the following post for instructions to install Wireguard: Wireguard Windows Setup

I added C:\Program Files\Wireguard to my $PATH:

$env:PATH = "C:\Program Files\WireGuard;C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin;$env:PATH"

If you want this to be permanent, add the above snippet to $Home\[My ]Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Profile.ps1.

To bring my interface up I use the following command after placing my config in C:\Wireguard\wireguard.conf:

wireguard.exe /installtunnelservice C:\Wireguard\wireguard.conf

Python: #

Install Python3 with Chocolatey:

choco install -y python3

If you want to add the directory where Python stores scripts to your $PATH, add the following to $Home\[My ]Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Profile.ps1:

$env:PATH = "C:\Python39\Scripts;C:\Program Files\WireGuard;C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin;$env:PATH"