To maximize resources and minimize troubleshooting, perform a clean install or refresh of Windows. Update your system, Enable VT-x in BIOS if possible, and uninstall all unnecessary programs.

You can remove many pre-installed apps using the RemoveDefaultApps script in this repository.

Be sure to enable file extensions in Windows Explorer.

For the first week, we will need the following tools installed:

• Git for Windows
• Oracle JDK 8 (Alternative: OpenJDK)
• Apache Maven
• Spring Tool Suite

Either manually download and install each tool, or follow the instructions below using the Chocolatey package manager for Windows.

1. Install Chocolatey

   1. Open Powershell as an administrator.
   2. Run:

      Set-ExecutionPolicy AllSigned

   3. Agree to all changes
   4. Run:

      Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

2. Open a new Powershell window as an administrator and run the following commands:

3. To install Git for Windows:

   choco install git

4. To install Oracle JDK 8:

   choco install jdk8

   4a) Alternatively, use choco install and an OpenJDK distribution of your choosing:

   choco install adoptopenjdk8
   choco install zulu8
   choco install corretto8jdk

5. To install Apache Maven:

   choco install maven

   5a) If using an OpenJDK distribution of Java, you should install Maven with the following command to avoid accidentally installing OracleJDK:

   choco install maven --ignore-dependencies

6. To install Spring Tool Suite:

   choco install springtoolsuite

To confirm all tools are properly installed and configured, be sure the following commands return no errors:

git -v
java -version
javac -version
mvn -v

java and javac should only reference Java 8.

You should pin the shortcut to STS. All above tools can be installed at once for convenience using the following command:

choco install -y git jdk8 maven springtoolsuite

To use PostgreSQL database, either install them locally or create a RDS instance on AWS.

1. Install the database:

   choco install postgresql

2. Install a client tool to manage the database:

   2a) To use pgAdmin3

   choco install pgadmin3

   2b) To use pgAdmin4

   choco install pgadmin4

   2c) To use DBeaver

   choco install dbeaver