Setting up a Sitecore Developer Laptop in 2023

So with the start of the new year, and new company, comes the fun part - a purchase of a new laptop. Exciting! I finally get to play with Windows 11 (Pro), and not be restricted by work security.

Long gone are the days of SIF-based installs, with SQL/Solr running as Windows services (and likely many instances of them, if you were working on multiple versions of Sitecore). These days everything can be done on containers and VS Code (yes, even back-end dev).  

With the release of (some) ltsc2022 images over the last week, we can finally use process isolation on Windows 11! Yes it's in preview, but at least your computer won't have a heart attack from lack of resources!

So because it was all so easy, I thought I'd quickly note down the few things I needed to install to get going. As a bonus I've included some configuration that might catch you out, or you may have forgotten if you've done it before.

Windows features

1. Containers / HyperV
2. IIS (optional, if you want to do a proper install at some point)
   
   
   
   
   

Software

1. VS Code for most dev, plus extensions:
   1. Azure (Account / Functions /  App Service / Cache / Kubernetes Service / Pipelines / Resources / Static Web Apps / Storage)
      
   2. Docker
   3. Git History
   4. GraphQL (Language Feature Support / Syntax Highlighting)
      
   5. IntelliCode
   6. PowerShell
   7. Prettier - Code Formatter
      
   8. Scriban
   9. XML Tools
   10. YAML
       
       
2. Visual Studio (probably optional, since VS Code can do everything these days!)
   
1. TDS (optional, only if your clients use it)
   
   
3. Node
1. Sitecore JSS CLI
   
   
4. Docker Desktop
5. Git
   
   
6. Make life easier: 7Zip / SQL Server Management Studio
7. Testing APIs: Postman
8. Decompiling: ILSpy / DotPeek
   
9. Storage access: Filezilla & Azure Storage Explorer
   
10. Remote access: Microsoft Remote Desktop and Client VPNs

Configuration

Visual Studio:

 

Docker settings:

Turn off docker-compose v2 (for now, until support is added by the Sitecore team)

Set the following Docker settings:

"features": {
  "buildkit": false
}

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So only a dozen or so tools, plus a little setup and configuration. Pretty great if you ask me!
If there's anything I'm missing that you use to be productive I'd love to hear it. Leave a comment and I'll take a look (and hopefully make my life easier in the process).