[Leftium]

I use Git bash for Windows. It brings a lot of the linux shell tools/scripting experience to Windows. There is a portable "thumbdrive edition."[1]

Look for the portable versions of other apps.

PowerShell[2] is the built-in scripting language for Windows (better than BATCH scripts).

I pop into gVim for quick text manipulation tasks.

https://sumatrapdfreader.org is the best PDF reader.

I recommend a launcher like https://keypirinha.com or even the MS PowerToys runner.

[1]: https://git-scm.com/download/win

[2]: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/PowerShell

[1oooqooq]

Do Not Use Git Bash.

install proper MSys2 or suffer later.

git bash is distribution of msys2, so to say, with very nad choices so to save money on not hosting a full package repo mirror. just go with msys2 install and don't suffer when you need something as basic as make.

but overall, sorry for you having to work on windows.

[satiric]

Why use msys2 over WSL?

[Leftium]

- WSL is virtual machine that runs in a virtual filesystem.

- msys2 is a port of linux tools that run directly in Windows.

- So WSL performance may be lower, especially with file operations.

- Also the integration may not be as intuitive (you have to think about which filesystem the files exist; you can't just open up any file from a Windows app.)

- Also Git bash for windows is faster than msys2 (or at least used to be): https://stackoverflow.com/a/47078501/117030

---

I find Git bash for Windows sufficient for most of my daily dev tasks. If something like make failed to work for some reason, then I might reach for WSL. (So far, I haven't needed to.)

[satiric]

Sorry, I just saw your reply. Seems reasonable. I like the flexibility of knowing that every Linux tool available for mainstream distros is available in WSL, and I don't have to think about compatibility (I run into issues now and again, but most software works just fine). But I guess it makes sense that if you're only using a few tools, and they're all in msys2, then that might be a smoother solution.