Information Technology Installfest The Installfest Journey

A flowchart of the installfest journey, starting with the installfest for a particular OS, then progressing into VS Code Setup and Generating a GitHub Personal Access Token.

Installfest can feel stressful at times. You’re using applications you’re possibly unfamiliar with, running a bunch of commands you don’t recognize, and hearing terms and vocabulary for the first time. You may even see errors you don’t know how to begin troubleshooting.

That’s all okay though, because setting up and configuring your local development environment is the first real step in your career as an IT professional! As you go through Installfest and encounter unfamiliar technologies, don’t be afraid to research these more and seek deeper understanding. And when you encounter errors, don’t forget that your instructional team is here to help - they’re your Installfest point of contact!

This means that if you encounter errors as you’re going through Installfest that you can’t resolve, alert your instructional team. They’ll be able to help you troubleshoot and get you back on track. This might mean you won’t have every issue resolved before day one of your cohort - that’s okay!

To help you through this process, we’ve included this handy guide walking you through the individual steps so that you can at least be sure you’re not missing anything along the way. Follow the process outlined below (and shown above) to guide you through this process.

1. Install software for your OS

You’ll find most of the Installfest content within these OS-specific guides. They’ll walk you through a setup process tailored to your OS. Make sure you only follow one path! Do not open the Installfest documents for any OS other than the one you want to set up.

macOS
Windows 11 and WSL
Ubuntu

What are we installing?

The Installfest resources in this module will guide you through installing or configuring the following applications, regardless of your operating system:

Slack
Zoom
Zsh
Oh My Zsh
Visual Studio Code
Git
Python

You’ll also set up a GitHub account.

Some Installfests include applications specific to one OS, as noted below

Windows 10/Windows 11

Windows Terminal
WSL (Ubuntu)
Visual Studio Code WSL Extension
PowerToys (optional)

macOS

Rectangle
Xcode command line developer tools
Homebrew

Ubuntu

curl

2. Customize VS Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a free, open-source code editor developed by Microsoft that is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Here are some of its best features:

Extensibility: Rich marketplace for customizable extensions, supporting various languages and frameworks.
Built-in productivity tools: Features like IntelliSense and integrated Git support streamline the development process.
Performance and community: Lightweight, fast, and backed by a strong community for quick issue resolution and support.

3. Generate a GitHub personal access token

Follow the steps in the GitHub Personal Access Token walkthrough so that you’re able to interact with GitHub from the command line.

4. Additional Installfest material provided by your instructor

If your instructor has any tools they would like you to install, you’ll tackle those last. They’ll provide those documents to you directly.