Laptops

I recently bought a Chuwi MiniBook X as a secondary laptop. I was intrigued by the small size and weight, full-size-ish keyboard, decent specs, and the “2-in-1” functionality. It’s the kind of device that I can take with me when going on sailing/skiing trips to get some ad-hoc work done without it taking up too much space in the bag. In this post, I cover how I’ve set it up to cater to my needs and preferences.

Apps

The first thing I did was uninstall a bunch of default apps that came bundled with the laptop. My rule of thumb was that if the app is visible in settings and is uninstallable, it’s probably safe to remove.

Next, I had a look at “Startup apps” and removed everything non-essential.

Finally, I installed some apps I use daily:

  • Google Chrome
  • Enpass
  • Slack
  • Figma
  • Visual Studio Code
  • YouTube Music

Development

Before getting the laptop, I thought I’d install a Linux distro on it, but then I learned about WSL and thought I’d give it a go. A few people have documented their Linux on MiniBook X setup, and while most things work, some don’t. I might give Linux a go at some point, but for now, I’m sticking with Windows 11 + WSL.

WSL

Installing WSL was really easy. I went with the default Ubuntu distro.

Once that was sorted, I made sure the system was up to date by running:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Windows Terminal

I found Windows Terminal to be quite decent, so I decided to stick with it. I set the default profile to Ubuntu so that whenever I open the terminal, it launches Ubuntu by default.

Additionally, I customized the default profile by removing profile-specific settings from some individual profiles. By doing this, those profiles automatically inherit the settings defined under defaults.

//settings.json
"profiles": {
  "defaults": {
    "bellSound": [null],
    "bellStyle": "window",
    "closeOnExit": "graceful",
    "colorScheme": "One Half Dark",
    "cursorShape": "bar",
    "font":
    {
      "face": "Meslo LG M",
      "size": 11
    },
    "intenseTextStyle": "bright",
    "showMarksOnScrollbar": true
  },
}

Next, I setup ZSH as Ubuntu comes with Bash as the default shell.

sudo apt install zsh
# set shell to zsh
chsh -s $(which zsh)

Next, I imported my .zshrc file. In addition to the default config, I added the following to make Windows Terminal behave more like Terminal.app on my Mac.

# Restore last working directory if in Windows Terminal (but NOT in VS Code)
if [[ -n "$WT_SESSION" && "$TERM_PROGRAM" != "vscode" ]]; then
    cd "$(cat ~/.last_wd 2>/dev/null || echo ~)"
fi

chpwd() {
    pwd > ~/.last_wd
}

# Bind open to explorer
function open() {
  explorer.exe $1
}

Finally, I installed Node using n and mcfly for browsing CLI history.

Git

Ubuntu came with Git version 2.43.0, so I went with that. I imported my .gitconfig file and had it set up in no time.

To avoid entering my password every time I do a pull/push to a work repo, I installed Git for Windows and told Git to use its credential helper:

git config --global credential.helper "/mnt/c/Program\ Files/Git/mingw64/bin/git-credential-manager.exe"

Other than the credentials manager, I don’t use Git for Windows for anything.

Visual Studio Code

On Mac, I’ve been using Zed as my primary code editor for a while and really like it. It’s not yet available for Windows, so Visual Studio Code it is for now. I’ll be playing around with Zed once it becomes available.

I synced my settings and installed the WSL extension for smoother integration with Windows. I also tweaked the font size settings to fit the small screen better, and that’s about it.

Windows tweaks

I’ve been tinkering with OS level settings to make Windows fit my needs and preferences.

General

I made a few general tweaks:

  • Set the appearance to Dark.
  • Removed all shortcuts from the desktop to reduce clutter.
  • Enabled Automatically hide the taskbar, as it maximizes screen real estate while giving a Dock feel to it.
  • Removed Search, Widgets, and Task view from the taskbar since I don’t use them.
  • Disabled animations and transparency for slightly better performance.
  • Disabled most trackpad gestures including tap-to-click.
  • Disabled everything under Snap windows but kept snapping enabled. The suggestions were driving me nuts.
  • Enabled Clipboard history.
  • Enabled Find my device.
  • Enabled Night light.
  • Enabled Change brightnes based on content.

Mac-style keyboard shortcuts

I’ve been a Mac user for 20 years, so a lot of the keyboard shortcuts are deeply ingrained in my muscle memory. I noticed that I struggled with many of the keyboard shortcuts being based on the ctrl key.

After some searching, I discovered Microsoft PowerToys through this post. I used the Keyboard Manager module to map alt + <action> to ctrl + <action>. This made it immediately more familiar and ergonomic since I could use my thumb to press the modifier key.

I had to do some tweaks in Windows Terminal for it to respect the remapping:

//settings.json
"actions": [
  {
    "command": "newTab",
    "keys": "ctrl+t"
  },
  {
    "command": "closeTab",
    "keys": "ctrl+f4"
  },
  {
    "command": "find",
    "keys": "ctrl+f"
  }
],

Other PowerToys features

PowerToys comes with quite a lot of tools/utilities. Here are the ones I have enabled:

  • Advanced Paste: A neat addition to the default clipboard manager.
  • Peek: QuickLook for Windows (unfortunately, it can’t be bound to the space key).
  • Run: A Raycast/Alfred-like tool.
  • Image Resizer: A handy tool that lives in the context menu.
  • Color Picker: A simple color picker utility.

File Explorer

Finally, I used WinSetView to set all File Explorer views to details. I was kinda bummed that there’s no tree view available like in Finder, though.

Conclusion

Windows and WSL have been a pleasant experience so far. I’ve used the laptop for about a week now, and I really enjoy the form factor.

The keyboard is pretty good—it reminds me a bit of the newer MacBook Pro keyboards but has slightly longer travel. The trackpad is okay, but you have to apply more force compared to a MacBook. The tablet mode has been useful when cooking or watching YouTube. The battery isn’t going to last a full workday, but four hours doesn’t seem to be a problem. I think it’s a neat feature that you can charge it using a power bank.

All in all, it feels like a good buy, considering the price tag.