setup.larryfargo.games

Rig Setup Kit

One script that takes a brand new Windows 11 machine to a working gaming and streaming box. Idempotent, reversible, and it shows you everything it will do before it does any of it.

Note

This page is for whoever is setting up the machine. The person who is going to use it wants the manual instead — that one is written for someone who does not care how any of this works.

Get it

Everything in one zip, or read any script in your browser first. Nothing here runs itself.

Run it

About fifteen minutes, most of it waiting on winget. Start at step 1 — the admin window first, then one paste.

  1. Open PowerShell as Administrator

    Right-click the Start button → Terminal (Admin), or Windows PowerShell (Admin). Everything below happens in that one window, so get it open first.

    The script installs software and changes Windows settings. It refuses to start without this, rather than failing halfway through.

  2. Paste this whole block

    Downloads the kit, unpacks it, unblocks it, and puts you in the right folder. One paste, and every command is visible — nothing is fetched and executed sight unseen.

    Why Unblock-File matters. Windows tags everything downloaded from the internet, and PowerShell silently refuses to run tagged scripts. Leave that line out and the setup appears to do nothing at all. The Set-ExecutionPolicy line applies to this window only and changes nothing permanently.

  3. Dry run first

    Prints every single thing it would do and changes nothing. Read the output. This is also how you find out whether a package has been renamed since the script was written.

  4. Run it for real

    Same command without -DryRun. Individual package failures get collected and printed at the end rather than stopping the run, so let it finish before worrying about a yellow line.

  5. If it goes wrong

    Every run is transcribed from the first line, whether it succeeds or not. If the script stops, it prints the failing line number and the path to the log.

    That is the file to send on. Nothing is uploaded anywhere on its own.

  6. Finish by hand

    The script prints this list when it is done. Reboot for drivers, sign in to Steam and Discord, make Chrome default (Windows 11 blocks scripting that), set up 1Password, then sign in to Claude and fully quit and reopen it so it picks up its file access.

    Then hand it over and say one sentence: open START HERE on the Desktop when anything goes wrong.

Switches

FlagEffect
-DryRunPrint everything, change nothing
-Preset fullAdds Firefox, HWiNFO, CPU-Z, VLC
-StreamingOBS, Chatterino, VoiceMeeter, ShareX, NVIDIA Broadcast
-VTuberImplies -Streaming; writes the commissioning guide
-ObsWebSocketFirewall rule on 4455 for a Stream Deck, Private profile only
-ClaudeDirsOverride which folders Claude may read and write
-SkipClaudeFsInstall Claude without filesystem access
-TailscaleAuthKeyJoin the tailnet unattended. Omitted, Tailscale installs but stays logged out
-SkipTweaksSoftware only — no registry, debloat, firewall or Defender changes

What it actually does

StageDetail
AppsSteam, Discord, Chrome, 1Password, Claude, Tailscale, 7-Zip, Node, runtimes. Streaming and VTuber sets on their flags
GPUDetects the vendor, installs the matching driver app, adds NVIDIA Broadcast when streaming on NVIDIA
TweaksGame Mode, high-performance power, file extensions visible, audio ducking off
DebloatCurated app removal behind a protect list, Game DVR off, widgets and taskbar tidy, Fast Startup off, telemetry to Required, OneDrive unlinked
DefenderPUA, network and cloud protection on. No third-party antivirus
FirewallVerifies all profiles block inbound, enables dropped-packet logging
ClaudeMCP filesystem server scoped to five folders. Never AppData wholesale
HandoverSTART HERE.html plus two diagnostic shortcuts on the Desktop, long-form reference in Documents

There is deliberately no one-line install-from-the-internet command here. Downloading a script, reading it, then running it is a habit worth keeping.