setup

This repository is a step-by-step setup guide for a .NET developer bootcamp called "Develop With Passion." Its purpose is to walk incoming students through installing and configuring all the software they need on their Windows machine before the course begins, so they can hit the ground running on day one.

The guide covers installing three main tools: Ruby, Git, and MingW (a toolkit that lets Windows computers run software typically built for Unix-based systems). It also walks through creating a GitHub account, setting up secure authentication keys so your computer can talk to GitHub without repeatedly typing passwords, and copying the course's starter code onto your machine. The instructions include specific folder paths to use and configuration files to edit, with screenshots showing exactly what each installation screen should look like.

The audience is developers attending this specific bootcamp, likely people who already have Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 Professional installed and have some familiarity with command-line tools. The instructions assume you are on Windows and take roughly 30 to 90 minutes to complete depending on your comfort level with command-line environments.

Beyond the main prerequisites, the guide also covers installing IIS Express 7.5 (a lightweight web server) and TestDriven.Net (a testing tool for Visual Studio). There is an optional section for people who want to replicate the instructor's full development environment, including automation scripts and shell customization.

The setup is notably prescriptive — every tool has a specific install location (like C:\utils\mingw or C:\utils\git) and the configuration files reference those exact paths. This means the whole environment is designed to be uniform across all students, which likely reduces troubleshooting during class but would require manual adjustments if you prefer different folder structures.