PowerToys/doc/devdocs/core/settings/dsc-configure.md

What is it

We would like to enable our users to use winget configure command to install PowerToys and configure its settings with a Winget configuration file. For example:

properties:
  resources:
    - resource: Microsoft.WinGet.DSC/WinGetPackage
      directives:
        description: Install PowerToys
        allowPrerelease: true
      settings:
        id: PowerToys (Preview)
        source: winget

    - resource: PowerToysConfigure
      directives:
        description: Configure PowerToys
      settings:
        ShortcutGuide:
          Enabled: false
          OverlayOpacity: 1
        FancyZones:
          Enabled: true
          FancyzonesEditorHotkey: "Shift+Ctrl+Alt+F"
  configurationVersion: 0.2.0

This should install PowerToys and make PowerToysConfigure resource available. We can use it in the same file.

How it works

PowerToysConfigure is a class-based DSC resource. It looks up whether each setting was specified or not by checking whether it's $null or 0 for enums and invokes PowerToys.Settings.exe with the updated value like so:

PowerToys.Settings.exe set <ModuleName>.<SettingName> <SettingValue>

So for the example the config above should perform 3 following invocations:

PowerToys.Settings.exe set ShortcutGuide.Enabled false
PowerToys.Settings.exe set FancyZones.Enabled true
PowerToys.Settings.exe set FancyZones.FancyzonesEditorHotkey "Shift+Ctrl+Alt+F"

PowerToys.Settings uses dotnet reflection capabilities to determine SettingName type and tries to convert the supplied SettingValue string accordingly. We use ICmdReprParsable for custom setting types.

How DSC is implemented

We use PowerToys.Settings.DSC.Schema.Generator to generate the bulk of PowerToysConfigure.psm1 and PowerToysConfigure.psd1 files. It also uses dotnet reflection capabilities to inspect PowerToys.Settings.UI.Lib.dll assembly and generate properties for the modules we have. The actual generation is done as a PowerToys.Settings.DSC.Schema.Generator.csproj post-build action.

Debugging DSC resources

First, make sure that PowerShell 7.4+ is installed. Then make sure that you have DSC installed:

Install-Module -Name PSDesiredStateConfiguration -RequiredVersion 2.0.7

After that, start a new pwsh session and cd to src\dsc\Microsoft.PowerToys.Configure\Generated directory. From there, you should execute:

$env:PSModulePath += ";$pwd"

You should have the generated Microsoft.PowerToys.Configure.psm1 and Microsoft.PowerToys.Configure.psd1 files inside the src\dsc\Microsoft.PowerToys.Configure\Generated\Microsoft.PowerToys.Configure\0.0.1\ folder.

This will allow DSC to discover our DSC Resource module. See PSModulePath for more info.

If everything works, you should see that your module is discovered by executing the following command:

Get-Module -ListAvailable | grep PowerToys

The resource itself should also be available:

Get-DSCResource | grep PowerToys

Otherwise, you can force-import the module to diagnose issues:

Import-Module .\Microsoft.PowerToys.Configure.psd1 

If it's imported successfully, you could also try to invoke it directly:

Invoke-DscResource -Name PowerToysConfigure -Method Set -ModuleName Microsoft.PowerToys.Configure -Property @{ Debug = $true; Awake = @{ Enabled = $false; Mode = "TIMED"; IntervalMinutes = "10" } }

Note that we've supplied Debug option, so a %TEMP\PowerToys.DSC.TestConfigure.txt is created with the supplied properties, a current timestamp, and other debug output.

Finally, you can test it with winget by invoking it as such:

winget configure .\configuration.winget --accept-configuration-agreements --disable-interactivity