Every VP of Engineering, Director, CTO, or CIO knows the frustration and cost associated with slow, inconsistent onboarding. The time lost setting up new hires isn't just about the hours; it's the critical momentum and morale that can suffer during the initial days.

At our organization, we've dramatically streamlined this onboarding process—turning days of setup into just a few hours using a strategic combination of modern Microsoft tools. Here's how we did it:

Standardize Setup with Winget

Winget, Microsoft's package manager, simplifies installing and updating development environments. Rather than manually hunting for installation files and configurations, we define a straightforward configuration file (winget config) that automatically provisions every new engineer's machine with:

IDEs (e.g., Visual Studio, VS Code)
SDKs and runtimes (.NET, Node.js, Python)
Database tools
Essential productivity utilities

With one command, a new machine replicates the development environment precisely, ensuring consistency and minimizing setup errors.

Streamlined Configuration with Visual Studio Export/Import

Visual Studio has a powerful yet underused capability: configuration exporting and importing. By standardizing and exporting a proven IDE setup, we:

Eliminate hours of manual tweaking for toolbars, settings, debugging preferences, and extensions.
Provide a comfortable, predictable environment immediately available to new hires, allowing them to focus on coding and understanding the application logic.

.NET Aspire: Rapid Development Environment Setup

The introduction of .NET Aspire has revolutionized rapid, containerized development setups, enabling quick environment replication and isolation. By leveraging Aspire:

New developers spin up complete, working local environments, including databases and backend services, with a single command.
Troubleshooting environmental differences is virtually eliminated, promoting immediate productivity.

Real Results: From Laptop to Productive in Hours

Recently, we onboarded an engineer who, within four hours of receiving their new laptop, successfully built and ran our primary application. Previously, this setup process required 1-2 full days and substantial assistance from senior developers. Now, experienced engineers can focus on mentorship related to business logic rather than setup minutiae.

Why It Matters

Speeding up and standardizing technical onboarding:

Maximizes productivity quickly, allowing new hires to contribute and learn the actual business context faster.
Frees senior engineering talent from routine onboarding tasks, enhancing team productivity and morale.
Establishes a culture of efficiency and consistency right from the start.

Leveraging Winget, Visual Studio's configuration exporting, and .NET Aspire isn't just good technology practice; it's strategic business practice. By removing the friction from technical onboarding, organizations can unlock faster growth, higher productivity, and enhanced job satisfaction for their entire engineering team.

Efficient Onboarding: Accelerating New Engineer Productivity - By Russ Harding