Automate Sitecore dev env setup with Sitecore.HabitatHome.Utilities

Having worked with Sitecore for more than 10 years, I always embraced automation in QA/Production deployments as well as development environments. Most of the projects had a nice little README that started with:

1. Make sure you have Sitecore X.Y Update Z installed
2. Install module X version Z and module Y on top of it
3. Run ".\deployDevevelopmentEnvironment.ps1"

At some projects the instruction would assume that you have Sitecore and modules .zip packages in a specific location and unpack / use them by default.

It worked well for back-end developers, people with strong Sitecore experience, but caused lots of issues for newcomers and front-end developers. In fact, the latter usually hated this process and asked colleagues to help them out every time they screwed up their development environment.

I wish I had known that https://github.com/Sitecore/Sitecore.HabitatHome.Utilities existed. It removes the most annoying part of the process - downloading Sitecore packages and making sure that all the modules are installed correctly.

This amazing tool set will:
1. Download all packages from https://dev.sitecore.net
2. Install Sitecore and specified modules (like JSS, etc.)

I could write a detailed instruction on how to use Sitecore.HabitatHome.Utilities, but it already has comprehensive configuration guide.

If the problems mentioned in this blog post sound familiar to you (and you're not quite ready to switch to Docker) - I suggest that you give it a try and let computers do the work!