Book Image

Windows Terminal Tips, Tricks, and Productivity Hacks

By : Will Fuqua
5 (1)
Book Image

Windows Terminal Tips, Tricks, and Productivity Hacks

5 (1)
By: Will Fuqua

Overview of this book

Windows Terminal is a new and open-source command-line application for Windows 10, built for the Command Prompt, PowerShell, Windows Subsystem for Linux, and more. It's fast, modern, and configurable thanks to its GPU-accelerated rendering, excellent UTF-8 support, and JSON-based configurability, and this book can help you learn how to leverage these features. You’ll start by learning the benefits of Windows Terminal and its open-source development, as well as how to use the built-in tabs, panes, and key bindings to build your own efficient terminal workflows. After you’ve mastered Windows Terminal, this book shows how to use and configure PowerShell Core and the Windows Subsystem for Linux within Windows Terminal. You’ll maximize your productivity using powerful tools such as PSReadLine for PowerShell and ZSH on Linux, and discover useful tips and tricks for common developer tools like Git and SSH. Finally, you’ll see how Windows Terminal can be used in common development and DevOps tasks, such as developing frontend JavaScript applications and backend REST APIs, and managing cloud-based systems like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. By the end of this book, you'll not only be well-versed with Windows Terminal, but also have learned how to effectively use shells like PowerShell Core and ZSH to become proficient at the command line.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introducing the New Windows Terminal
5
Section 2: Configuring your Windows Terminal and its shells
12
Section 3: Using your Windows Terminal for development

Installing Windows Terminal

There are several ways to get the new Windows Terminal. The easiest and recommended way is to install it from the Microsoft Store. The Microsoft Store is part of Windows 10 and will ensure we have a seamless installation experience. Updates to Windows Terminal are also delivered through the Microsoft Store.

Figure 1.12 – The Windows Terminal available in the Microsoft Store

Figure 1.12 – The Windows Terminal available in the Microsoft Store

  1. From the Windows Start menu, search for the Microsoft Store and open it.
  2. From inside the Microsoft Store, search for Windows Terminal.
  3. Select Windows Terminal and then click Get.
  4. Wait for Windows Terminal to download and install.
  5. Optionally, inside the Microsoft Store app, enable automatic updates by going to Settings and select Update apps automatically.

While this is the best way to both install the new Windows Terminal and ensure it stays up to date, there are several other ways to install Windows Terminal that might better fit certain automation scenarios:

  • Using the command-line winget installer:
    winget install --id=Microsoft.WindowsTerminal -e
  • Using the command-line chocolatey installer (unofficial):
    choco install microsoft-windows-terminal
  • Advanced users can download a pre-built release from GitHub, located at https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases. Install the Desktop Bridge VC++ v14 Redistributable Package as a dependency first.
  • Advanced users may also be interested in the Windows Terminal Preview application from the Microsoft Store, which can be installed alongside the Windows Terminal application. Windows Terminal Preview provides access to the latest features, though there may be some stability issues.

Now that we have Windows Terminal installed, let's start it up!