blog/content/post/make-powershell-fancier-with-windows-terminal.md

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Make Powershell Fancier With Windows Terminal	2020-03-22T11:33:38+05:30	2022-03-11T11:33:38+05:30	false	powershell windows-terminal		powershell windows terminal	windows		false	true	true	true	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	enable options false	enable options false

because why not

Install PowerShell Core

Or you can continue using PowerShell 5.1 if you wish.

From GitHub

Grab the installer from their releases page. Once downloaded, double-click the installer and follow the instructions.

Using Scoop

Enter the line in PowerShell:

scoop install pwsh

Instructions to install Scoop can be found at scoop.sh.

Using Chocolatey

Enter the line in elevated PowerShell:

choco install pwsh

Instructions to install Chocolatey can be found at chocolatey.org.

Install Windows Terminal

Get it from Store or from GitHub releases. I recommend getting it from Store as it can be updated automatically.

Or you can install via Chocolatey by entering

choco install microsoft-windows-terminal

Again, in elevated PowerShell.

If you are using Scoop then it would be

scoop install windows-terminal

The interesting part begins.

Next, open Windows Terminal. Once there, use the drop down arrow to open PowerShell Core.

{{% center %}} {{% figure src="/img/powershell/tab-menu.png" title="The shells listed depend on the shells installed on your computer." alt="A drop down list of shells, settings, feedback and about" %}} {{% /center %}}

As per the instructions here, install posh-git and oh-my-posh. It is assumed that you have git installed (you can use Chocolatey or Scoop if you wish).

Install-Module posh-git -Scope CurrentUser
Install-Module oh-my-posh -Scope CurrentUser

Next, get PSReadline

Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -AllowPrerelease -Scope CurrentUser -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

Now, add the folllowing lines to your $PROFILE by running vim $PROFILE. Please note that Notepad also works.

Import-Module posh-git
Import-Module oh-my-posh
Set-PoshPrompt ys

# Show navigable manu of all options on hitting Tab
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Tab -Function MenuComplete

# Autocompletion for arrow kets
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key UpArrow -Function HistorySearchBackward
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key DownArrow -Function HistorySeachForward

Line 3 sets theme. You can get a list of themes here.

Time to get a better font

Those boxes don't look quite nice.

Cascadia Code is my personal favourite. Download the fonts and change the font face to "Cascadia Code PL" in settings.json (it can be opened by pressing Ctrl+,, if you hadn't noticed already).

"fontFace": "Cascadia Code PL";

Or you can install other fonts that support PowerLine Glyphs from Nerd Fonts

Add a background

One of the fun things about Windows Terminal is that you can set backgrounds and opacity or apply acrylic blur, which will be covered in the next section.

Open settings.json and add the following lines

"backgrounfImage": "path/to/image",
"backgroundOpacity": 0.5,
"backgroundImageStretchMode": "fill",

Use acrylic

Remove the lines used to set the background and add the following lines

"useAcryllic": true,
"acryllicOpacity": 0.8,

Next Step

Enjoy. {{% center %}} {{% figure src="/img/powershell/final.png" title="Final result" alt="Screenshot of Windows Terminal after applying the previous steps" %}} {{% /center %}}