Windows Terminal – Setup and Tips

Windows Terminal is Microsoft’s modern terminal application — tabbed, customizable, and able to run PowerShell, CMD, WSL (Linux), and SSH sessions side by side. It replaces the old individual windows for each shell and is the best terminal experience available on Windows.

Installation

Windows Terminal comes pre-installed on Windows 11. On Windows 10, install it:

winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal

Or from the Microsoft Store — search for “Windows Terminal”.

First launch

Open Windows Terminal from:

• Start menu: Search “Terminal”
• Right-click Desktop → “Open in Terminal”
• Right-click a folder → “Open in Terminal” (opens in that folder)
• Keyboard: Win+X → “Terminal” or “Terminal (Admin)”

The default profile is PowerShell. The dropdown arrow next to the + tab shows all available profiles.

Key keyboard shortcuts

Settings overview

Open Settings with CTRL+, or through the dropdown menu. Settings has two modes:

• GUI settings — click-based configuration
• settings.json — full JSON configuration (click “Open JSON file” in the bottom left)

Most customization is easiest done in the JSON file.

Profiles

Each profile in Windows Terminal is a separate shell configuration. Common profiles:

• Windows PowerShell — built-in PowerShell 5.1
• PowerShell — PowerShell 7+ (if installed)
• Command Prompt — classic CMD
• Ubuntu or other WSL distributions (added automatically when WSL is installed)

Setting a default profile

In Settings → Startup → Default profile, select PowerShell 7 if installed:

"defaultProfile": "{your-powershell-7-guid}"

Or in the GUI: Settings → Startup → Default profile → select from dropdown.

Customizing profiles

In settings.json, each profile looks like:

{
    "profiles": {
        "defaults": {
            "font": {
                "face": "CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font",
                "size": 12
            },
            "opacity": 95,
            "useAcrylic": true
        },
        "list": [
            {
                "name": "PowerShell",
                "source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore",
                "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%",
                "icon": "ms-appx:///ProfileIcons/pwsh.png"
            },
            {
                "name": "Ubuntu",
                "source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
                "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/home/patrik",
                "colorScheme": "One Half Dark"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Fonts — install a Nerd Font

For best results with Oh My Posh or other prompt themes, install a Nerd Font:

1. Download CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font from nerdfonts.com
2. Extract and install the .ttf files (right-click → Install for all users)
3. Set in Windows Terminal: Settings → Profiles → Appearance → Font face

Or via PowerShell:

# Install Oh My Posh (includes font management)
winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh

# Install CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font
oh-my-posh font install CaskaydiaCove

Color schemes

Windows Terminal includes built-in color schemes. Change them in Settings → Profiles → Appearance → Color scheme.

Popular built-in schemes:

• One Half Dark — clean dark theme
• Campbell — classic Windows Terminal default
• Tango Dark — similar to classic Linux terminals
• Solarized Dark — popular developer theme

Add a custom scheme in settings.json:

"schemes": [
    {
        "name": "MyScheme",
        "background": "#1E1E2E",
        "foreground": "#CDD6F4",
        "black": "#45475A",
        "red": "#F38BA8",
        "green": "#A6E3A1",
        "yellow": "#F9E2AF",
        "blue": "#89B4FA",
        "purple": "#CBA6F7",
        "cyan": "#94E2D5",
        "white": "#BAC2DE"
    }
]

Oh My Posh — a better prompt

Oh My Posh adds a rich, informative prompt to PowerShell — showing git branch, exit codes, execution time, and more.

# Install
winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh

# Add to your PowerShell profile
notepad $PROFILE

Add this line:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\jandedobbeleer.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

Browse themes:

Get-PoshThemes

Pick one and update the config path:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\catppuccin_mocha.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

Useful settings.json tweaks

{
    "initialCols": 120,
    "initialRows": 30,
    "copyOnSelect": true,
    "profiles": {
        "defaults": {
            "bellStyle": "none",
            "scrollbarState": "hidden",
            "historySize": 9001
        }
    },
    "actions": [
        {
            "command": "unbound",
            "keys": "ctrl+shift+w"
        },
        {
            "command": {
                "action": "splitPane",
                "split": "auto"
            },
            "keys": "alt+shift+d"
        }
    ]
}

Running as Administrator

Some commands require admin privileges. Options:

1. Right-click Windows Terminal in Start → “Run as administrator”
2. CTRL+SHIFT+click on a profile in the tab dropdown
3. Add an admin profile to settings:

{
    "name": "PowerShell (Admin)",
    "commandline": "pwsh.exe -NoExit -Command Start-Process pwsh -Verb RunAs",
    "icon": "ms-appx:///ProfileIcons/pwsh.png"
}

SSH sessions as profiles

Add SSH connections as named profiles in Windows Terminal:

{
    "name": "Proxmox",
    "commandline": "ssh root@192.168.1.10",
    "icon": "🖥️",
    "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%"
}

Now open a Proxmox SSH session directly from the profile dropdown — no need to type the SSH command each time.

Related guides

• PowerShell – Getting Started — start with PowerShell basics
• Install WSL2 and Kali Linux on Windows 11 — run Linux in Windows Terminal
• SSH to Windows – Remote Access — SSH into Windows from other machines
• Essential CMD Commands — CMD reference alongside PowerShell