Windows Terminal Tips, Tricks, and Productivity Hacks: Optimize your command-line usage and development processes with these pro-level techniques

254 Pages·2021·11.363 MB·English

by  Will Fuqua

Windows Terminal
Tips, Tricks, and
Productivity Hacks
Optimize your command-line usage and
development processes with pro-level techniques
Will Fuqua
BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI
Windows Terminal Tips, Tricks, and
Productivity Hacks
Copyright © 2021 Packt Publishing
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First published: April 2021
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ISBN 978-1-80020-756-1
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To my kind and loving wife, Koi, who showed the utmost patience during
the writing of this book.
– Will
Foreword
Whether you are building a web app or working in the cloud, the command line has
always been an integral tool for software developers and IT admins alike. For many years,
the Windows command-line experience lagged behind that of Unix-based systems. Even
simple things, such as selecting and copying text, required you to jump through hoops.
In the 2010s, Microsoft began to improve the command-line experience with Windows
Subsystem for Linux (WSL), PowerShell improvements, and a command-line interface.
WSL provided a first-party solution to running a Linux environment on your Windows
device. PowerShell continued to receive incremental improvements to surpass the
usability of CMD. The Windows Package Manager released a command-line interface
as a first-party solution to install software on your machine. Even with all of these
command-line tools, Windows lacked a solid terminal to host them in and Microsoft
quickly realized how difficult it was to make improvements without breaking certain
legacy behavior.
In 2019, Microsoft introduced the Windows Terminal, a new unified experience for
hosting command-line tools. To make things better, Windows Terminal was open sourced
alongside the in-box console host experience with which Windows command-line users
were already familiar. It put customizability first, with a profile-based settings model
and key bindings. Furthermore, a rapid release cycle helped to collect and address user
feedback swiftly.
This book does a fantastic job of teaching you how to set up Windows Terminal and
make it your own. You will learn how to create and manage your profiles to get the most
out of your terminal and customize your actions and key bindings to be an effective user.
Even better, you will learn how to get started using the terminal more often in day-to-day
activities. The author teaches you how to use PowerShell and bash and how to customize
them for your needs. The book will also teach you how to apply these tools to build apps,
manage remote systems, and interact with the cloud.
Carlos Zamora
Software Engineer on Windows Terminal at Microsoft
Contributors
About the author
Will Fuqua has been developing software professionally for 12 years using a wide range
of technologies. Initially based in the United States as a software consultant, he developed
production systems for companies in the healthcare and finance industries, among many
others. He then moved abroad and is now the Head of Engineering for an online travel
agency, where he leads a high-powered technology team out of Bangkok, Thailand. You
can find him online at https://fuqua.io/.
About the reviewers
Chester Liu is an open source enthusiast living in China. He got his first job as an iOS
developer in 2016, after he graduated from college. During his professional career, he
has worked on various platforms and in different areas. He is a long-time member of the
GitHub community and has been contributing to the Windows Terminal project since
2019, after the project was open sourced by Microsoft. His contribution to the project
falls into different areas, including, but not limited to, rendering, performance, and
VT support.
I'd like to thank the core team of the Console subsystem at Microsoft, who
I'm glad to have made acquaintance with through our collaboration in the
Windows Terminal project. They went through the trouble of convincing
the management to open source a deep OS component of the Windows OS
itself, just to bring the community a thrilling console experience. At the end
of the day, the members of the console team are the ones who dived into
the legacy console source code and have been trying to improve the console
experience on Windows for the past several years. Dustin L. Howett, the
tech leader of the console team, is one of the coolest tech leaders I know, and
I'm truly honored to be a member of his "external" team.
Daniel Engberg is a principal consultant and partner at Agdiwo, an IT services company
based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Daniel's focus is Microsoft enterprise client management,
including Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly System Center
Configuration Manager), Windows 10, and PowerShell.
Daniel has been writing on his blog since 2010 and is active on Twitter.
Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1:
Introducing the New Windows Terminal
1
Getting started with the new Windows Terminal
Technical requirements   4 Open source development   10
Why a new terminal?   4
Installing Windows Terminal   11
The modern foundations of
Launching Windows Terminal   12
Windows Terminal   5
Summary   14
A Modern UI   6
Further reading   15
Flexible JSON-based customization   9
2
Learning the Windows Terminal UI
Technical requirements   18 Using the command palette   24
Using the terminal tabs   18 Keyboard shortcuts review   26
Editing tab title appearance   20 Summary   28
Further reading   28
Using terminal panes   20
Managing terminal output   22
ii Table of Contents
3
Configuring an Ubuntu Linux profile
Technical requirements   30 Installing Linux applications:
Why use the Windows nginx   34
Subsystem for Linux?   30 Starting nginx   35
Installing Ubuntu Linux   31
Bidirectional access in Windows
Step 1: Install WSL2   32 and Ubuntu   36
Step 2: Install Ubuntu   32
Summary   38
Launching Linux   33
Section 2:
Configuring your Windows Terminal and
its shells
4
Customizing your Windows Terminal settings
Technical requirements   42 Custom command-line profiles   49
Introducing the settings.json file   42 Git Bash shell   49
Recovering from bad settings   44 SSH shell   50
C# interactive shell   51
The settings file structure   44
Node.js interactive shell   52
Useful Global Settings   46 Vim terminal shell   53
Useful profile settings   47
Summary   54
5
Changing your Windows Terminal appearance
Technical requirements   56 Background images and
Terminal color schemes   56 translucency   60
Customizing PowerShell with
Built-in color schemes   56
posh-git, oh-my-posh, and
Community-driven color schemes   58
PSReadLine   63
Writing your own theme   59
Oh-my-posh version 2   64
Table of Contents iii
Oh-my-posh version 3   65 WSL2 customization with oh-
Changing the prompt without oh-my- my-zsh   70
posh   66 Command Prompt
Changing command colors with customization   71
PSReadline   68
Summary   74
6
Setting up keyboard shortcuts
Technical requirements   76 Configuring custom terminal
Overview of the keyboard layouts with "wt"   80
shortcut system   76 Additional uses of 'wt'   82
Building custom commands
Summary   84
with "sendInput"   78
7
Hidden Windows Terminal Actions
Technical requirements   86 setColorScheme   92
Discovering unbound actions   86 toggleShaderEffects   92
Using actions for focus Using actions for tab
management   88 manipulation   93
togglePaneZoom   89 Closing multiple tabs at once   93
toggleAlwaysOnTop   90 Changing tab colors   94
toggleFocusMode   91
Summary   94
Using actions for visual effects   91
8
Tips for using PowerShell like a Pro
Technical requirements   96 The ii command   100
Installing PowerShell Core   96 History navigation with h and r   100
Pipelines and $_   101
Using built-in commands and
Custom Profile Aliases and Functions   102
aliases   98
Automatic Variable: $^ and $$   98 Configuring PSReadLine in
cd - and cd +   99 PowerShell Core   103