What Is Windows Terminal? How to Customize Windows Terminal?

Not many know, but Microsoft has introduced a new tool call Windows Terminal. Using this application, one can get done with command-link tasks pretty easily. Also, users can customize the command-line tool using themes, set different colors, and so on. So the question is, what is a Windows terminal? How to customize it?

Windows terminal was introduced with the Microsoft build 2010 to the release of 1.0 at Build 2020. The tool is mainly developed for the dev community. However, this application doesn’t come with the Windows 10 installation like CMD, or Windows PowerShell does.

Instead, you will need to download it by going to the Microsoft store. And yes, it is absolutely free to download and use. The software is now part of Windows 11 and can be installed separately for Windows 10.

What is Windows Terminal?

Windows Terminal is a modern terminal application that comes with tons of features. In other words, you can say that it is an upgraded version of the command-line tools like Command Prompt, Windows Powershell, or Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, support for Unicode and UTF-8 character. Also, it is a GPU accelerated text rendering engine. Plus, it offers you the ability to create your own themes and customize text, colors, backgrounds, and shortcuts.

Key Features:

• Multiple tabs
• Full Unicode support
• GPU-accelerated text rendering
• Full customizability
• Split panes

How to Customize Windows Terminal?

There are multiple ways to customize Windows Terminal. For instance, you can change the background, change default key bindings, or default color schemes. However, in this article, I will be talking about these customization abilities of the Windows terminal:

1. Change Windows Terminal background.
2. Change color schemes and fonts.
3. Key Bindings
4. Create A New Profile
5. Enable the transparent background

1] Change Windows Terminal Background

Changing the background of Windows Terminal background is extremely easy. It comes with an option that lets you select an image for the terminal background. To access the option, do follow these steps:

1. At first, launch Windows Terminal on your system.
2. Then click on the down arrow icon and select settings.
3. Now from the sidebar, select Windows Powershell located under Profiles.
4. Then click on the Appearance tab and scroll down to the background image section.
5. Over here, use the Browse option to select the image that you wish to use as your background.
6. Finally, click on Save to make the changes.

2] Change Color Schemes and Fonts

Apart from the terminal background, you can also select your own color schemes using hexadecimal strings. Or using the GUI option in the Windows Terminal. For this, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Launch Windows Terminal and go to settings.
2. Then from the sidebar, select Color schemes.
3. Now you can use the dropdown menu to select any of the built-in color schemes. Or you can create your own by selecting the Add New button.
4. To create your own background, cursor colors, and other things, you will need to click on the respective boxes under the color schemes Window, and you are good to go.
5. Next, go to Windows Powershell from the sidebar and click on the Appearance tab.
6. Then use the dropdown menu to select the color scheme you have just created and save the changes.
7. Similarly, you can also select font face, font size and weight, cursor type, and other settings.

3] Key Bindings

Lastly, there are the Key Bindings. Using Key Bindings, you will be able to perform certain actions using keyboard shortcuts.

It allows you to create custom actions inside Windows Terminal. So you can get full control of how you interact with the terminal.

You can assign key bindings or create shortcuts using commands. For example:

{ "command": "commandName", "keys": "modifiers+key" }

Over here, the “commandName” represents the command you want to execute, and “modifiers+key” represents the value of the shortcut.

So the command would look like this:

{ "command": "closeWindow", "keys": "alt+f4" }

To enter these commands, you will need to go to Windows Terminal settings. Then click on the open JSON file from the left bottom corner.

Then look for the “actions” section in the JSON file, and below that, you will need to create your commands.

Also, to create commands, I would recommend you reading the custom actions in the Windows Terminal guide by Microsoft.

4] Create A New Profile

You can also create a new profile in Windows Terminal with your preferred settings. For this, you will need to follow the below steps:

1. Launch Windows Terminal and go to settings.
2. Click on the Add New button under profiles from the sidebar menu.
3. Then give your new profile name, choose a command-line tool, select an icon, change the appearance according to your preference, and save the changes.
4. To make your new profile the default one, click on Startup and use the dropdown menu to select the profile you have created.

5] Enable the transparent background

Apart from replacing the background with an image, you can also add a transparent background in Windows Terminal. For this, follow the below steps:

1. Launch Windows terminal and launch settings.
2. Then from the profiles, select your preferred profile and click on Appearance.
3. Then scroll down and toggle on the Acrylic option and use the Acrylic opacity to adjust transparency volume.
4. Finally, click on save to make the changes.+

6] Quickly Open Quake Mode

When using Quake Mode, you can dismiss the window, but instead of closing, the application remains inside the System tray. You can bring it back using Win+`

7] Add New Keyboard Shortcuts

You can add your own keyboard shortcuts while keeping the ones that come as default. You can create these new ones by going to Windows Terminal settings and then customize the tool and make it truly yours. Go to Actions, and then click on the New button. Add a name and the keyboard bindings, and finally save it.

So that was all about the Windows terminal and how to customize it. I would recommend you check out the Windows Terminal settings, and from there, you will find many opportunities that will help you customize the tool and make it truly yours.