Install Oh my ZSH on Windows without WSL

This is going to a really simple post on Installing ZSH on Windows.
And I'm going to assume you already have Windows Terminal Installed, along with Git SCM

But for some reason I feel GitBash + ZSH seems to be really smooth experience on installing plugins. Specially the auto spelling corrections :P

Preview

Start here :

Download Latest ZSH tar file

https://packages.msys2.org/package/zsh?repo=msys&variant=x86_64

Optional Install PeaZip on Windows (to open TAR file)

https://peazip.github.io/
winget install -e --id GiorgioTani.PeaZip

CD to C:\Program Files\Git

• extract all contents of zsh ..tar file to this folder

Now open GIT Bash CD to C:\Program Files\Git and type: zsh

• in side terminal type: zsh

Create config files

autoload -U zsh-newuser-install
zsh-newuser-install -f

Finally open notepad ~/.bashrc

• Add to the top of the file

if [ -t 1 ]; then
  exec zsh
fi

Install Plugins

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-completions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-${ZSH:-~/.oh-my-zsh}/custom}/plugins/zsh-completions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-${ZSH:-~/.oh-my-zsh}/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-${ZSH:-~/.oh-my-zsh}/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

• Now open notepad ~/.zshrc
• And Add plugins under this section # Which plugins would you like to load?

plugins=(git lighthouse zsh-completions zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting)

ps. You can even use Oh-my-posh with Terminal 7.xx + on windows.

Comments

[Sall]

Nice! I am wondering, how compatible ZI would be, as it would give developers huge freedom. Technically it should work, however it may require some adjustments. I would help ti make i happen. 🧙‍‍♀️ 💫

[Ajinkya Borade]

Hi, I went through the installation, it looks possible. But I quite didnt understand its real use.

[Sall]

It can install anything from anythere, and setup terminal (Zsh) whatever you like it is not framework specific and can do same as all other plugin managers all together. Yoy can as ‘tiny OS’ or as package manager for your system it limited to Zsh scripting language capabilities and Zsh is very powerful scripting language specifically for interactive usage. Alsi it will update, measure, test, compare or whatever whatever you will set it todo, like setting up 50 different themes/prompts which enables automatically based in conditions like: current location , OS or whatever other varable you set. Reading Wiki would give better idea. However I am unsure how compatible it is with Windows, also has fixes related ti other shell language (more in wiki) and Zsh pretty well emulates them as far as I tried. Hope Gave an Idea ;)

[Quang Hưng Nguyễn]

Nice!