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Anup Aglawe
Anup Aglawe

Posted on • Edited on

Windows Terminal Themes Beautify your Windows Terminal ๐Ÿฆ„

#productivity #tutorial #design #showdev

Edit - โš ๏ธ With the newer version of oh-my-posh, and significant changes from V2, this article is outdated. Note that this will still work perfectly fine with V2 of oh-my-posh.

The Windows Terminal is a modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL.

Terminal

Lets start with windows Terminal installation -

  • Install the Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store. This allows you to always be on the latest version when we release new builds with automatic upgrades.
    • Alternative Way (Via Chocolately) - choco install microsoft-windows-terminal

Next Step is to modify Windows Terminal settings.

Fire up your installed windows terminal, and open up its settings, which will open settings.json in your default editor.

  1. Under profiles list update the powershell profile to -


 {
       // Make changes here to the powershell.exe profile.
       "guid": "{61c54bbd-c2c6-5271-96e7-009a87ff44bf}",
       "name": "Linnea",
       "commandline": "powershell.exe -NoLogo -NoExit",
       "hidden": false,
       "colorScheme": "Blue Matrix",
       "fontFace": "Cascadia Code PL",
       "fontSize": 10,
       "icon": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
       "backgroundImage": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
       "backgroundImageOpacity": 0.2,
       "acrylicOpacity": 0.8,
       "useAcrylic": true,
       "startingDirectory": "Q:\\Development"
 },
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Properties - name-[ Appears as title in top bar ]
acrylicOpacity-[ its just the opacity of window ]
useAcrylic-[ to use acrylicOpacity it must be true]
icon-[ appears as favicon to window ]

(Note 1- make sure to update icon and background image to your personal liking)
(Note 2- make sure to that your defaultProfile has the guid of your powershell)

  1. Next step is to update our schemes list -

    

 "schemes": [
    {
        "name": "Blue Matrix",
        "black": "#101116",
        "red": "#ff5680",
        "green": "#00ff9c",
        "yellow": "#fffc58",
        "blue": "#00b0ff",
        "purple": "#d57bff",
        "cyan": "#76c1ff",
        "white": "#c7c7c7",
        "brightBlack": "#686868",
        "brightRed": "#ff6e67",
        "brightGreen": "#5ffa68",
        "brightYellow": "#fffc67",
        "brightBlue": "#6871ff",
        "brightPurple": "#d682ec",
        "brightCyan": "#60fdff",
        "brightWhite": "#ffffff",
        "background": "#1d2342",
        "foreground": "#b8ffe1"
    }
],

More themes at - [atomcorp.github.io/themes/](https://atomcorp.github.io/themes/)

That's pretty much for the windows Terminal Settings , lets move to add some cool plugins ๐Ÿ”ฅ.

---

### PowerLine Setup โšก
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/73e98cxinv28jywdxrhb.png)

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/8uejzmvkxrwkxevxohk4.png)

Edit - โš ๏ธ With the newer version of oh-my-posh, and significant changes from V2. this article needs update. Note that this will still work perfectly fine with V2 of oh-my-posh.

 Prerequisites - 
 - Install [Cascadia code PL](https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code/releases) font. (Otherwise you might some gibberish on your terminal )
 - [Git](https://git-scm.com/downloads) for windows
 - Install Posh-git and Oh-my-posh  ( use powershell )
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Install-Module posh-git -Scope CurrentUser
Install-Module oh-my-posh -Scope CurrentUser

---

####  Customize your PowerShell prompt ๐Ÿ”จ
 - Open your PowerShell profile with `notepad $PROFILE` or the text editor of your choice. This is not your Windows Terminal profile. Your PowerShell profile is a script that runs every time PowerShell starts.
 -  If your powershell doesn't already have a profile, create one ->
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if (!(Test-Path -Path $PROFILE)) { New-Item -ItemType File -Path ROFILE -Force }
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- Now go ahead and add the following code to your powershell profile -
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Import-Module posh-git
Import-Module oh-my-posh
Set-Theme Paradox

More themes at - [ oh-my-posh themes](https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh#themes)

( โš ๏ธ  if your powershell gives module not found error ) add the following code with default module location, to the top of your Powershell Profile.
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$env:PSModulePath = $env:PSModulePath + "$([System.IO.Path]::PathSeparator)C:\Users\xxxx\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules"

Still facing error - Visit [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_profiles?view=powershell-7](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_profiles?view=powershell-7)


---
### Modifying Oh-my-posh theme ( ๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿš€ Emojis )

![Emojis](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/eqttvii2l25877p2vytv.png)

---
Remember we set our default oh-my-posh theme to paradox, lets head over to customize it.

- Navigate to your PSmodules directory, then into oh-my-posh themes directory 
    - `Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\oh-my-posh\2.0.412\Themes`

- Open Paradox file, scroll down to the bottom and update following lines -
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$sl.PromptSymbols.StartSymbol = [char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x01F984) + [char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x0001F525) + ' '
$sl.PromptSymbols.PromptIndicator = [char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x01F680) +[char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x276F)

*(This lines will add cool emojis just before your StartSymbol & PromptIndicator)*

---

### Adding custom banner to your Powershell ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/uwpi5z246kgy9ubu9i4a.png)
This is quite tedious task if you want to add complex images in the banner.
( There is easier way [Neofetch for windows](https://github.com/dylanaraps/neofetch), but it comes with its own lag overhead whenever you open your windows terminal )

- *Tedious but way less overhead* Method
    -  Change your powershell file to add your custom ascii art. 
    -  In my case, I changed my Profile Image to Ascii Art via [https://www.topster.net/ascii-generator/](https://www.topster.net/ascii-generator/).
    - Next problem is color support, by default powershell doesn't allow you to write multipler colored text on a single line.
    -  ( You could proceed without this ) If want the above function install Write color module.
    `Install-Module -Name PSWriteColor`
    - Now just below your $psenvmodule path add the following lines to display your customized banner .
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Write-Color -Text " /@ " -Color Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @(","@ " -Color Blue,Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @@/"," @* " -Color Blue, Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @#/"," @@* " -Color Blue, Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @@(/"," @@,, " -Color Blue, Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @%(/ @@","@@@@@@","@@@@ " -Color Blue, DarkCyan, Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @@#","#"," " -Color Blue, DarkCyan, Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @@##","#(((/","///",",,,,,@ " -Color Blue, DarkBlue, DarkCyan, Cyan
Write-Color -Text " @@%%#","##(((/","///","****,,,,,,@ " -Color Blue, DarkBlue, DarkCyan, Cyan
Write-Color -Text "@@@@@W","@@@@@@","@@@@@@","@@@@@@@@@@@ " -Color Blue, DarkBlue, DarkCyan, Cyan
Write-Color -Text " "


*(Note - the number of colors you can choose from is somewhat limited: Black, DarkBlue, DarkGreen, DarkCyan, DarkRed, DarkMagenta, DarkYellow, Gray, DarkGray, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, and White )*

Edit 1. - Your Powershell Profile should look like this - [ pastebin.com/JAX3Ce23](pastebin.com/JAX3Ce23)

Edit 2. - Background Image source - [facets.la](facets.la)

Edit 3. - With the new version of oh-my-posh, few commands (ex- set-theme ) have been depreciated. I'm planning to update the article with the specifics, till then use their documentation for updated syntax - [Repo Link](https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh)


----

## Credits

- [Windows Terminal Community โค](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal) 
- [https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh](https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh)
- [https://github.com/dahlbyk/posh-git](https://github.com/dahlbyk/posh-git)
- [https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteColor](https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteColor)
- [https://github.com/atomcorp/themes](https://github.com/atomcorp/themes)
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Latest comments (54)

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hongducdev profile image
Nguyแป…n Hแป“ng ฤแปฉc •

Is it possible to modify the Oh-my-posh theme in 2023?

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notblong profile image
Bao Long •

Hi, for anyone have issue with "Set-Theme Paradox"
The term 'Set-Theme' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

see it here: github.com/microsoft/terminal/issu...

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gdariodh profile image
Gabriel Dรญaz •

I love it the post but i couldn't set the emojis in the prompt, i have only themes :(

i have problem to set the paradox theme config emoji, because the file is a json and mark syntaxis error, is there someone that help me to set emoji in the prompt terminal?

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anupa profile image
Anup Aglawe • • Edited

My guess would be that updated version of oh-my-posh is cause of the problem.
As someone reported, they have depreciated set-theme command in the latest version. You could read their docs for newer syntax - github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh

Anyways, Were you able to locate and edit oh-my-posh theme configuration file to add emojis as start symbol?

Did you add the following lines in paradox theme file?
'
$sl.PromptSymbols.StartSymbol = [char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x01F984) + [char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x0001F525) + ' '
$sl.PromptSymbols.PromptIndicator = [char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x01F680) +[char]::ConvertFromUtf32(0x276F)

'

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anupa profile image
Anup Aglawe •

Looked at their documentation, transition from V2 to v3 of oh-my-posh is quite significant.

It would take some time for me to update the article.

Thread Thread
 
gdariodh profile image
Gabriel Dรญaz •

i think same, i have the "3.147.0 oh-my-posh", i tried to follow lines in paradox theme file but the json gave me syntax error :(. Could be the file to set emojis have changed

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gdariodh profile image
Gabriel Dรญaz • • Edited

That's paradox json screenshot

dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

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shivamchandra75 profile image
shivamchandra75 •

I am having the same error please share if you get the solution

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edarioq profile image
Edgar Quintero •

FYI some of these commands are no longer supported, for example Set-Theme is deprecated

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kken94 profile image
Nicola Taddei •

With new oh-my-posh version we need an article review :(.

PS: can you share your bg wallpaper? Thank you

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anupa profile image
Anup Aglawe •

Sorry but I don't have enough time to rewrite the article.

Image source - facets.la

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snarkcorn profile image
Adarsh Nair •

what-a-life-what-a-meme.lifes-a-me...

I'm getting this for some reason, any particular reason why?

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anupa profile image
Anup Aglawe •

I guess ASCII art text is throwing error.
Test if there is still the same error if text I used in the post is used.
I recommend this tool -
topster.net/ascii-generator/

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barlerer profile image
Bar Lerer •

How do I add emojis to Oh My Posh V3?
When I try to edit the theme, its a JSON file, and the lines you specified are not valid JSONs

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krrishdhaneja profile image
Krrish Dhaneja •

can u share the pic in your terminal background?

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anupa profile image
Anup Aglawe • • Edited

Check out this facets.la/. Some cool collection of images.

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sssinaaa profile image
vFlag •

thank you so much

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danielagiorgio profile image
Daniela Giorgio • • Edited

thank you! I love it :)
powershell

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