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Tuner9696
Tuner9696

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A Practical Windows Terminal Setup with Git Bash and Automatic Pane Layout

#windows #terminal #gitbash

When I start my workday, I prefer my development environment to be ready immediately 🙂
Switching shells or manually arranging panes is a small but repeated cost.

This article describes a simple and consistent setup using Windows Terminal and Git Bash, configured to open five panes automatically on startup.

Why I Use Git Bash as the Default Shell 🤔

Windows Terminal supports multiple shells, including PowerShell and WSL.
While these tools are powerful, I prefer Git Bash for most daily development tasks.

My reasons are straightforward:

  • Familiar Linux-style commands
  • Minimal configuration
  • No context switching between environments

For consistency, I decided to use Git Bash as the default shell across all panes.

Step 1: Install Required Applications 🛠️

First, install the necessary tools.

Windows Terminal 

winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal
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Git Bash (Git for Windows) 

winget install Git.Git
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After installing Git, restarting the terminal once helps avoid potential PATH-related issues 👍

Step 2: Register Git Bash as a Windows Terminal Profile ⚙️

Next, Git Bash is added as a custom profile.

  1. Open Windows Terminal
  2. Press Ctrl + , to open Settings
  3. Select Add a new profile → Empty profile
  4. Configure the profile as follows: 
Name: Git Bash
Command line:
C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe --login -i
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  1. Open Startup
  2. Set Default profile to Git Bash
  3. Save the settings

This ensures that Windows Terminal always launches Git Bash by default.

Step 3: Create a Shortcut for a Five-Pane Layout 🧩

To reduce manual setup, I use a desktop shortcut that opens Windows Terminal with a predefined pane layout.

This shortcut:

  • Launches Windows Terminal
  • Uses Git Bash in all panes
  • Splits the window into five panes
  • Starts in a specified directory

Replace your-username with your Windows user name.

wt -p "Git Bash" -d "C:\Users\your-username\Desktop" ; \
split-pane -V -p "Git Bash" -d "C:\Users\your-username\Desktop" ; \
move-focus Left ; \
split-pane -H -p "Git Bash" -d "C:\Users\your-username\Desktop" ; \
move-focus Right ; \
split-pane -H -p "Git Bash" -d "C:\Users\your-username\Desktop" ; \
split-pane -H -p "Git Bash" -d "C:\Users\your-username\Desktop"
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Name the shortcut something simple, such as Dev Terminal.

Step 4: Enable Automatic Launch on Windows Startup 🚀

To ensure the environment is always ready, I register the shortcut in the Windows startup folder.

  1. Press Win + R
  2. Enter shell:startup
  3. Paste the shortcut into the folder

With this configuration, the terminal opens automatically when Windows starts.

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