Seamless Windows Terminal Integration

Introduction

Windows Terminal is a new, modern, feature-rich, productive terminal emulator for Windows 10 by Microsoft.

Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and custom themes, styles, and configurations.

Here's a demo of Windows Terminal with Cmder:

 

Instructions

1. Download and install the Windows Terminal from the Microsoft store: download page

2. Follow the instructions in this page to set-up the %CMDER_ROOT% environmental variable
   ^{✍ Tip: If you already have a working environment variable, skip this step}

3. Open Windows Terminal, then press Ctrl + , (Control-Comma) to open the Settings file (settings.json).

   The settings file will be opened for edit with your default text editor program.

4. Navigate to profiles and add the following item to the list attribute. You can place it at the top if you want cmder to be the first item in the dropdown selection window.

       {
             "guid": "{00000000-0000-0000-ba54-000000000132}",
             "name": "Cmder", // You can give a custom name here
             "commandline": "cmd.exe /k %cmder_root%/vendor/init.bat",
             "icon": "%cmder_root%/icons/cmder.ico",
             "hidden": false
       },

   👉 Note: Make sure to define the environment variable before using the %CMDER_ROOT% portion.

5. Additional configuration

   • You can make cmder the default shell-environment/profile by changing the defaultProfile attribute in the settings file to the name of cmder's profile (i.e. 'cmder) in the settings file. For example, if the nameof the cmder profile iscmder, change defaultProfile` value to:

       "defaultProfile": "cmder",

    

   • You can specify a starting directory. The default starting directory is C:\Users\username\. If you can want to change it, make the following changes:

         {     
               "guid": "{00000000-0000-0000-ba54-000000000132}",
               "name": "Cmder",
               "commandline": "cmd.exe /k %cmder_root%/vendor/init.bat",
               "startingDirectory": "E:/Codes/", // Specify your directory of choice
               "icon": "%cmder_root%/icons/cmder.ico",
               "hidden": false
         },

    

   • You can also add the Monokai-Cmder color scheme into Terminal's "schemes": []
     (source: https://atomcorp.github.io/themes/?theme=Monokai+Cmder)

       {
           "name": "Monokai Cmder",
           "black": "#272822",
           "red": "#a70334",
           "green": "#74aa04",
           "yellow": "#b6b649",
           "blue": "#01549e",
           "purple": "#89569c",
           "cyan": "#1a83a6",
           "white": "#cacaca",
           "brightBlack": "#7c7c7c",
           "brightRed": "#f3044b",
           "brightGreen": "#8dd006",
           "brightYellow": "#cccc81",
           "brightBlue": "#0383f5",
           "brightPurple": "#a87db8",
           "brightCyan": "#58c2e5",
           "brightWhite": "#ffffff",
           "background": "#272822",
           "foreground": "#cacaca",
           "selectionBackground": "#cccc81",
           "cursorColor": "#ffffff"
       },

     After that, modify the Cmder profile with "colorScheme": "Monokai Cmder", like this:

         {     
               "guid": "{00000000-0000-0000-ba54-000000000132}",
               "name": "Cmder",
               "commandline": "cmd.exe /k %cmder_root%/vendor/init.bat",
               "icon": "%cmder_root%/icons/cmder.ico",
               "colorScheme": "Monokai Cmder", // Set the color scheme to "Monokai Cmder"
               "hidden": false
         },

     Monokar Cmder on Windows Terminal

     

    

   • To use Powershell instead of the default clink shell, use the following values:

         {     
               "guid": "{00000000-0000-0000-ba54-000000000127}",
               "name": "Cmder :: Powershell",
               "commandline": "%SystemRoot%/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0/powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoLogo -NoProfile -NoExit -Command \"Invoke-Expression '. ''%cmder_root%/vendor/profile.ps1'''\"",
               "icon": "%cmder_root%/icons/cmder.ico",
               "colorScheme": "Monokai Cmder",
               "hidden": false
         },

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This guide was developed from issue #2121