Microsoft has recently released both Windows Terminal 1.0 and PowerShell 7.0, both with considerable enhancements that give most other terminals a run for their money.
In this guide, I’m going to show you how to get and install the latest Terminal and PowerShell for Windows 10:
1. Get Windows Terminal 1.0
Get Windows Terminal free from the Store. You can also get it from GitHub’s releases but I recommend the store because it’ll stay up to date automatically.
2. Get PowerShell 7.0
Download and install PowerShell 7 from the repository: https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/tag/v7.0.1 (in my case it was the PowerShell-7.0.1-win-x64.msi version I needed)
3. Open up the Windows Terminal settings file
Launch Windows Terminal and open the Settings.json file ( ctrl + , ) – the settings.json will open in an editor like VSCode or Notepad.
4. Prioritize Terminal ordering
Re-arrange the terminals order so that PowerShell 7 is both first and the default: (see my settings below)
Moving the new PowerShell to the top of the list:
Changing the defaultProfile to match the new PowerShell’s guid:
If you want to add transparency to your terminal, I would also add the option useAcrylic option to each editor. (see screenshot above)
"useAcrylic": true
5. Install an awesome theme and ‘Posh’ it up
Install-Module posh-git -Scope CurrentUser Install-Module oh-my-posh -Scope CurrentUser
Also get PSReadline if you’re on PowerShell Core:
Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -AllowPrerelease -Scope CurrentUser -Force -SkipPublisherCheck
6. Set the default theme to start with terminal
Make sure you’re awesome new theme is enabled by default each time you close and open the Terminal:
Run “notepad $PROFILE” and add these lines to the end:
Import-Module posh-git Import-Module oh-my-posh Set-Theme Paradox
7. Get a great font and working glyphs in Terminal 1.0/PowerShell 7
Download the Cascadia Code 2005 font from here and install it.
Then ensure you are calling the font in your settings.json file for each terminal with the below line of code:
"fontFace": "Cascadia Code PL"
Inspiration for this article came from both Make Your PowerShell 7 Truly Powerful by Jung-Hyun Nam and How to make a pretty prompt in Windows Terminal with Powerline, Nerd Fonts, Cascadia Code, WSL, and oh-my-posh by Scott Hanselman.