The command line windows are very customizable. Use the down arrow ("v") on the top bar then Settings.
The program will ask you what program you want to edit the settings file (in JSON format). If you have a vanilla Windows 10 install, selecting Notepad is fine. Notepad++, a third party app, makes editing this easier.
Background
Credit: HowToGeek.com
Every command window type can have a different background picture. You can change the background to any type of image file you like—a PNG, a JPEG, or yes: an animated GIF.
To change the background of any of the shells, you’ll first need to place the image file in a location the Terminal App can read. Windows Terminal is a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, so it prefers to use its own AppData folder. AppData is a folder you usually find in the User Profile and is used for storing program settings. UWP apps create a custom AppData folder and use that instead. Windows Terminal’s AppData folder is located in:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState
Just copy that into File Explorer’s path bar and hit Enter; you’ll be taken to the correct location. Place your image files here, and Windows Terminal can use them for backgrounds.
Open Settings in Windows Terminal, and scroll to the profile you want to change. There are several profiles under the ” "profiles" :
” section. Each corresponds to an option in the menu: Cmd, PowerShell, Linux distros, and so on. You can tell which is which by examining the ” commandline
” or ” name
” line in each section.
To change the background image for one of these sections, under the "icon"
line, add the following lines:
"backgroundImage" : "ms-appdata:///roaming/yourimage.jpg", "backgroundImageOpacity" : 0.75, "backgroundImageStrechMode" : "fill",
Where “yourimage.jpg” is the name of your image or gif file. Make sure every line in the section—except the last one—ends with a comma.
If you’re using a GIF file, you may want to change the “fill” to “uniformToFill” instead. You may end up with a black box around the GIF with “fill,” but have it be fine with “uniformToFill.”
Save the file, and your changes should show up immediately, even with the Windows Terminal open.
Colors
You can see the various colors used in hexadecimal format - #RRGGBB with RR the red component, GG the green, and BB the blue. You can look up other colors to change text and other element items to the color of your choice.
I like the color picker at W3schools.com although there are many others.
Save a backup of the JSON file in case you need to restore a setting gone wrong. Then you can select the color in the color picker and get the 6 digit hex value to type into the JSON file for the item you wish to change. When you save the new JSON file, it should take effect.
Other Items
The customization, to include fonts, is a moving target at present. We suggest looking on the web if you would like to customize further as people publish their tricks and tips.
Microsoft has said the font capability changes are incomplete at this time, although others appear to be tweaking this. Buyer beware in this.
Page last edited March 08, 2024
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