Windows Terminal: The Modern Command Line for Developers

If you’ve been putting up with the old Windows console — one shell per window, no tabs, no GPU rendering, no customization — Windows Terminal is the upgrade you didn’t know you needed. It brings together Command Prompt, PowerShell, WSL, and any other shell you use into a single tabbed, GPU-accelerated, fully customizable environment.

I switched to it as my daily driver and haven’t looked back.

Key Features

Tabbed interface — multiple shell sessions in one window, each with its own profile. No more alt-tabbing between five console windows.

Multiple shell support — Command Prompt, PowerShell, WSL distributions, Azure Cloud Shell — all available from the same dropdown.

Pane splitting — split horizontally or vertically to run commands in parallel without leaving the terminal. I use this constantly when tailing logs in one pane while running commands in another.

GPU-accelerated rendering — text rendering uses the GPU, so even heavy output scrolls smoothly.

Clipboard integration — seamless copy-paste between Windows Terminal and the rest of your system.

Customizable profiles — per-shell settings for color scheme, font, starting directory, and more.

Installation

The easiest way is via winget:

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winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal

Or download the latest .msix from the GitHub releases page and run it directly.

After install, launch from the Start menu or hit Win + X and select “Terminal.”

Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

These are the ones I use every day:

Configuring Profiles

Open Settings with Ctrl + , (or click the dropdown arrow → Settings). Windows Terminal stores configuration in a JSON file, giving you full control. Here’s a profile for a custom WSL setup:

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{
    "guid": "{your-unique-guid}",
    "name": "Ubuntu (WSL)",
    "source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
    "commandline": "wsl --distribution Ubuntu",
    "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/home/yourname"
}

Running PowerShell and WSL Side by Side

This is where Windows Terminal really shines for development. With both profiles configured, you can open a split pane with PowerShell on the left and your Linux environment on the right — useful when you need to run Windows-specific tooling alongside Linux scripts.

Example profiles section in settings.json:

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{
    "guid": "{574e7a2d-198b-4a3f-a91a-66ab0dcf4ff4}",
    "name": "PowerShell",
    "source": "WindowsTerminal"
},
{
    "guid": "{c6eaf9f4-3294-5d78-b6e1-7c07b5b26a22}",
    "name": "Ubuntu",
    "source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
    "commandline": "wsl --distribution Ubuntu"
}

If you haven’t set up WSL yet, the official Microsoft docs have a straightforward guide.

The Bottom Line

Windows Terminal removes almost every friction point that made the old Windows console frustrating. Tabs, panes, GPU rendering, proper Unicode support, deep customization — it’s the terminal that Windows developers deserve.

If you pair it with Oh My Posh for prompt customization and winget for package management, you end up with a genuinely productive command-line environment on Windows.