Scott Hanselman

How to change the background of your Windows Terminal settings

November 10, 2020 Comment on this post [4] Posted in Win10
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I've often asked for my Windows Terminal's settings.json (formerly profiles.json) so I keep it up on GitHub. The thing is, all my machines are different. I mix it up, I change it.

Remember that the Windows Terminal is approaching version 1.5 today! Make sure you upgrade and read about the new features! This version includes clickable hyperlinks! UPGRADE NOW.

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.

Here's what my Terminal looks like today! I've added transparent PNGs in the lower right corners of each shell so I can keep track, but it's also nice for teaching folks how to use the Command Line.

Here's the settings block for PowerShell, for example. Note the backgroundImage* items:

{
"guid": "{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "PowerShell",
"source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore",
"backgroundImage": "D:\\Dropbox\\utils\\TerminalBackgrounds\\powershell-2-400x225.png",
"backgroundImageStretchMode": "none",
"backgroundImageAlignment": "bottomRight",
"colorScheme": "Campbell Powershell"
},

I keep my background images in DropBox or OneDrive so they can be referred to from any of my computers. You can make stretch wallpaper-like images, or you can make subtle (or less subtle, like mine) logo watermarks.

Lovely backgrounds for your Windows Terminal

Here's the PNG backgrounds for these images. I also put this images at https://github.com/shanselman/PrettyWindowsTerminalThings and you're welcome to put nice ones and your own tips up there as well!

dos

powershell-2-400x225

ubuntu_white-orange_hex_su

Thanks to https://www.powershellmagazine.com/ for the use of their PowerShell Logo! Also check out How to make a pretty prompt in Windows Terminal with Powerline, Nerd Fonts, Cascadia Code, WSL, and oh-my-posh.


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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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November 13, 2020 22:16
Hi Scott,
I was looking for a way to style the path of the current location, of Cmd in the new Windows Terminal
November 13, 2020 22:37
Interesting choice of colours, transparent png's with white text on a white background. Thought that there was something wrong with the image on the page at first!
November 15, 2020 15:16
Scott, one cool thing I found out was that you can actually point the "backgroundImage" attribute to an URI. I personally throw in random image from unsplash with few query parameters but you could put in basically anything.

Not sure, but I think there is some kind of caching as well so if you are offline, you end up with the last downloaded image as background..
November 16, 2020 0:45
or get it using winget

winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal

or

winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminalPreview

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.