How to install Windows Terminal on Windows 10 from Microsoft Store

Just like the Terminal on Linux, the Command Prompt on Windows is also a powerful tool, if not as powerful as that of Linux Terminal. From carrying out some administrative tasks on Windows to using SSH and access the Linux shell, which you can learn more about here, the Windows Command Prompt is really useful. The Windows PowerShell, which is somewhat similar to Command Prompt has some neat improvements over the default command line, i.e. Command Prompt for Windows. Keeping the features apart, there are even some customization options available for Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell. But the default PowerShell and Windows Command Prompt has some limitations.

Unlike most Terminal emulators available for Linux, neither Windows Command Prompt, nor Windows PowerShell has support for multiple tabs, which is something that really matters to people who work extensively with either Windows PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt or both. However you can open multiple Command Prompt or PowerShell windows, but that isn’t convenient at all. You can understand, exactly what I mean by saying that. But recently the Microsoft new Terminal is available for Windows 10; it is a great tool to use both Windows PowerShell and Windows Command Prompt under the same roof.

So let’s get started with how you can download, install and use the new Windows terminal on your Windows 10 PC.

Install & Use Windows Terminal on Windows 10

Step 1: Open Microsoft Store

On Windows 10 search for Microsoft Store and when it appears, click on to open.

Step 2: Download Windows Terminal

On Microsoft Store of your Windows 10 computer click on the top right side search icon and type Windows Terminal. Click on the Get button once it appears. You can alternatively download it using the following Microsoft Web Store link.

Step 3: Install and Run Windows Terminal

After clicking on the Get button in the above step, the Microsoft store automatically installs it on your Windows 10 operating system.

Once the download and installation are complete, go Windows 10 start menu and search for it and as it shows click it to run.

Step 4: How to use Windows Terminal App

As you can see, you can open multiple tabs on it by clicking on the ‘+’ button. However, switching between tabs isn’t that polished till now, and you can switch to the next or previous tab by using the ‘Ctrl+Tab’ and ‘Ctrl+Shift+Tab’ key combinations respectively.

You can even switch from Windows PowerShell to Command Prompt or vice versa by clicking on the drop-down and then by choosing the appropriate option between Windows PowerShell and Command Prompt or cmd.

Step 5: Access settings of Terminal

To open the settings, you can click on the drop-down menu and open ‘Settings’. The ‘profiles.json’ file will be opened up, where you can change all the necessary settings associated with the program. By changing the various values in the profiles.json file, you can customize the complete look and feel of Windows Terminal, change the background and configure some other settings as per your requirements.

It is not yet released finally, and the present problems should be fixed with the final release of the program. 

I don’t know whether it will be as good as popular Terminal emulators for Linux in the coming days, but it will at least be better than the present state Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell for multitasking, which I am sure about.

So that was all about the new Terminal available for Windows 10. Do you still have any questions in your mind about the new Windows Terminal? Feel free to comment the same down below.