Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. Have you ever felt like your
Speaker 1: command line experience on Windows was well, a little behind
Speaker 1: the times, definitely like you were jumping through hoops just
Speaker 1: to copy text or you know, manage multiple tasks.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, the old ways were limiting.
Speaker 1: Today we're delving deep into something that changes all of that,
Speaker 1: the new Windows Terminal. Our mission for you, our listener,
Speaker 1: is to unlock a supercharged command line experience, making you
Speaker 1: a true power user.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We're drawing our insights from Wilfuqua's excellent book Windows Terminal Tips,
Speaker 1: Tricks and Productivity Hacks, and we've distilled some powerful insights
Speaker 1: that we think will genuinely transform your command line workflow.
Speaker 2: What's truly fascinating here is how Microsoft has completely rethought
Speaker 2: this integral tool from the ground up.
Speaker 1: Right, it feels totally different.
Speaker 2: For years, the Windows command line experience felt like it
Speaker 2: lagged behind what was available on say Unix based system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, malcos Linux they always seem to head exactly.
Speaker 2: This exploration will not only reveal the incredible advancements, but
Speaker 2: also show you how to tailor them precisely to your workflow.
Speaker 2: It's about more than just a new window it's about efficiency, clarity,
Speaker 2: and truly making your command line work for you.
Speaker 1: So let's start at the beginning. Then, before Windows Terminal,
Speaker 1: we had con host dot exe. Why did we even
Speaker 1: need a new terminal? What was so I guess limiting
Speaker 1: about the old way?
Speaker 2: Well, the core issue with con host dot ex was
Speaker 2: its primary mission backward compatibility.
Speaker 1: Oh okay.
Speaker 2: It was designed to run basically every old command line
Speaker 2: application Windows had ever.
Speaker 1: Seen, which sounds good in theory, right.
Speaker 2: But it became a massive roadblock for innovation. Simple everyday
Speaker 2: tasks that users expected, like easily selecting and copying text
Speaker 2: were surprisingly difficult.
Speaker 1: Oh I remember that pain multiple clicks exactly.
Speaker 2: It felt clunky, and that commitment to never breaking older
Speaker 2: apps meant the user experience was kind of stuck in
Speaker 2: the past compared to modern terminals on mac os or Linux.
Speaker 2: And this is where a key distinction clarifies everything. Understanding
Speaker 2: the difference between a terminal and a shell.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, break that down.
Speaker 2: A terminal like Windows terminal is what you see. It's
Speaker 2: the display engine responsible for rendering text, drawing the interface,
Speaker 2: accepting your keyboard.
Speaker 1: And mouse input, got it the window itself pretty much.
Speaker 2: It then passes that input to the shell. The shell,
Speaker 2: on the other hand, is the actual command line program
Speaker 2: like PowerShell, CMD or Bash that interprets and executes your commands.
Speaker 1: So PowerShell isn't the terminal, correct.
Speaker 2: Windows Terminal is a brand new, modern terminal that hosts
Speaker 2: all your existing shells. So all your PowerShell knowledge, your
Speaker 2: get knowledge still completely valid and now honestly much more
Speaker 2: powerful within this new host.
Speaker 1: That distinction makes perfect sense. So con host was trapped
Speaker 1: by its past, sacrificing user experience for backward compatibility. But
Speaker 1: when Microsoft finally decided to build a new what was
Speaker 1: the absolute first thing they prioritize in terms of user experience?
Speaker 1: What makes this new Windows terminal so much better? Right
Speaker 1: out of the box.
Speaker 2: They really prioritized a modern, fast, and flexible foundation. It's
Speaker 2: built on modern Windows technologies, things like UWP, EXML islands.
Speaker 1: Okay, techy stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but what it means for you is it leverages
Speaker 2: your system's full power, including GPU acceleration.
Speaker 1: AH, using the graphics card.
Speaker 2: Exactly for rendering text and effects. It results in a
Speaker 2: remarkably smooth, fast, and visually rich experience that was simply
Speaker 2: impossible with the old command prompts. But the immediate aha
Speaker 2: moment for many users I think comes from its organizational power.
Speaker 2: How so it brings built in tab support. Finally, Yes,
Speaker 2: you can finally manage multiple shells PowerShell, WSL, CMDSS, eighth
Speaker 2: sessions all within a single window. No more dozens of
Speaker 2: separate windows clutter in your taskbar.
Speaker 1: Oh that alone is worth the price of admission, which is.
Speaker 2: Freehu Exactly, a quick trol plus shift plus T opens
Speaker 2: a new tab, trol plus shift plus W closes one simple.
Speaker 1: The tab support is a huge game changer for reducing clutter.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times I've hunted for
Speaker 1: a specific command window. But you mentioned something even more powerful, pains.
Speaker 2: Exactly beyond tabs, you also get terminal pains.
Speaker 1: Okay, what does that mean?
Speaker 2: Imagine a single tab becoming your entile development cockpit. You
Speaker 2: could be running a live build process in one pain,
Speaker 2: debugging in another, and maybe interacting with get in a third,
Speaker 2: all visible at once, all simultaneously visible and interactive. It's
Speaker 2: about eliminating that constant context switching, you know, freeing up
Speaker 2: mental band with creating a truly focused workspace. How do
Speaker 2: you make those pains Duplicating your current shell into a
Speaker 2: new pain is as simple as alt plus shift plus D.
Speaker 2: And you could split horizontally or vertically too.
Speaker 1: Oh nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the shortcuts are alt plus shift plus minus for horizontal,
Speaker 2: alt plus shift plus equals for vertical. We can put
Speaker 2: those exact commands in the show notes.
Speaker 1: Good idea, Okay, tabs pains what else? Visually?
Speaker 2: Visually, there's also a significant upgrade. It introduced Cascadia code
Speaker 2: the font YEP, a programming font designed specifically for this.
Speaker 2: It supports optional programming, so characters like render as a
Speaker 2: cleaner single E glyph.
Speaker 1: Oh that's pretty neat makes code look cleaner.
Speaker 2: It does. And it supports power line glyphs, which are
Speaker 2: special characters that enhance the visual style of custom command
Speaker 2: line comps.
Speaker 1: Like those fancy status bars I see people have.
Speaker 2: Exactly turning a drab text line into an informative and
Speaker 2: frankly esthetically pleasing status bar with things like get status
Speaker 2: current directory stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm sold on the features, But what about control customization? Ah?
Speaker 2: For those who love control, The customization is incredibly flexible,
Speaker 2: uses the settings dot json file.
Speaker 1: Jason, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: With a documented structure This isn't just some random text file.
Speaker 2: It means editors like visual Studio Code give you first
Speaker 2: class editing with autocomplete and documentation built right in.
Speaker 1: That makes editing way easier than guessing totally.
Speaker 2: And the key insight here is that your configurations are
Speaker 2: easily version controlled. Put it in get and share across
Speaker 2: different machines, so you get a truly consistent personal environment everywhere.
Speaker 1: And it's open source, right and critically, yes.
Speaker 2: It's completely open source. You can see all the development
Speaker 2: happening on Microsoft's GitHub repository.
Speaker 1: So you can see where it's going, maybe even contribute.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the team is incredibly active encouraging community contributions and
Speaker 2: maintaining transparent development, which fuels rapid innovation. It's a really
Speaker 2: vibrant project.
Speaker 1: That transparency and community involvement are huge. So with all
Speaker 1: these fantastic capabilities, how do you actually get this powerhouse
Speaker 1: up and running efficiently?
Speaker 2: The easiest and most recommended way directly from the Microsoft Store.
Speaker 2: Just search for it, YEP, search Windows terminal click get.
Speaker 2: That's it. This also ensures that stays automatically.
Speaker 1: Updated, which is nice, okay, easy enough.
Speaker 2: Once installed, you launch it like any other app. From
Speaker 2: the start menu, but for more efficiency, it ships with
Speaker 2: the command WT dot.
Speaker 1: Ex ah WT.
Speaker 2: Right, you can simply type wt in the run dialogue
Speaker 2: or even the Windows Explorer address bar, hit enter and
Speaker 2: boom it launches.
Speaker 1: Andy.
Speaker 2: You can even add command line flags like wtdshf to
Speaker 2: launch directly into full screen mode.
Speaker 1: Okay, full screen Terminal, I like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lots of little tricks like that.
Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting for customizing your digital workspace.
Speaker 1: I think, with all these powerful features, how do we
Speaker 1: make Windows Terminal truly ours? It all starts with that
Speaker 1: settings dot json file.
Speaker 2: Right, Absolutely, that settings adjacent file is truly the cornerstone
Speaker 2: of configurability.
Speaker 1: Cornerstone Okay.
Speaker 2: As we discussed, it offers incredible power for deep customization,
Speaker 2: makes it easy to version control your settings with git
Speaker 2: or something, and allows for seamless sharing.
Speaker 1: How do you open it quickly?
Speaker 2: You can quickly open it by pressing tree, troll plus
Speaker 2: shift plus aid directly from within Windows Terminal.
Speaker 1: Creed, roll plus shift plus comma, got it?
Speaker 2: And Yeah. Using Visual Studio code for editing provides a
Speaker 2: superior experience, whether it's built in autocomplete and documentation really
Speaker 2: helps avoid typos. The file itself is logically structured, which
Speaker 2: is helpful. You'll find global settings that apply to the
Speaker 2: entire terminal overall behavior exactly. Then profile settings for individual shells,
Speaker 2: so PowerShell can look different from your Wslobuntu shell for.
Speaker 1: Instance, ah Per shell settings nice YEP.
Speaker 2: Also color scheme settings for its appearance, and keyboard shortcut
Speaker 2: settings for all your custom hot keys.
Speaker 1: So for someone just diving into settings dot json, what
Speaker 1: are some global settings that can immediately enhance their workflow?
Speaker 1: Any quick wins?
Speaker 2: Definitely a few make a big difference right away.
Speaker 1: Copy on select, copy on select What's that?
Speaker 2: When set to true, it automatically copies any text you
Speaker 2: highlight with your mouse straight to the clipboard, no need
Speaker 2: to write, click or press quockol plus.
Speaker 1: C oh copy on select. Yes, I can't tell you
Speaker 1: how many times I've fumbled with compleplus c in the
Speaker 1: old con host only to find I'd selected the wrong
Speaker 1: thing or missed it. It's a small thing, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a huge quality of life upgrade. Seriously, it absolutely is.
Speaker 2: Then there's start on user login din'd it start up YEP,
Speaker 2: which can lunch the terminal automatically when you log into
Speaker 2: Windows great if it's your daily driver.
Speaker 1: Makes sense.
Speaker 2: Default profile lets you choose which shell opens by default
Speaker 2: when you hit the new tab button, or just launch
Speaker 2: the terminal so.
Speaker 1: I can make it powersholl Core instead of old cmd exactly.
Speaker 2: You can also set tab visibility to hide the tab
Speaker 2: strip if you only have one tab open. Gives you
Speaker 2: a bit more screen real estate.
Speaker 1: Oh I like that minimal.
Speaker 2: And theme of course to switch between light dark, or
Speaker 2: just follow your systems theme automatically.
Speaker 1: Okay, those are great practical tweaks. Beyond behavior, how can
Speaker 1: we make it visually stunning and you know, truly reflective
Speaker 1: of our personal style?
Speaker 2: Yeah, esthetics matter. That's where color schemes come in. Windows
Speaker 2: Terminal includes popular built in schemes like Solarized and Tango.
Speaker 2: Pretty good starting.
Speaker 1: Points, so you can add more.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the community has created a wealth of options.
Speaker 2: You can explore websites like Windows Terminal Themes dot dev.
Speaker 2: Just copy paste the.
Speaker 1: Jason ah easy to find new ones.
Speaker 2: Or for full control, you can define your own color
Speaker 2: schemes right in the JSON, mapping standard A and SI
Speaker 2: color names like bright black or cyan to specific rgb
Speaker 2: X values.
Speaker 1: Total control. Nice.
Speaker 2: You can also personalize it deeply with background images. Put
Speaker 2: your logo, your cat, whatever you want behind the.
Speaker 1: Text background images in a terminal okay.
Speaker 2: And adjust the translucency of the window using usacrylic and
Speaker 2: acrylic capacity. Is it that slightly see through modern.
Speaker 1: Look acrylic like the Windows fluent design thing?
Speaker 2: Exactly? Yeah, and a neat visual trick here. Once a
Speaker 2: crylic is enabled, you can temporarily adjust the translucency on
Speaker 2: the fly. Hold crill it plus alt plus shift and
Speaker 2: scroll your mouse wheel.
Speaker 1: Oh, temporary adjustment, that's cool, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Just for that session. For more experimental visual effect, you
Speaker 2: can even play around with pixel shaders, but that's getting
Speaker 2: pretty advanced.
Speaker 1: Okay, maybe I'll stick with background images for now. And
Speaker 1: for the keyboard wizards among us, the folks who live
Speaker 1: by shortcuts, what kind of raw power can we unlock
Speaker 1: with custom shortcuts?
Speaker 2: Right the action section in Settings dot Jason. This used
Speaker 2: to be called key bindings, now it's actions. This is
Speaker 2: where you define custom keyboard.
Speaker 1: Shortcuts, so mapping keys to actions.
Speaker 2: Pretty much, each shortcut maps a command which can be
Speaker 2: a simple string for built in actions or a more
Speaker 2: complex object for actions with parameters, to a keys property
Speaker 2: so critical plus shift plus something does this action well.
Speaker 1: Kind of actions all.
Speaker 2: Sorts, closing tabs, splitting pains, changing font size. But one
Speaker 2: of the most powerful is send input.
Speaker 1: Send input like typing for me exactly.
Speaker 2: This allows you to send arbitrary keyboard input directly to
Speaker 2: the active terminal shell, essentially automating typing.
Speaker 1: Give me an example. How's that useful?
Speaker 2: Okay, say you constantly navigate to your main project's directory.
Speaker 2: You could bind maybe c trel plus al plus P
Speaker 2: to instantly type CD projects followed by an enter key.
Speaker 1: Whoa so one key combo jumps me to my fold well.
Speaker 2: Warp speed directory navigation. It's about automating those repetitive finger movements.
Speaker 2: You can even send ANSI escape sequences for things like
Speaker 2: arrow keys.
Speaker 1: Okay, send input sounds incredibly powerful for automation.
Speaker 2: What else, There's the WT eight action. This is fantastic
Speaker 2: for launching pre configured tab and pain.
Speaker 1: Layouts, wait launching layouts of the shortcut.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Imagine launching an entire project workspace, maybe your code
Speaker 2: editor like vim in one pain, a live build process
Speaker 2: like dot netwatch run, and another, all with a single
Speaker 2: custom command you've defined in your setting start Jason.
Speaker 1: That's huge. One shortcut sets up my whole dev environment
Speaker 1: in terminal exactly.
Speaker 2: And this wtgidxc blindary we mentioned earlier. You can use
Speaker 2: it from outside the terminal too, crease start menu shortcuts
Speaker 2: or batch files that launch these highly customized complex layouts instantly.
Speaker 2: We can put some example syntax in the show notes
Speaker 2: because it gets a bit involved.
Speaker 1: Please do that sounds amazing. So okay, we've seen how
Speaker 1: to make Windows Terminal look and behave exactly how we want.
Speaker 1: It's truly ours, right But for many of us, the
Speaker 1: command line isn't just a Windows thing anymore. We live
Speaker 1: in a multious world, rightly, What about those Linux command
Speaker 1: line tools we love right here on Windows. Many people
Speaker 1: have heard of WSL two, the Windows subsystem for Linux. Uh,
Speaker 1: But for those of us integrating it into our daily
Speaker 1: Windows flow, what truly makes WSL two such a significant evolution?
Speaker 1: Why is it such a big deal?
Speaker 2: WSL two is a genuine game changer, largely because it
Speaker 2: finally provides a fast, fully compatible Linux environment directly.
Speaker 1: On Windows, faster than WSL one, much.
Speaker 2: Faster for filesystem operations, yeah yeah, and more compatible. It
Speaker 2: solves so many dependency headaches, especially for developers using popular
Speaker 2: web frameworks or tools designed for Linux.
Speaker 1: How does it work? Is it like a VM sort of?
Speaker 2: Unlike its predecessor, WSL two runs a real Linux kernel
Speaker 2: on a lightweight hyper V virtualization.
Speaker 1: Layer a real kernel, which.
Speaker 2: Results in vastly improved performance and compatibility. It truly feels
Speaker 2: like Rhyando Lenox natively just inside Windows. And what's truly revolutionary,
Speaker 2: I think, is the seamless bidirectional access between Windows and Linux.
Speaker 2: Bidirectional meaning you can easily access your Linux distributions files
Speaker 2: from Windows. Just navigate to a UNC path like inf
Speaker 2: open two in File Explorer. Your Linux home directory is right.
Speaker 1: There, oh, directly in file Explore. No special tools, nope.
Speaker 2: And conversely, your Windows drives like your c drive are
Speaker 2: automatically mounted directly under m NTC within your Linux environment,
Speaker 2: so you can c D m n TC users your name,
Speaker 2: and access Windows files from your Linux shell.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's seamless, files are easy. What about running things
Speaker 1: even better?
Speaker 2: You can run Linux programs directly from Windows PowerShell or
Speaker 2: CMD using WSL dot ex Linux command like wsls ls
Speaker 2: L runs the Linux ls command. Okay, and maybe even
Speaker 2: more surprisingly you can run Windows programs from your Linux shell.
Speaker 1: Wait, run dot ex files from Bash or z sh yep.
Speaker 2: Imagine you're in your WSL terminal. You type notepad dot
Speaker 2: exc my linux canfig dot txt, It opens that Linux
Speaker 2: file and Windows notepad no way. Or type explorer dot
Speaker 2: ex that's explore dot xe space dot and it launches
Speaker 2: Windows file Explorer right in your current Linux directory.
Speaker 1: Mind blown. That level of integration is incredible. Okay, but
Speaker 1: it's not just about running Linux. It's about making those shells,
Speaker 1: both Linux and powershells sing with customization and power tools exactly.
Speaker 2: Let's start with PowerShell. For PowerShell users. Oh my posh
Speaker 2: is a fantastic tool. You've probably seen screenshots.
Speaker 1: Those really cool looking prompts.
Speaker 2: That's the one. It transforms basic prompts into informative, stylish ones.
Speaker 2: It can show critical details like your current Git branch status,
Speaker 2: shortened paths so they don't wrap air indicators if the
Speaker 2: last command failed. All enhanced by using a font like
Speaker 2: Cascade codepl that has the necessary gliss.
Speaker 1: So it makes your prompt work harder for you.
Speaker 2: Basically, precisely, and beyond external tools like that, you can
Speaker 2: actually define your own custom prompt functions right in your
Speaker 2: PowerShell profile.
Speaker 1: Script writing your own prompt.
Speaker 2: Yeah. This lets you inject things like ANSI, escape sequences
Speaker 2: for custom colors, or maybe even add emojis directly into
Speaker 2: your prout for a unique Flare.
Speaker 1: Rocket ship emoji when in my project's folder.
Speaker 2: Why not if that works for you. Psrid line is
Speaker 2: another essential PowerShell module. It's usually included now, but it
Speaker 2: greatly enhances command line editing.
Speaker 1: How does it enhance it?
Speaker 2: Its history search is incredibly powerful. Just type part of
Speaker 2: a command you ran before, say G, then press the
Speaker 2: up arrow and it intelligently filters your command history. Makes
Speaker 2: finding that get status command from yesterday way faster.
Speaker 1: That's better than just scrolling up endlessly.
Speaker 2: Way better. Oh. It also offers command predictions, which appear
Speaker 2: as feint tech suggestions in your prompt. Guessing what you
Speaker 2: might type next base on your history. Just hit the
Speaker 2: right arrow to accept really speeds up your input.
Speaker 1: Predictive text for the command line.
Speaker 2: Kind of yeah. And for those who love the classic
Speaker 2: Unix tools, you can bring genu cordals like ales grabs,
Speaker 2: food oc to PowerShell. They often get installed as part
Speaker 2: of GIT for Windows.
Speaker 1: So I can use l's in PowerShell.
Speaker 2: You can't. There's also the z utility, which is amazing.
Speaker 2: It provides warp speed directory navigation met It learns which
Speaker 2: directories you a visit frequently or a freesency frequency plus recency.
Speaker 2: Then you can just type Z and it might jump
Speaker 2: you straight to see users, your documents, projects if that's
Speaker 2: where you go. Often jump to common directories with just
Speaker 2: a few key strokes.
Speaker 1: Okay, z sounds essential. Now moving over to WSL two.
Speaker 1: Maybe using zsh instead of Bash.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Zsh is a fantastic, highly configurable alternative to Bash.
Speaker 2: It's actually the default shell on macOS now and oh
Speaker 2: my zish builds on this with a massive community ecosystem
Speaker 2: of themes and plugins.
Speaker 1: Z plus oh my zish is the combo.
Speaker 2: It's a very popular and powerful combo. Yeah for rerunning commands,
Speaker 2: and zsh HL plus r provides an interactive history search
Speaker 2: that's incredibly efficient, similar to PS redlines. Zsh also offers
Speaker 2: powerful history substitutions, which are brilliant shortcuts. Look what things
Speaker 2: like zeer, which treat is the last argument of the
Speaker 2: previous command repeats your entire previous command.
Speaker 1: Ah, I've heard of that useful.
Speaker 2: For incredibly useful. When you forget to type pseudo first
Speaker 2: run a command, it fails with permission denied. You just
Speaker 2: type pseudo and hit enter. Done.
Speaker 1: Okay, Pseudo is going in my muscle memory.
Speaker 2: It's a life saver. Yeah. You can also set up
Speaker 2: custom aliases and functions in zsh, just like in PowerShell,
Speaker 2: to automate repetitive.
Speaker 1: Tasks like shortcuts for long commands.
Speaker 2: Exactly or recreating powershells I alias invoke item to open
Speaker 2: files with their default Windows application using PowerShell dot ex,
Speaker 2: or to find a complex work function that maybe changes directory,
Speaker 2: opens vs code and fetches GIT updates, all with a
Speaker 2: single work command.
Speaker 1: Automating workflows nice for.
Speaker 2: Quick directory navigation, and z auto seeds is an option
Speaker 2: where you can just type the directory name to CD
Speaker 2: into it if it exists. Using hyphen instantly toggles you
Speaker 2: between your last two directories.
Speaker 1: Oh jump back and forth, handy.
Speaker 2: Very and finally oh my. Switech plugins add even more power.
Speaker 2: There's zz plug in, bringing that freqency based directory jumping
Speaker 2: we talked about to.
Speaker 1: Z okay z everywhere.
Speaker 2: There's zush Auto Suggestions, which gives you those faint text
Speaker 2: suggestions as you type, like PS redline and syntax highlighting
Speaker 2: gives you vision feedback coloring commands green if they look valid,
Speaker 2: red if not before you hit enter.
Speaker 1: Wow, that prevents typos too, exactly.
Speaker 2: These collectively make your Linux terminal experience within Windows Terminal
Speaker 2: much smarter and faster.
Speaker 1: Now, let's talk about taking all this customizability and power
Speaker 1: and integrating it with the tools developers use every single day. Get, GitHub,
Speaker 1: remote systems, even the cloud, all from Windows Terminal. This
Speaker 1: feels like where you become a true command line powerhouse.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, this is where it all comes together for Get
Speaker 2: and GitHub. A modern setup often involves using SSH authentication.
Speaker 1: Instead of HTTPS passwords or tokens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because sshkeys provide a more streamlined workflow that's consistent
Speaker 2: across Windows, WSL two and even macOS. If you use
Speaker 2: that too, no more password prompts.
Speaker 1: Okay, how do you set that up on Windows?
Speaker 2: It means installing the built in open ssh client on
Speaker 2: Windows ten eleven. It's usually there or easy to add
Speaker 2: via optional features. Then you can figure the slish agent
Speaker 2: service to run automatically. The agent handles the keys, hold
Speaker 2: your decrypted private key in memory securely, so you don't
Speaker 2: have to re enter your passphrase constantly. You'll generate modern
Speaker 2: public private key pairs EED two five nine time is recommended.
Speaker 1: Now share the public key, keep the private key secret.
Speaker 2: Exactly, upload the public key to services like get up,
Speaker 2: get lab, et cetera. Keep the private key safe. Test
Speaker 2: with keysst get at getub dot com. Forget on Linux
Speaker 2: WSL two, managing SSH keys gets interesting. You have options
Speaker 2: copy your Windows keys into WSL, or maybe share them
Speaker 2: via a symbolic link from MNPC and set permissions correctly.
Speaker 2: Then use a tool like keychain to manage your lucheche
Speaker 2: agent sessions within WSL to itself a.
Speaker 1: Bit fiddly, but doable for seamless SSH everywhere.
Speaker 2: It is and some seemingly small Get usage tips can
Speaker 2: actually dramatically reduce friction and cognitive load day to.
Speaker 1: Day, Like what Little Things Matter, Get check.
Speaker 2: Out dash switches you to the previous branch.
Speaker 1: You're on, oh instead of remembering the name exactly.
Speaker 2: It's a mental release, keeps you in the flow. Get
Speaker 2: config globalhelp dot Com. Autocorrect twenty tells get to wait
Speaker 2: two seconds twenty tens of a second, and automatically fix
Speaker 2: simple command typos like get stats because get status as.
Speaker 1: Time correcting mistakes.
Speaker 2: Love it and get push origin head lets you push
Speaker 2: your current branch to its remote counterpart without typing the
Speaker 2: branch name again.
Speaker 1: Hand you when working on feature branches.
Speaker 2: Together, these little things create a much more frictionless Git experience.
Speaker 2: You can also define powerful get aliases in your dot
Speaker 2: Git canfig like get s, for get.
Speaker 1: Status, short and common commands, or.
Speaker 2: Even create command aliases that run shell commands, like a
Speaker 2: quick get checkpoint alias that stages all changes and commits
Speaker 2: them with a generic message.
Speaker 1: Quick save point yep, and don't forget.
Speaker 2: Tools like tig. It's a fantastic text mode curses based
Speaker 2: Git browser for inspecting commits, branches, blame statues right in
Speaker 2: your terminal. Very powerful.
Speaker 1: Okay, TIG, I'll check that out. What about interacting with
Speaker 1: GitHub itself.
Speaker 2: That's where the get hub cligh comes in.
Speaker 1: Brilliant The disk command yeah, or g off log in.
Speaker 2: You can do things like GA repo create, which creates
Speaker 2: the repo locally and on GitHub dot com in one step.
Speaker 1: Oh nice.
Speaker 2: You can ghpr list to see poll requests, ghpr checkout
Speaker 2: pr id to instantly check out the code for a
Speaker 2: specific pull request. It really simplifies those common GitHub interactions.
Speaker 2: Now connecting to remote systems beyond get hosts, maybe actual servers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ssshing into servers, you'll.
Speaker 2: Typically choose between win RM, which is more common in
Speaker 2: corporate Windows environments, or SSH, which is much more flexible
Speaker 2: and works for both Windows servers and Linux servers.
Speaker 1: Ssh seems more universal generally.
Speaker 2: Yeah. To set up an SSH server on Windows itself,
Speaker 2: you install it via optional features. You can even change
Speaker 2: the default shell. Users get from CMD to PowerShell core
Speaker 2: via a registry.
Speaker 1: Key, so I can SSH into Windows and get.
Speaker 2: PowerShell you can, and public key authentication is key here too,
Speaker 2: using an authorized keys file, just like on Linux. For
Speaker 2: secure passwordless access.
Speaker 1: Okay, Standard SSH practice.
Speaker 2: SEP Secure copy part call which comes with SSH is
Speaker 2: your friend for copying files between your local machine and
Speaker 2: remote servers or vice versa at cplocalfile dot txt, user
Speaker 2: at server dot remote path CLASSICCP. And to make managing
Speaker 2: lots of connections easier, use your touch canfig file.
Speaker 1: The SSH canfig file.
Speaker 2: Yeah, centralize all your connection details there. To find a
Speaker 2: host nickname like host home, it's that the host name,
Speaker 2: the user, maybe even a remote command to run automatically
Speaker 2: on connection. Then you just type spoosh home.
Speaker 1: Much easier than remembering ips and usernames.
Speaker 2: Definitely. Finally, you can integrate these SSH connections directly into
Speaker 2: Windows Terminal, add custom profiles to your settings dot Jason
Speaker 2: file that just runs swish home or swoosh work server.
Speaker 2: Then that connection is just a click away in the
Speaker 2: new tab dropdown menu, or bind it to.
Speaker 1: A shortcut seamless SSH access from the terminal menu. Love it, okay? Last,
Speaker 1: Big Area cloud Management Azure AWSGCP. Can we manage those
Speaker 1: from Windows Terminal too?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, It's a huge use case for Microsoft Azure. The
Speaker 2: integration is obviously fair tight. Azure cloud Shell often shows
Speaker 2: up as an autocreative profile right and Windows Terminals.
Speaker 1: Drop down cloudsll profile. What is that?
Speaker 2: It connects you to a terminal environment, essentially a Linux
Speaker 2: container running an Azure It comes preloaded with all the
Speaker 2: Azure Cli tools as age, terraform, quebec, dole, lots of
Speaker 2: def tools. Your files can persist in linked Azure storage, so.
Speaker 1: Are ready to go Azure environments.
Speaker 2: Exactly and inside that or even locally. If you install
Speaker 2: the Azure Cli. The as interactive command is amazing. It
Speaker 2: drops you to a special shell with smart autocompletion for
Speaker 2: commands and parameters, inline documentation, and even.
Speaker 1: Examples interactive mode for as.
Speaker 2: Plus it helps you learn Jan's path. That's a powerful
Speaker 2: query language for filtering and reshaping the Jason output you
Speaker 2: get back from cloud APIs. As interactive lets you easily
Speaker 2: test james path queries.
Speaker 1: Filter that huge JSON blob down to what I need. Okay,
Speaker 1: what about Google Cloud?
Speaker 2: For Google Cloud, you'll typically use WSL two to run
Speaker 2: the g Cloud STK. It works best in a Linux environment.
Speaker 2: You run g Cloud in it.
Speaker 1: To link your accounts standard setup.
Speaker 2: Then you can use g cloud Beta cloudshell shosh authorized
Speaker 2: session to launch a connection to your Google cloudshell VM
Speaker 2: similar concept to azures and g Cloud Beta Interactive gives
Speaker 2: you a similar interactive shell with autocompletion and docks for
Speaker 2: g Cloud commands.
Speaker 1: So interactive shells are common AWS.
Speaker 2: For Amazon Web Services AWS, again, WSL two is often
Speaker 2: your best bet. For the standard AWSCLI, there's a tool
Speaker 2: called osshell ohshell Yeah. It's a Python based command line
Speaker 2: shell specifically for AWS. It provides autocompletion, command history, and
Speaker 2: also supports jme's path filtering via the core flag. It
Speaker 2: even lets you run local Shell commands using dot cmd.
Speaker 1: Nice any PowerShell options for AWS?
Speaker 2: Yes, alternatively, there are the AWS tools for PowerShell. These
Speaker 2: are native PowerShell modules that provide cmdal that's mapping directly
Speaker 2: to the AWSAPI. So if you prefer a PowerShell centric
Speaker 2: workflow from editing AWS, that's a great option too.
Speaker 1: Okay, tons of power there for cloud management right from
Speaker 1: the terminal. So what does this all mean for you,
Speaker 1: our listener? From transforming a basic, clunky command prompt into
Speaker 1: this multi tab, pain filled powerhouse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a huge leap.
Speaker 1: To seamlessly running Linux apps side by side with Windows tools,
Speaker 1: automating get workflows, managing complex cloud infrastructure. We've seen how
Speaker 1: Windows Terminal isn't just a window anymore. It's really your
Speaker 1: central hub for productivity. It's about being informed, being efficient,
Speaker 1: and truly mastering your digital workspace, all from the command line.
Speaker 2: And this raises an important question. I think, now that
Speaker 2: you've seen the sheer breadth of what's possible that tabs,
Speaker 2: the pains, the shells, the customization, the integrations, what other
Speaker 2: tools or workflows could you imagine integrating into your customized
Speaker 2: Windows Terminal experience? How could you make your daily work
Speaker 2: even more fluid with.
Speaker 1: This good question to ponder, Keep exploring, keep customizing, and
Speaker 1: keep uncovering those deep insights. We hope this journey has
Speaker 1: given you a solid headstart on becoming a Windows terminal pro.
Speaker 1: Next time,