Will Fuqua - Windows Terminal Tips, Tricks, and Productivity Hacks: Optimize your command-line usage and development processes with pro-level techniques

Optimize your command-line usage and development processes with pro-level techniques

Will Fuqua

BIRMINGHAMMUMBAI

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To my kind and loving wife, Koi, who showed the utmost patience during the writing of this book.

Will

Whether you are building a web app or working in the cloud, the command line has always been an integral tool for software developers and IT admins alike. For many years, the Windows command-line experience lagged behind that of Unix-based systems. Even simple things, such as selecting and copying text, required you to jump through hoops.

In the 2010s, Microsoft began to improve the command-line experience with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), PowerShell improvements, and a command-line interface. WSL provided a first-party solution to running a Linux environment on your Windows device. PowerShell continued to receive incremental improvements to surpass the usability of CMD. The Windows Package Manager released a command-line interface as a first-party solution to install software on your machine. Even with all of these command-line tools, Windows lacked a solid terminal to host them in and Microsoft quickly realized how difficult it was to make improvements without breaking certain legacy behavior.

In 2019, Microsoft introduced the Windows Terminal, a new unified experience for hosting command-line tools. To make things better, Windows Terminal was open sourced alongside the in-box console host experience with which Windows command-line users were already familiar. It put customizability first, with a profile-based settings model and key bindings. Furthermore, a rapid release cycle helped to collect and address user feedback swiftly.

This book does a fantastic job of teaching you how to set up Windows Terminal and make it your own. You will learn how to create and manage your profiles to get the most out of your terminal and customize your actions and key bindings to be an effective user. Even better, you will learn how to get started using the terminal more often in day-to-day activities. The author teaches you how to use PowerShell and bash and how to customize them for your needs. The book will also teach you how to apply these tools to build apps, manage remote systems, and interact with the cloud.

Carlos Zamora

Software Engineer on Windows Terminal at Microsoft

Will Fuqua has been developing software professionally for 12 years using a wide range of technologies. Initially based in the United States as a software consultant, he developed production systems for companies in the healthcare and finance industries, among many others. He then moved abroad and is now the Head of Engineering for an online travel agency, where he leads a high-powered technology team out of Bangkok, Thailand. You can find him online at https://fuqua.io/.

Chester Liu is an open source enthusiast living in China. He got his first job as an iOS developer in 2016, after he graduated from college. During his professional career, he has worked on various platforms and in different areas. He is a long-time member of the GitHub community and has been contributing to the Windows Terminal project since 2019, after the project was open sourced by Microsoft. His contribution to the project falls into different areas, including, but not limited to, rendering, performance, and VT support.

I'd like to thank the core team of the Console subsystem at Microsoft, who I'm glad to have made acquaintance with through our collaboration in the Windows Terminal project. They went through the trouble of convincing the management to open source a deep OS component of the Windows OS itself, just to bring the community a thrilling console experience. At the end of the day, the members of the console team are the ones who dived into the legacy console source code and have been trying to improve the console experience on Windows for the past several years. Dustin L. Howett, the tech leader of the console team, is one of the coolest tech leaders I know, and I'm truly honored to be a member of his "external" team.

Daniel Engberg is a principal consultant and partner at Agdiwo, an IT services company based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Daniel's focus is Microsoft enterprise client management, including Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly System Center Configuration Manager), Windows 10, and PowerShell.

Daniel has been writing on his blog since 2010 and is active on Twitter.