Setting up PowerShell environment

Windows 11

Windows 11 comes with Windows Terminal pre-installed.

Once you install the latest PowerShell, you will automatically have Cascadia Code Mono and PSReadLine and don't need to do any additional work.

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget

Open an Admin powershell and run:

oh-my-posh font install

Choose Cascadia Code and it will download and install CaskaydiaCove NerdFont.

Open Windows Terminal settings

Rendering > Set Use the new text renderer (“AtlasEngine”) to On Profiles > Defaults > Appearance then Turn on Retro terminal effects and change the Background image and settings if you wish. Profiles > Defaults > Appearance set font to CaskaydiaCove NerdFont Mono

For the profiles you don't want, choose Hide profile from dropdown.

Open your Powershell profile with code $profile

oh-my-posh init pwsh | Invoke-Expression

Restart Windows Terminal, or reload your profile with . $profile

oh-my-posh debug to view diagnostics of Oh My Posh if you think it or its themes are slowing down your prompt.

Terminal: Windows Terminal

Install from Windows Store (auto-updating) or:

winget install --id=Microsoft.WindowsTerminal -e

Shell: PowerShell Core

• Install latest stable PowerShell Core from https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/latest
• Configure PowerShell Core as your default shell in Windows Terminal by going to Settings or hitting ctrl+, and ensure the default profile GUID matches the PowerShell GUID (not the Windows PowerShell GUID)

Font: Cascadia Code

This is a new monospaced font from Microsoft developed for Windows Terminal, to be used for command-line apps and text editors.

If you have Windows 11 or Visual Studio 2022, Cascadia Code will be installed, but you may still want to download the latest full release which includes Powerline and ligatures

• Download latest release from https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code/releases
• Extract the zip, right click the TTF files and choose Install for all users
• Recommended: Cascadia Code PL (includes ligatures, and Powerline symbols)

Set this in your Windows Terminal settings e.g.

    "profiles":
    [
        {
            "guid": "{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "PowerShell",
            "source": "Windows.Terminal.PowerShellCore",
            "fontFace": "Cascadia Code PL"
        }
    ],

Visual Studio Code (VSCode)

In File > Preferences > Settings, search for terminal font and set Terminal > Integrated: Font Family to Cascadia Code PL

Visual Studio

1. Open Tools > Options
2. Environment > Font and Colors
3. Under the Show settings for: dropdown, select Terminal
4. Set the Font to Cascadia Code PL

PSReadLine

Install the official improved PowerShell command-line editing

Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -AllowPrerelease -Scope CurrentUser -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

Add to your $profile:

if ($host.Name -eq 'ConsoleHost')
{
    Import-Module PSReadLine
}

Updating PSReadLine

If you need to update PSReadLine, you should close down all open PowerShell sessions and run from Win+R:

pwsh.exe -noprofile -command "Install-Module PSReadLine -Force -SkipPublisherCheck -AllowPrerelease"

PowerShell theming: Oh-My-Posh

• Install Oh-My-Posh for console theming and coloured indicators
• Install Posh-Git for git status indicators

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget

Install-Module posh-git -Scope CurrentUser -Force
Install-Module oh-my-posh -Scope CurrentUser -Force

or to update:

Update-Module posh-git
Update-Module oh-my-posh

Add to your $profile:

Import-Module posh-git
Import-Module oh-my-posh
Set-PoshPrompt -Theme paradox

Themes other than Paradox can be seen at https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh#themes

Auto-completion

dotnet

Enable dotnet auto-completion by adding the following to your $profile:

# PowerShell parameter completion shim for the dotnet CLI
Register-ArgumentCompleter -Native -CommandName dotnet -ScriptBlock {
     param($commandName, $wordToComplete, $cursorPosition)
         dotnet complete --position $cursorPosition "$wordToComplete" | ForEach-Object {
            [System.Management.Automation.CompletionResult]::new($_, $_, 'ParameterValue', $_)
         }
 }

WinGet

Add WinGet auto-completion by adding the following to your $profile:

Register-ArgumentCompleter -Native -CommandName winget -ScriptBlock {
    param($wordToComplete, $commandAst, $cursorPosition)
        [Console]::InputEncoding = [Console]::OutputEncoding = $OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Utf8Encoding]::new()
        $Local:word = $wordToComplete.Replace('"', '""')
        $Local:ast = $commandAst.ToString().Replace('"', '""')
        winget complete --word="$Local:word" --commandline "$Local:ast" --position $cursorPosition | ForEach-Object {
            [System.Management.Automation.CompletionResult]::new($_, $_, 'ParameterValue', $_)
        }
}

References

Tutorial: Set up Powerline in Windows Terminal