This tutorial will show you how to change the default color scheme for all or specific shell profiles in Windows Terminal for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Windows Terminal is a modern host application for the command-line shells you already love, like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and bash (via Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)). Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and the ability to create your own themes and customize text, colors, backgrounds, and shortcuts.
Windows Terminal lets you define your own color schemes, either by using the built-in preset schemes, or by creating your own custom scheme from scratch.
A color scheme is a theme of colors applied to the foreground, background, cursor, and selection background in Windows Terminal.
You can apply a color scheme as default to all profiles.
You can also apply a color scheme to specific individual profiles that will use it as their own default color scheme instead of the default applied to all profiles.
Reference:
Windows Terminal Color Schemes
Learn how to create color schemes for Windows Terminal.
learn.microsoft.com
Contents
- Option One: Change Default Color Scheme for All Profiles in Windows Terminal
- Option Two: Change Default Color Scheme for Specific Profile in Windows Terminal
1 Open Windows Terminal.
2 Click/tap on the down arrow button on the top bar, and click/tap on Settings Ctrl + , (comma). (see screenshot below)
3 Click/tap on Color schemes in the left pane, and click/tap on an available built-in or custom color scheme (ex: "Campbell") you want to set as default in the right pane. (see screenshot below)
The current default color scheme will have default to the right of it.
4 Click/tap on Set as default, and click/tap on Save to apply. (see screenshot below)
1 Open Windows Terminal.
2 Click/tap on the down arrow button on the top bar, and click/tap on Settings Ctrl + , (comma). (see screenshot below)
3 Under Profiles in the left pane, click/tap on a shell profile (ex: "Windows PowerShell") you want to change the color scheme of, and click/tap on Appearance in the right pane. (see screenshot below)
Selecting the Defaults profile will be the same as doing Option One for all profiles.
4 Select an available built-in or custom color scheme (ex: "Campbell") you want to set as default in the Color scheme drop menu, and click/tap on Save to apply. (see screenshot below)
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Last edited:
