How to add Ubuntu Tab to Windows 10’s New Terminal
Microsoft recently released a new terminal application called Windows terminal which allows it’s users to add any console window to a new tab. Let me show you how to add Ubuntu tab to the windows terminal.
By default, Windows Terminal comes with PowerShell and Command Prompt tabs. If you want to, you can add any number of other consoles to the Windows Terminal. For example, if you are a web developer and need to add a Linux console to Windows Terminal. You can do that by adding a few lines of code in a JSON file.
Step 1 : Install Linux Subsystem for Windows 10
What is Linux Subsystem for Windows ?
The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a type of resource within the Windows operating system that allows users to run Linux command lines on a computer with a Windows operating system installed. This enables developers and others to work “natively” in a Linux environment when languages like Ruby or Python are more conveniently utilized through the Linux interface.
Verify Your windows 10 Version
Make sure that you are running 64-bit Windows 10 operating system with Fall Creators Update (v1709) or above to use Linux Subsystem for Windows. If you are unsure, check Windows 10 version and proceed to the next steps.
Installation of the New Windows 10 Terminal
I hope that you have installed the New terminal from Github. If not go and do that first as this tutorial is for the people who have already installed the Terminal. There are some Pre-requisites for it which you’ll find in the documentation for installing the Terminal itself. Make sure you pay attention as a version mismatch led me to a lot of trouble.
Control Panel
Open the start menu and search for “Turn Windows features on or off”, then click and open it. Now, Scroll to the bottom end and enable “Windows Subsystems for Linux”. As soon as you click on the ok button, Windows downloads any necessary files and installs Linux subsystem.
Once done, click on the Restart now button to reboot Windows.
Installing Linux OS
After rebooting Windows, you can use the Microsoft store to find the Linux OS of your choice and install it. You can see that I have installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS here you can go for other available choices as you wish.
Once Installed click on Launch button or Open it from start menu. A new window will appear as shown…
Once Installed it’ll ask you to set username and password for UNIX account. Note : Username need not be same as your windows username.
The Final Trick
Once Everything’s done, in the Ubuntu window, execute the uuidgen command. This will give a unique GUID, copy it. We are going to need that GUID in the coming steps. So, keep the window open or copy and paste it in a Notepad File.
Now, open Windows Terminal by searching for it in the start menu.In the Terminal window, click on the dropdown icon and select “Settings” (Make sure you press Alt key while doing this).
{"acrylicOpacity":0.75,"closeOnExit":true,"colorScheme":"Campbell","commandline":"wsl.exe -d Ubuntu","cursorColor":"#FFFFFF","cursorShape":"bar","fontFace":"Consolas","fontSize":12,"guid":"{Your-GUID}","historySize":9001,"icon":"C:/Dev/ubuntuicon.png","name":"Ubuntu","padding":"0, 0, 0, 0","snapOnInput":true,"startingDirectory":"%USERPROFILE%","useAcrylic":true}
Paste the Above Code by replacing guid with Your Guid ( The one we got using uuidgen). Something like this…(Make sure to replace your guid).
Press Ctrl+S to save your work. Now, go back to the Windows Terminal and click on the dropdown menu. You will see the new Ubuntu option.
(Optional) Getting the ubuntu icon.
Once You have successfully added the ubuntu terminal You won’t get the ubuntu icon as I have shown above You’ll get the old unix Penguin Logo. So if you want to customise it a little bit or add your own icon here are the steps.
Go to the Place Where you’ve installed Windows 10 Terminal. I am not talking about the Ubuntu Terminal, I am talking about the repo you got from Microsoft’s Github for installing the Windows 10 terminal and you used for installing it.
Now Go to that folder and open the folder “src\cascadia\CascadiaPackage\bin\x64\Release\AppX\ProfileIcons”
The contents of which will something like the image shown below. All you need to do is to replace the icons while keeping the same filename.
Final Image after changing the icon.
I Hope you enjoyed Your Stay here…
