Windows Terminal: Tips, Tricks, and Productivity Hacks

Welcome! Today we’ll be reviewing Windows Terminal: Tips, Tricks, and Productivity Hacks by Will Fuqua.

For better or for worse, we live in a day and age where books, media, cereal, and even Amazon products are often vastly over advertised but seldom deliver – this book is the anthesis to that sentiment. Is this book the most interesting thing you’ll read all year? No. Will it win any awards, prizes, or place itself on the New York Times “Best Sellers” list? No. Will you walk away from reading this book with the enlightenment of a Buddhist monk who has dedicated the better part of his life to meditating on a mountain, pondering the vast expanse of the human experience? Definitely not. But you will get the bill of goods sold on the box – tips, tricks, and productivity hacks with the Windows Terminal no more and (definitely) no less.

With all of that being said – if you bought this book, you’re a specific kind of audience. You’re likely an IT professional who has to work with the terminal in some meaningful way. Maybe you’re what Microsoft likes to call a “power user” that attempts to leverage the impressive strength (and simplicity) of the Powershell language, but you want to learn more. To be clear – this will not teach you HOW to use the terminal, its just here to provide tips and tricks. The coolest thing I learned from reading this book is how to effectively customize my Windows Terminal in any way I see fit. You’ll learn how to change the terminal prompt, how to customize the text, layout, tab behavior, color scheme, cursor behavior, and much, much more. For the uninitiated, you can think of the Windows Terminal as a wrapper for your favorite terminal, whether that be Telnet, SSH, CMD, or Powershell – and with Windows Terminal you can have all of these (and more) open simultaneously in different tabs, pretty neat huh? The author does a good job of keeping you engaged and delivering on his promise as he teaches you (I think) all the cool tips, tricks, and productivity hacks there are to discover in the Windows Terminal. Its worth mentioning too that if you ever wondered “How do I make my Windows Terminal look as cool as my coworkers??” this book is for you! Its a small book, but it delivers – and that’s worth its weight in gold. Kudos to the author of this book, he did a fantastic job writing it and I think its worth a try if you’re interested in learning more about the Windows Terminal.