Hot keys windows terminal

In this digital age, keyboard shortcuts have become an essential aspect of our daily computing experience. They enable us to navigate and operate our devices with speed and efficiency. Windows Terminal, Microsoft’s powerful command-line application, is no exception. Learning and utilizing keyboard shortcuts in Windows Terminal can significantly enhance your productivity and make your command-line interactions smoother and more enjoyable. In this article, we’ll explore a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts tailored to enhance your experience with Windows Terminal.

Understanding Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is a modern, feature-rich command-line application developed by Microsoft. It serves as a central hub for accessing various shells, including Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Windows Terminal brings them together in a single, highly customizable interface, allowing developers and power users to work efficiently.

The Importance of Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts serve as time-saving tools that can drastically improve your efficiency while working on the command-line. Instead of relying solely on mouse-clicks and traditional commands, learning the right keyboard shortcuts empowers you to navigate and control Windows Terminal with lightning speed.

Navigating the Windows Terminal Interface

Opening and Closing Tabs

• Ctrl + Shift + T: Open a new tab.
• Ctrl + Shift + W: Close the current tab.

Switching Between Tabs

• Ctrl + Tab: Switch to the next tab.
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Switch to the previous tab.
• Ctrl + Number: Switch to a specific tab using its index number.

Splitting Panes

• Alt + Shift + D: Split the current pane horizontally.
• Alt + Shift + |: Split the current pane vertically.

Text Selection and Manipulation

Copying and Pasting Text

• Ctrl + Shift + C: Copy selected text.
• Ctrl + Shift + V: Paste copied text.

Selecting Text with Keyboard

• Shift + Arrow Keys: Select text character by character.
• Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Keys: Select text word by word.

Scrolling Through Terminal History

• Ctrl + Shift + ↑/↓: Scroll through the terminal history.

Command Execution and Control

Running Commands

• Ctrl + Enter: Run the selected command.
• Ctrl + Shift + Enter: Run the command as Administrator.

Clearing the Terminal Screen

• Ctrl + Shift + L: Clear the terminal screen.

Interrupting Command Execution

• Ctrl + C: Terminate the currently running command.

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

Modifying Default Shortcuts

• Ctrl + ,: Open the Windows Terminal settings file to modify default shortcuts.

Creating Custom Shortcuts

• Ctrl + K, Ctrl + S: Create a new custom keyboard shortcut.

Integrating with PowerShell and WSL

PowerShell Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl + Shift + D: Split the current pane in PowerShell.
• Ctrl + Shift + ↑/↓: Scroll through PowerShell history.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Shortcuts

• Alt + ←/→: Switch between WSL terminal sessions.

Mastering Windows Terminal

Efficient File and Directory Navigation

• Tab: Autocomplete file and directory names.
• Ctrl + Shift + M: Open the dropdown for selecting a shell.

Terminal Customization Tips

• Ctrl + Shift + +/–: Zoom in or out the terminal text size.
• Ctrl + Shift + F: Toggle full-screen mode.

Advanced Command-Line Tricks

• Ctrl + /: Comment or uncomment a selected block of text.
• Ctrl + ↑/↓: Move the cursor to the beginning/end of the terminal.

Boosting Productivity with Keyboard Shortcuts

Using keyboard shortcuts efficiently can significantly enhance your productivity, allowing you to perform complex tasks with ease and speed. Mastering these shortcuts will make your command-line experience smoother and more enjoyable.

Troubleshooting Shortcut Issues

If you encounter issues with certain keyboard shortcuts, make sure that they are not conflicting with other software or system-wide shortcuts. Additionally, check for updates to Windows Terminal, as Microsoft regularly introduces improvements and bug fixes.

FAQs

Conclusion

In conclusion, Windows Terminal is a powerful tool for developers and tech enthusiasts, and mastering keyboard shortcuts can unleash its full potential. By navigating efficiently, selecting and manipulating text swiftly, and running commands effortlessly, you’ll become a command-line pro in no time. Embrace the power of keyboard shortcuts and take your Windows Terminal experience to new heights!

Windows Terminal is an open-source terminal application that allows you to access various command-line tools and shells such as PowerShell, CMD, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and other custom shells.

It comes with useful features including multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, clickable URLs, graphical settings interface, and customizable themes, text, colors, backgrounds, and shortcut key bindings.

From Windows 10 version 1903, Microsoft started rolling out Windows Terminal as an inbuilt application, which means it will be automatically installed with the OS. If you don’t have Windows Terminal already installed, you can download and install it from the Microsoft Store or the GitHub releases page, or the official Microsoft Website.

List of all Windows Terminal Keyboard Shortcut keys

When you are using command-line tools like Windows Terminal, you would primarily use the keyboard to type and execute commands. So whenever you move your hand away from the keyboard to use the mouse to perform an action, it is a waste of time. Fortunately, Windows Terminals offers several Keyboard shortcuts/hotkeys for all important tasks like opening a new tab, switching between tabs, switch to/from full-screen mode, etc.

Instead of searching for Windows Terminal in the Windows search bar every time you want to launch it, you can pin it to the Taskbar. Then, you can simply click on the Windows Terminal icon from the taskbar or you can use the Windows + number keyboard shortcut to open it.

For instance, if you have Google Chrome, File Explorer, Word, and Windows Terminal from left to right on your taskbar, then you can use Windows + 4 to quickly open Windows Terminal, minimize it, or view it if it’s already open. The number 4 is the position of the app on the taskbar. Likewise, Windows + 1 would launch Google Chrome and Windows + 2 would launch File Explorer, and Windows + 3 would open MS Word.

Now let’s see the list of most useful Windows Terminal keyboard shortcuts you should know.

How to Customize and Change Windows Terminal Keybaord Shortcuts

As we mentioned before, Windows Terminal is an open-source application, you customize it however you want, which includes the keyboard shortcut keys (Key bindings). You can add new hotkeys and customize all the pre-existing hotkeys in the Windows Terminal by editing the ‘settings.json’ file.

settings.json file is the main configuration file that contains VS code settings and other configuration information of the Windows Terminal application. It can be easily modified to suit your needs. You can modify any key binding/shortcuts through the ‘actions’ property (formerly keybindings) in the ‘settings.json’ file.

Windows Terminal has two JSON file that holds settings for the application. One is ‘defaults.json’ which you cannot edit/modify, but you can use it as a reference to know the default configuration. And the other is ‘settings.json’ which you can edit to customize the app.

To access the ‘settings.json’ file, click the drop-down menu next to the plus (+) button at the top of the Windows Terminal window, and select ‘Settings’.

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Then, click the ‘Open JSON file’ option at the bottom of the left-side navigation bar.

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If this is the first time you’re opening a JSON file, it will ask you ‘How do you want to open this file?’ (With which app). You can open and edit JSON files in any text editor. So, select the ‘More apps ↓’ option to choose your text editor.

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Then scroll down, select a text editor (the inbuilt Notepad works fine), and click ‘OK’. You can also check the ‘Alway use this app to open .json files’ box to make this app the default app for JSON files.

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This will open the settings.json file in the Notepad.

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If you want to open the ‘default.json’ file to use it as a reference for the default settings, just click the ‘Open JSON file’ option while holding the Alt key.

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Remember ‘defaut.json’ file is not intended for user manipulation, it can only be used for reference.

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In the ‘settings.json’, you would probably see only a few key bindings objects under the ‘action’ (formerly, key bindings) property. It is because most of the key bindings are only stored on the ‘default.json file’.

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If you go through the ‘defaults.json’ file, you will find all the default key binding objects grouped into several categories under the ‘actions’ array.

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If a certain shortcut key/hotkey is not convenient to you and you want to change it or you want to add a new hotkey for an action, then you can copy the relevant key binding object from the ‘defaults.json’ file to the ‘settings.json’ file and change the keys property in the object. Each key binding object has a ‘command’ value (which is a string) and a ‘keys’ value (which is the combination of shortcut texts).

For example, if you want to modify the hotkeys for ‘closing the current pane’ to Ctrl+Shift+X instead of the default Ctrl+Shift+W, then just replace the default shortcut keys with your shortcut. To do that, here we are copying the ‘closepane’ object from the ‘default.json’ file.

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And pasting that object under the ‘action’ property of the ‘settings.json’ file. Then, replacing the shortcut key (Keys value) Ctrl+Shift+W with Ctrl+Shift+X as shown below.

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Don’t try to change anything else in the key bindings objects, only change the shortcut text.

After changing the shortcut, click ‘File’ and select ‘Save’ or press Ctrl + S to save the changes.

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You can use this same method to add new shortcut keys. Also when you are changing shortcut text, make sure it doesn’t conflict with other shortcut keys in the file.

That’s all the shortcuts keys you should know in Windows Terminal.

Windows Terminal app offer a single console for all command line interfaces. By default, you can access Command Prompt, Windows PowerShell and Azure Cloud Shell. You can also add additional app profiles to include them in Terminal app. As with any command line interfaces, using keyboard shortcuts can save plenty of time when using Terminal app. Fortunately, the app comes with 40+ useful shortcuts and you can customize each shortcut or add a new shortcut if you need. Check our guide to learn more about using Terminal app.

Complete List of Windows Terminal App Shortcuts

When you are in Terminal app, press “Control + Comma” keys to open “Settings” section. Navigate to “Actions” menu from the sidebar to view the complete list of available actions with corresponding keyboard shortcuts. You can use the keyboard shortcuts to trigger the actions easily and save time. Here we have grouped all default keyboard shortcuts into the following five categories. Note that some actions have multiple shortcuts like pasting content from clipboard can be done with “Control + V” or “Shift + Insert” or “Control + Shift + V” keys.

General Terminal Shortcuts

• Control + Shift + W – close current pane
• Alt + F4 – close the app window
• Control + C – copy selected text. You can also use “Control + Insert” or Control + Shift + C” keys.
• Control + Minus – reduce font size
• Control + Plus – increase font size
• Control + 0 – reset font size to default
• Control + Shift + F – Find text
• Control + V – paste content from clipboard. You can also use “Control + Shift + V” or Shift + Insert” shortcuts for pasting.
• Control + A – select all text, you can also use “Control + Shift + A” keys.

Open Command Shortcuts

•  Alt + Control + Comma – open default JSON settings file
•  Shift + Control + Comma – open JSON settings file
•  Control + Shift + Space – show dropdown for new tab
•  Control + Comma – open Terminal app’s settings  page
•  Alt + Space – open default system menu
•  Control + Shift + P – show or hide command palette

Managing Tabs, Panes and Window

•  Control + Shift + T – open a new tab with default profile
•  Control + Shift + N – open a new app window
•  Control + Shift + 1 to 9 – open a new tab with corresponding profile index
•  Alt + Shift + D – duplicate a pane
•  Control + Shift + D – duplicate a tab

Resizing Terminal App

•  Alt + Shift + Down Arrow – resize pane down
•  Alt + Shift + Left Arrow – resize pane left
•  Alt + Shift + Right Arrow – resize pane to the right
•  Alt + Shift + Up Arrow – resize pane up
•  Alt + Shift + Minus – split pane horizontally
•  Alt + Shift + Plus – split pane vertically
•  Alt + Enter – toggle full screen mode, you can also use F11 key.

Navigating in Terminal

•  Alt + Down Arrow – move focus down
•  Alt + Left Arrow – move focus to left
•  Alt + Right Arrow – move focus to right
•  Alt + Up Arrow – move focus up
•  Alt + Control + Left Arrow – move the focus to last used pane
•  Control + Tab – navigate to next tab in the app
•  Control + Shift + Tab – navigate to previous tab in the app
•  Control + Shift + Down Arrow – scroll to the bottom
•  Control + Shift + Up Arrow – scroll to the top
•  Control + Shift + Page Down – move one page in down direction
•  Control + Shift + Page Up – move one page in up direction
•  Control + Shift + Home – go to first command in the history
•  Control + Shift + End – go to last command in the history
•  Alt + Control + 1 to 9 – go to corresponding tab number

Using Keyboard Shortcuts in Terminal App

All the above shortcuts will work when you are in one of the command line interface tabs like Command Prompt. Make sure you are not in the app’s settings page as the shortcuts may not work on that page. Here are some good examples of using the above shortcuts in Terminal app.

Press “Alt + Shift + Minus” keys and then “Alt + Shift + Plus” keys to split the app’s tab into multiple panes.

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Open Command Palette with “Control + Shift + P” shortcuts using which you can quickly find commands and execute in Terminal app.

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Open the new tab menu using “Control + Shift + Space” keys to access the options available for opening a new tab in Terminal app.

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Changing the Default Shortcut for Action

Good thing is that you do not need to settle with the default assigned shortcuts for actions. Terminal app allows you to change the default keyboard assignments for the actions.

• Press “Control + Comma” keys to open Terminal settings page.
• Navigate to “Actions” menu and hover over an action that you want to edit.
• Click the pencil icon showing next to the shortcut keys.

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• This will open both the action and shortcut keys for editing. Select any action from the dropdown and type new shortcut keys in the text box.

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• After that, click the tick mark button and then click “Save” button to apply the new shortcut assignment.

Note: You can also press the delete icon to completely delete the shortcut assignment.

Creating New Shortcut

As you can see, the action dropdown contains plenty of items in the list and not all the actions are assigned with shortcut keys. For example, you can assign a new shortcut for “Swap pane up” action. You can use this swap option when splitting the panes horizontally with “Alt + Shift + Minus” keys as explained above.

• For creating a new shortcut, click the “+ Add new” button when you are in “Actions” menu.
• Select new action from the dropdown menu list.
• Click in the text box and press your shortcut keys combination.
• Finally, click the tick mark button to add your newly created shortcut in the list.

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Windows Terminal is an open-source terminal app that lets you use command-line tools, including Command Prompt, PowerShell, and more. It has many useful features, and it gets easier to work on if you know a few shortcuts.

This guide contains a list of all the essential Windows Terminal shortcuts that you should know.

What are the most valuable shortcuts for Windows Terminal?

1. Opening Windows Terminal

2. Moving between tabs

3. Customize the look of Terminal

4. Change Focus

5. Access Settings & advanced features

6. Other useful shortcuts & actions

That’s it! These are some useful Windows Terminal shortcuts that you can use to improve productivity.

If you want to know easy ways to open Terminal on Windows 11, we suggest you read this guide.

To learn more about the Terminal we have a great guide on Command Prompt vs Windows Terminal that will answer all your questions.

So go ahead and note them down, and let us know which ones you use the most in the comments section below.

Loredana is a passionate writer with a keen interest in PC software and technology. She started off writing about mobile phones back when Samsung Galaxy S II was on top of the world and she fell in love with tech of all sorts.

Whenever she’s not at her work desk, you’ll find her enjoying refreshing tea flavors, spilling stories on paper, and listening to the radio.