Transforming Your Windows Terminal into a Mac-Like Experience

If you’re a Windows user who admires the sleek and efficient Mac terminal, you don’t have to envy it any longer. With a few simple steps, you can turn your Windows terminal into a Mac-like experience by installing Clink and Oh My Posh. Additionally, we’ll also guide you through the process of installing Git, which will empower you to use powerful Linux commands

Step 1: Installing Clink: Clink is a powerful tool that enhances the Windows command prompt with features like persistent history, improved tab completion, and line editing. Follow these steps to install Clink:

Head on over to

Releases · chrisant996/clink

and select the setup.exe

Run through the install.

Step 2: Install oh-my-posh: Lets get your command line looking like a mac. Open a command terminal a run the command

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget

Once that has completed you will want to install a font. It is recommened to use Nerd Font.

oh-my-posh font install

If you run into an issue with permission, you can install it for just your user by passing the

-- user flag to the end of the install command above.

Scroll down the list and select Nerd Font.

Since we already have clink installed we have a way to use custom prompts for our command terminal now.

If you are not sure what terminal you are using you can run the command

oh-my-posh get shell

Step 3: Pick a theme:

Scroll down to themes or you can follow the link https://ohmyposh.dev/docs/themes

There is a very wide selection of themes to choose from. I personally like the plague theme so will be using that for this example.

Once you have selected your theme follow the link to github for that theme. Select raw in the right hand corner.

Now you just need to grab the address from the address bar.

For plague theme
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh/main/themes/plague.omp.json

Now in your brand new clink terminal, you will want to run the command

clink info

this will tell us where your scripts directory is.

Typically it will be
C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\clink

It is in this directory that you will create a new file named

oh-my-posh.lua

inside of that file you can copy and paste this

load(io.popen(‘oh-my-posh init cmd --config https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh/main/themes/plague.omp.json'):read("*a"))()

If you are using a different theme you will replace the https with the https to your theme.

Save the file and exit any terminals that you have open and re-open it and you will have a great looking terminal.

IF You also want to setup your powershell. Follow these steps.

1. Open a PowerShell terminal and run the command

code $PROFILE

This will open the profile for your powershell.

If you dont have a profile you can create it using this command

New-Item -Path $PROFILE -Type File -Force

Inside the file add the following line

oh-my-posh init pwsh | Invoke-Expression

on the next line add

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config “https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh/main/themes/plague.omp.json” | Invoke-Expression

Save the file and in your terminal reload the profile for the change to take effect using this command

. $PROFILE

Now personally I like the Linux commands to move around the terminal and do what I need to on a daily basis.

when you install git you are given an option to

Use git and optional Unix tools from the Command Prompt

Selecting this will allow you to use the Linux commands like ls -la in your command prompt.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully transformed your Windows terminal into a Mac-like experience with the help of Clink and Oh My Posh. Moreover, by selecting the correct Git option during install, you’ve gained the ability to use powerful Linux commands like ls on your Windows machine. Enjoy your improved terminal experience, complete with enhanced functionality and an aesthetically pleasing look. Happy coding!