It’s time to switch to the 64-bit version of Windows 10 if you’re still using the 32-bit version, anyway. Assuming you have 64-bit Windows, to get started, head to Control Panel Programs Turn Windows Features On Or Off. Enable the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” option in the list, and then click the “OK” button.

1. Serial Terminal Emulator Windows 10
2. Install Hyperterminal In Windows 10
3. Terminal Emulator Windows 10 Serial

For a long time Windows 10 hasn’t had a great command line interface. As a result, developers and system admins have installed third-party options to emulate Unix style and other kinds of consoles. And while it’s possible to get a bash shell inside Windows 10 now, many users still prefer a more configurable terminal emulator. Check out the best terminal emulators for Windows 10 below.

1. MobaXterm

Rammed with robust features like X11 servers, a library of plugins, and even its own protocol clients, MobaXterm is a great server tool with myriad Terminal options for those who really want to dig deep (conversely, you may find it a bit bloated if you just want to do lighter Putty work, for example).

It lets you set up remote terminals in SSH, telnet, rlogin and Mosh, and has an intuitive interface that lets you set up multiple SSH taps, split terminals horizontally/vertically, among other quality-of-life features. Naturally, it has all the Unix commands you need too, letting you work much as you would in Linux.

There’s a limited free version of MobaXterm that lets you have up to 12 sessions, two SSH tunnels, and 4 macros (it also has a portable version). If you want the full package, you’ll need to pay $69 for a lifetime right-to-use which removes all the aforementioned limitations.

2. ZOC Terminal

One of the best tools for people needing to access data on Unix accounts from Windows, ZOC Terminal, may not be free ($79.99), but it’s still a great value for more advanced users.

One of its key perks are tabs, so you can have several Terminal sessions going on at once across SSH, telnet, QNX, and other terminals. It’s brimming with commands and is highly customizable to suit your personal terminal-tinkering style.

Its emulations are robust and complete, offering features like mouse and keyboard support, print-through and line graphics. And it’s a cinch to search for specific bits of text in your work, then highlight them.

3. cmder

cmder is a well-known portable terminal emulator for Windows 10 that was built from the “pure frustration” caused by the lack of a good alternative in Windows. It’s built on top of another well-known console emulator, ConEmu, and enhanced with Clink. Clink extends the power of ConEmu, adding shell features like bash-style completion. It’s broadly compatible, working with msysgit, PowerShell, cygwin and mintty, bringing Unix capabilities to Windows.

Since it’s completely portable, you can run cmder off a USB drive that you use on various machines without installing files on local hard drives, making it a support specialist’s best friend. As a bonus, it ships with the much-loved Monokai color scheme to coordinate your hacking with Sublime Text.

4. ConEmu

ConEmu is a Windows console emulator with tabs, multiple windows and a variety of customization options. Its lineage reaches way back in history: ConEmu was initially created as a companion to Far Manager, a file and archive manager released for Windows in 1996. But despite its age, the software is continuously developed.

The emulator provides a deep menu of settings to tweak and hotkeys to assign, drawing in keyboard warriors from Vim and Emacs. ConEmu in compatible with many of the same popular shells as cmder, like cmd.exe, PowerShell, cygwin, PuTTY and others. If you install a DOS emulator like DosBox, you can run DOS applications in a 64-bit environment. But because ConEmu isn’t a shell, it doesn’t include helpful shell features like remote connections and tab completion. While it retains many die-hard fans, ConEmu might not be the best console emulator for new users.

5. Console

Console is a terminal emulator and console enhancement for Windows 10 that focuses on direct use and simple interaction. It provides full command-line capabilities, and its straight-forward design hides a significant degree of power and customization. It integrates with all the major shells and lets you customize window styles, transparency, fonts and text colors. But Console isn’t as all-spanning as ConEmu, so very advanced users might find themselves limited by the software.

6. Babun

Babun comes with bash and zsh out of the box, providing tools that both beginner and advanced users can use immediately. It’s built on top of Cygwin, porting a Unix-style interface to Windows 10. You can use oh-my-zsh to configure zsh’s wide variety of options, giving you greater control over your shell’s functionality that you’ll get in other applications. It also includes the pact package manager and HTTP proxying out the box.

7. Mintty

If you only use Cygwin for your Windows shell, then Mintty is an excellent console emulator. In fact, Mintty is installed as the default terminal emulator. Like the other options on this list, Mintty provides a collection of additional features like drag-and-drop, full screen, copy and paste and theme support. And it also works with MSYS and Msys2.

Conclusion

Cmder is probably the best bet for users looking for a capable but manageable terminal emulator. Users seeking a more powerful experience can get their fix with ConEmu or splash out a bit more for ZOC Terminal.

This article was first published in August 2017 and was updated in June 2019.

The Complete Windows 10 Customization Guide

In this ebook we’ll be exploring the multitude of options to fully customize Windows 10. By the end of this ebook you’ll know how to make Windows 10 your own and become an expert Windows 10 user.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux, introduced in the Anniversary Update, became a stable feature in the Fall Creators Update. You can now run Ubuntu and openSUSE on Windows, with Fedora and more Linux distributions coming soon.

What You Need to Know About Windows 10’s Bash Shell

RELATED:Everything You Can Do With Windows 10’s New Bash Shell

This isn’t a virtual machine, a container, or Linux software compiled for Windows (like Cygwin). Instead, Windows 10 offers a full Windows Subsystem intended for Linux for running Linux software. It’s based on Microsoft’s abandoned Project Astoria work for running Android apps on Windows.

Think of it as the opposite of Wine. While Wine allows you to run Windows applications directly on Linux, the Windows Subsystem for Linux allows you to run Linux applications directly on Windows.

Microsoft worked with Canonical to offer a full Ubuntu-based Bash shell environment that runs atop this subsystem. Technically, this isn’t Linux at all. Linux is the underlying operating system kernel, and that isn’t available here. Instead, this allows you to run the Bash shell and the exact same binaries you’d normally run on Ubuntu Linux. Free software purists often argue the average Linux operating system should be called “GNU/Linux” because it’s really a lot of GNU software running on the Linux kernel. The Bash shell you’ll get is really just all those GNU utilities and other software.

While this feature was originally called “Bash on Ubuntu on Windows,” it also allows you to run Zsh and other command-line shells. It now supports other Linux distributions, too. You can choose openSUSE Leap or SUSE Enterprise Server instead of Ubuntu, and Fedora is also on its way.

There are some limitations here. This doesn’t yet support background server software, and it won’t officially work with graphical Linux desktop applications. Not every command-line application works, either, as the feature isn’t perfect.

How to Install Bash on Windows 10

RELATED:How Do I Know if I’m Running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows?

This feature doesn’t work on the 32-bit version of Windows 10, so ensure you’re using the 64-bit version of Windows. It’s time to switch to the 64-bit version of Windows 10 if you’re still using the 32-bit version, anyway.

Assuming you have 64-bit Windows, to get started, head to Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows Features On Or Off. Enable the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” option in the list, and then click the “OK” button.

Click “Restart now” when you’re prompted to restart your computer. The feature won’t work until you reboot.

Note: Starting with the Fall Creators Update, you no longer have to enable Developer Mode in the Settings app to use this feature. You just need to install it from the Windows Features window.

After your computer restarts, open the Microsoft Store from the Start menu, and search for “Linux” in the store. Click “Get the apps” under the “Linux on Windows?” banner.

Note: Starting with the Fall Creators Update, you can no longer install Ubuntu by running the “bash” command. Instead, you have to install Ubuntu or another Linux distribution from the Store app.

RELATED:What’s the Difference Between Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Fedora on Windows 10?

You’ll see a list of every Linux distribution currently available in the Windows Store. As of the Fall Creators Update, this includes Ubuntu, openSUSE Leap, and openSUSE Enterprise, with a promise that Fedora will arrive soon.

Update: Debian and Kali are now available in the Store, but aren’t listed here. Search for “Debian Linux” or “Kali Linux” to find and install them.

To install a Linux distribution, click it, and then click the “Get” or “Install” button to install it like any other Store application.

If you’re not sure which Linux environment to install, we recommend Ubuntu. This popular Linux distribution was previously the only option available, but other Linux systems are now available for people who have more specific needs.

You can also install multiple Linux distributions and they’ll each get their own unique shortcuts. You can even run multiple different Linux distributions at a time in different windows.

How to Use The Bash Shell and Install Linux Software

RELATED:How to Install Linux Software in Windows 10’s Ubuntu Bash Shell

You now have a full command-line bash shell based on Ubuntu, or whatever other Linux distribution you installed.

Because they’re the same binaries, you can use Ubuntu’s apt or apt-get command to install software from Ubuntu’s repositories if you’re using Ubuntu. Just use whatever command you’d normally use on that Linux distribution. You’ll have access to all the Linux command line software out there, although some applications may not yet work perfectly.

To open the Linux environment you installed, just open the Start menu and search for whatever distribution you installed. For example, if you installed Ubuntu, launch the Ubuntu shortcut.

You can pin this application shortcut to your Start menu, taskbar, or desktop for easier access.

The first time you launch the Linux environment, you’re be prompted to enter a UNIX username and password. These don’t have to match your Windows username and password, but will be used within the Linux environment.

For example, if you enter “bob” and “letmein” as your credentials, your username in the Linux environment will be “bob” and the password you use inside the Linux environment will be “letmein”—no matter what your Windows username and password are.

RELATED:How to Set Your Default Linux Distribution on Windows 10

You can launch your installed Linux environment by running the wsl command. If you have multiple Linux distributions installed, you can choose the default Linux environment this command launches.

If you have Ubuntu installed, you can also run the ubuntu command to install it. For openSUSE Leap 42, use opensuse-42 . For SUSE Linux Enterprise Sever 12, use sles-12 . These commands are listed on each Linux distribution’s page on the Windows Store.

You can still launch your default Linux environment by running the bash command, but Microsoft says this is deprecated. This means the bash command may stop functioning in the future.

If you’re experienced using a Bash shell on Linux, Mac OS X, or other platforms, you’ll be right at home.

On Ubuntu, you need to prefix a command with sudo to run it with root permissions. The “root” user on UNIX platforms has full system access, like the “Administrator” user on Windows. Your Windows file system is located at /mnt/c in the Bash shell environment.

Use the same Linux terminal commands you’d use to get around. If you’re used to the standard Windows Command Prompt with its DOS commands, here are a few basic commands common to both Bash and Windows:

• Change Directory: cd in Bash, cd or chdir in DOS
• List Contents of Directory: ls in Bash, dir in DOS
• Move or Rename a File: mv in Bash, move and rename in DOS
• Copy a File: cp in Bash, copy in DOS
• Delete a File: rm in Bash, del or erase in DOS
• Create a Directory: mkdir in Bash, mkdir in DOS
• Use a Text Editor: vi or nano in Bash, edit in DOS

RELATED:Beginner Geek: How to Start Using the Linux Terminal

It’s important to remember that, unlike Windows, the Bash shell and its Linux-imitating environment are case-sensitive. In other words, “File.txt” with a capital letter is different from “file.txt” without a capital.

For more instructions, consult our beginner’s guide to the Linux command-line and other similar introductions to the Bash shell, Ubuntu command line, and Linux terminal online.

You’ll need to use the apt command to install and update the Ubuntu environment’s software. Be sure to prefix these commands with sudo , which makes them run as root–the Linux equivalent of Administrator. Here are the apt-get commands you’ll need to know:

• Download Updated Information About Available Packages: sudo apt update
• Install an Application Package: sudo apt install packagename (Replace “packagename” with the package’s name.)
• Uninstall an Application Package: sudo apt remove packagename (Replace “packagename” with the package’s name.)
• Search for Available Packages: sudo apt search word (Replace “word” with a word you want to search package names and descriptions for.)
• Download and Install the Latest Versions of Your Installed Packages: sudo apt upgrade

If you installed a SUSE Linux distribution, you can use the zypper command to install software instead.

After you’ve downloaded and installed an application, you can type its name at the prompt, and then press Enter to run it. Check that particular application’s documentation for more details.

Bonus: Install the Ubuntu Font for a True Ubuntu Experience

If you want a more accurate Ubuntu experience on Windows 10, you can also install the Ubuntu fonts and enable them in the terminal. You don’t have to do this, as the default Windows command prompt font looks pretty good to us, but it’s an option.

Here’s what it looks like:

To install the font, first download the Ubuntu Font Family from Ubuntu’s website. Open the downloaded .zip file and locate the “UbuntuMono-R.ttf” file. This is the Ubuntu monospace font, which is the only one used in the terminal. It’s the only font you need to install.

Double-click the “UbuntuMono-R.ttf” file and you’ll see a preview of the font. Click “Install” to install it to your system.

RELATED:Learning to Use the Registry Editor Like a Pro

Serial Terminal Emulator Windows 10

To make the Ubuntu monospace font become an option in the console, you’ll need to add a setting to the Windows registry.

Open a registry editor by pressing Windows+R on your keyboard, typing regedit , and then pressing Enter. Navigate to the following key or copy and paste it into the Registry Editor’s address bar:

Right-click in the right pane and select New > String Value. Name the new value 000 .

Double-click the “000” string you just created, and then enter Ubuntu Mono as its value data.

Launch an Ubuntu window, right-click the title bar, and then select the “Properties” command. Click the “Font” tab, and then select “Ubuntu Mono” in the font list.

Software you install in the Bash shell is restricted to the Bash shell. You can access these programs from the Command Prompt, PowerShell, or elsewhere in Windows, but only if you run the bash -c command.

Install Hyperterminal In Windows 10

Terminal Emulator Windows 10 Serial

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