Windows Python Developers Had Better Setup Earlier (IV): Add Anaconda PowerShell on Windows Terminal

Anaconda PowerShell Prompt is more handy than Anaconda Prompt

In the previous two articles, it shows how to add Anaconda Prompt on Windows Terminal, and how to add it on the right-click menu. In this article, we will talk about how to add Anaconda PowerShell Prompt on the Windows Terminal. This is the fourth part of the story series, “What Windows Python Developers Had Better Setup Earlier”. The content structure of this series is organized as follows. If you are interested in this series, please follow me.

Part(I): Windows Terminal
Part (II): Add Anaconda Prompt on the Windows Terminal
Part(III): Add Anaconda Prompt on the Right-Click Menu
Part(IV): Add Anaconda PowerShell Prompt on the Windows Terminal
Part(V): Add Anaconda PowerShell Prompt on the Right-Click Menu

If you are interested in using Anaconda Prompt rather than PowerShell Prompt, please go to the previous two articles.

Table of Contents

1. Anaconda Prompt VS Anaconda PowerShell Prompt

There are two Prompts for Anaconda, one is Anaconda Prompt, which is the classic one; and another one is the Anaconda PowerShell, which was newly added one. As their name suggest, Anaconda Prompt and Anaconda PowerShell Prompt run conda commands under the Windows shell environments of cmd.exe (Command Prompt) and powershell.exe(PowerShell Prompt), respectively. If you are interested in deeply studying these two command-line shells of Windows, please refer to Windows Documentation.

There are no much difference between them if you just run Python related commands, such as Python, IPython, Jupyter, Conda, etc, and Python codes. However, comparatively speaking, Anaconda PowerShell is much handier for developers, who often access the working directory by typing its path. For example, we access my working directory wavelet analysis in the Drive D: on my computer.

For Anaconda Prompt, we run the following command line by line:

$ D:
$ cd mylecture\wavelet_analysis

For Anaconda PowerShell Prompt, we do the same things by the following command:

$ cd D:\mylecture\wavelet_analysis

Let’s see how to add Anaconda PowerShell Prompt on the Windows Terminal in the following section.

2. How to add Anaconda PowerShell on the Windows Terminal

The process is very similar with that of adding Anaconda Prompt on the Windows Terminal.

Step 1: Search Anaconda PowerShell Prompt

Type Anaconda PowerShell Prompt on the search box of Windows 10 or 11
Right click to open the location
Right click Anaconda PowerShell Prompt
Hit Properties
Copy the path in Target

Fig.1. Search the path of `Anaconda PowerShell Prompt`

Step 2: Edit the target

Paste it into any text file editor, such as MS Word, text, and whatever. It is something looks like follows, but where my PC user name is Sigmund which is different from yours:

%windir%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -NoExit -Command "& 'C:\Users\Sigmund\anaconda3\shell\condabin\conda-hook.ps1' ; conda activate 'C:\Users\Sigmund\anaconda3' "

Remove the useless information for us and just keep the following:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -NoExit -Command & C:\Users\Sigmund\anaconda3\shell\condabin\conda-hook.ps1; conda activate C:\Users\Sigmund\anaconda3

Step 3: Copy Path of Anaconda Navigator Icon

Type Anaconda navigator on the search box of Windows 10 or 11
Right click to open the location
Right click on Anaconda navigator(anaconda3)
Right click Properties
Click Change icon

Copy icon path into text editor, it looks as the follows:
%USERPROFILE%\anaconda3\Menu\anaconda-navigator.ico

Step 4: Open the Setting of the Windows Terminal

Open the Windows Terminal
Click the down arrow and hit Setting

Step 5. Open JSON File of the Windows Terminal

Go to the last of the left menu
Hit Open JSON File

Step 6. Copy cmd.exe code snippet and modify it

Copy cmd.exe code snippet, which is easy to edit and something looks like the following:

{
      "commandline": "cmd.exe",
      "guid": "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}",
      "hidden": false,
      "name": "Command Prompt"
    },

But it maybe looks a bit of difference on Windows 10 and 11.

Past it next line after it
Then change “commandline:” part to the edited Target of Anaconda PowerShell Prompt above. It looks something like follows:

"commandline": "powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -NoExit -Command & C:\\Users\\yourusername\\anaconda3\\shell\\condabin\\conda-hook.ps1;conda activate C:\\Users\\yourusername\\anaconda3",

Step 7. Add “icon:” line

You can add "icon:" line after any other lines, say after “hidden”: line here for example.

"hidden": false,
"icon": "%USERPROFILE%\\Anaconda3\\Menu\\anaconda-navigator.ico",

Step 8. Modify the “guid” line number

Change the “guid’ number to make unique from others, we can just change the last few numbers, say6101 in my computer to 5687, or whatever you like.

"guid": "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa5687}",

Step 9. Change the “name” line

Change “Command Prompt” on the “name” line into “Anaconda PowerShell”, which is as follows:

"name": "Anaconda PowerShell"

If it is not the last line, please add the comma “,” at the end line.

The finally modified version looks like the following screenshot:

Step 10. Save the file

Go to file and then click save to save the edited JSON file. When you reopen the Windows Terminal, you will see the Anaconda Prompt with its navigator icon on the menu of the Windows Terminal, which looks like the title image at the very beginning.

3. Video Version

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More Information:

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