How to change background image on Windows Terminal

On Windows Terminal, there are multiple ways to customize the experience, you can use custom themes, add transparency, and even set a custom image as the background.

When using the option to change the background, you can add a background image (jpg, png, or gif) to all the apps available in the terminal, or you can set a different background image for Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Linux distros on Windows 11 or 10.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to configure an image background for Windows Terminal on Windows 11 or 10.

Change background image on Windows Terminal
Change background image from Settings.json on Windows Terminal

Change background image on Windows Terminal

Open Windows Terminal.
Click the menu (down-arrow) button next to a tab.
Select the Settings option.
Under the “Profiles” section, choose the Defaults profile to apply the settings to all the profiles or choose a specific profile, such as Command Prompt.
Under the “Additional settings” section, click the Appearance setting.
Click the “Background image path” setting.
Click the Browse button.
Select the image to set as a background.
Click the Open button.
(Optional) Choose the resize preference (Uniform to fill, Uniform, Fill, or None) with the “Background image stretch mode” setting.
(Optional) Click the “Background image alignment” setting to change the background alignment.
(Optional) Use the “Background image opacity” slider to set the opacity of the background.
Click the Save button.

After you complete the steps, the image will appear in the console’s background.

You can click the reset button next to the setting if you want to reset the settings. Also, remember that changing the settings on a specific profile will take precedence over the settings in the “Defaults” settings.

Change background image from Settings.json on Windows Terminal

To add a background image on the terminal, use these steps:

Open Windows Terminal.
Click the menu (down-arrow) button next to a tab.
Click the Settings option.

Quick tip: Using Visual Studio Code to open the settings is recommended because it includes the JSON schema, making it easier to change the settings.
Under the “defaults” section, copy and paste the following JSON lines to use a background image in all command line apps:
```
"backgroundImage": "PATH/TO/IMAGE-FILE",
"backgroundImageOpacity": 0.3
```
In the code, specify the path and name of the image you want to use. If you want to transfer the settings to another device, you could use OneDrive as the path, so you don’t have to modify the code again on another machine. For example, the following code sets a jpg image stored on OneDrive as the background for Windows Terminal:
```
"backgroundImage": "%USERPROFILE%/OneDrive - Family/wt-background.jpg",
"backgroundImageOpacity": 0.3
```
Under the list section, select the profile (app) to specify an image file for the background. For example, under "commandline": "cmd.exe" insert a comma (,) at the end of the line, and copy and paste the following lines:
```
"backgroundImage": "PATH/TO/IMAGE-FILE",
"backgroundImageOpacity": 0.3
```
(Optional) In the "backgroundImageOpacity": settings change the value of selecting the transparency level. For example, 0.6 will make the background less transparent, and 0.4 will make the background more transparent.
(Optional) You can use the "backgroundImageStretchMode": setting to stretch the image depending on its dimensions. Options available include: fill, none, uniform, or uniformToFill.
(Optional) You can use the "backgroundImageAlignment": setting to align the image. Options available include: bottom, bottomLeft, bottomRight, center, left, right, top, topLeft, and topRight.
Save the file to apply the changes.

Once you complete the steps, you can start using the Windows Terminal with a custom image background for a specific app or all the command line apps depending on your configuration.