Reference
Shortcuts, menus, built-in aliases, the environment the shell starts with, limits, and the list of what does not work.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| New tab | Ctrl + Shift + T |
| Close tab | Ctrl + Shift + W |
| Copy selected text | Ctrl + Shift + C |
| Paste | Ctrl + Shift + V |
| Zoom in | Ctrl + + |
| Zoom out | Ctrl + - |
| Reset zoom | Ctrl + 0 |
| Show the menu bar briefly | Alt |
| Interrupt the running command | Ctrl + C |
Menus
The menu bar is hidden until you press Alt, or until you tick Terminal, then Show Menu Bar.
| Menu | Item | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| File | New Tab | Opens a tab |
| File | Close Tab | Closes the active tab |
| File | Quit | Closes the app and every tab |
| Edit | Copy | Copies the selected text |
| Edit | Paste | Pastes at the prompt |
| View | Zoom In, Zoom Out, Reset Zoom | Change the text size |
| View | Full screen | Switches full screen on or off |
| Terminal | Show Menu Bar | Keeps the menu bar visible |
Built-in aliases
An alias is a short name for a longer command.
| Alias | Runs |
|---|---|
ls | ls --color=auto |
ll | ls -alF |
la | ls -A |
l | ls -CF |
grep | grep --color=auto |
vim | vi |
cls | clear |
.. | cd .. |
... | cd ../.. |
~ | cd "$HOME" |
Helper commands
| Command | What it prints |
|---|---|
helpme | A cheat sheet of the commands that work |
whatworks | The same as helpme |
agents | Which coding-agent command-line tools are on your PATH, and example install commands |
agents looks for these names: claude, cursor-agent, cursor, aider, codex, gemini, amp, agent.
What is included
| Part | Provided by |
|---|---|
| Shell and everyday commands | BusyBox for Windows (the ash shell) |
| Editor | BusyBox vi |
| Git | MinGit, from Git for Windows |
ssh, ssh-keygen | Your Windows OpenSSH, if installed |
The shell environment
Each tab starts a shell with these settings.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Starting folder | Your Windows user folder |
HOME | Your Windows user folder |
EDITOR, VISUAL, GIT_EDITOR | vi |
TERM | xterm-256color |
COLORTERM | truecolor |
LANG | Your existing value, or en_US.UTF-8 |
PATH | The built-in tools and Git first, then your Windows PATH |
The prompt is user@host:folder$, with the user and host in green and the folder in blue.
Choose a different shell
By default the app runs its built-in shell. You can make it start another shell that is already installed on your PC by setting the Windows environment variable UBUNTU_TERM_SHELL before you open the app.
| Value | Shell that starts |
|---|---|
| Not set | The built-in shell |
wsl | WSL, if it is installed |
gitbash | Git Bash, if Git for Windows is installed |
With another shell, the commands, aliases and helper commands on this site may not apply: you get that shell's own behaviour.
Limits and defaults
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Scrollback per tab | 5,000 lines |
| Text size | 10 to 28, default 14 |
| Font | Ubuntu Mono if installed, otherwise Cascadia Mono, then Consolas |
| Window size at start | 980 × 620 |
| Smallest window size | 520 × 320 |
The app has no settings screen. Text size and the menu-bar choice return to their defaults when you restart it.
Not supported
| Not available | Why |
|---|---|
apt, apt-get, dpkg, snap | No Ubuntu package manager |
| Full Vim or Neovim plugins | Only BusyBox vi |
| Docker or Podman as on Linux | Not included |
systemd, systemctl | No Linux system underneath |
| Linux binaries and AppImages | Windows cannot run them |
| A full Ubuntu desktop | This is a terminal only |
| Coding-agent tools without installing them | Install the tool on Windows first, then check with agents |