Is there a way to change the shell that opens when using keybinding Ctrl + Shift + c in Visual Studio Code?

Question

I've noticed this code in the keyboard shortcut settings. { "key": "ctrl+shift+c", "command":"workbench.action.terminal.openNativeConsole" },

I was wondering, instead of opening cmd.exe, can I change it to open Powershell?

Answer 1

Starting in v1.1.0, we can now configure the external shell.

Before version 1.6.1, there was only one setting.

"externalTerminal.windowsExec": "powershell"

Starting with version 1.6.1, there is an external and internal terminal setting. Using the value "%COMSPEC%", one could instead change their COMSPEC environment variable.

// The path of the shell that the terminal uses on Windows. When using shells shipped with Windows (cmd, PowerShell or Bash on Ubuntu), prefer C:\Windows\sysnative over C:\Windows\System32 to use the 64-bit versions.
"terminal.external.windowsExec": "C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe",

// The path of the shell that the terminal uses on Windows. When using shells shipped with Windows (cmd, PowerShell or Bash on Ubuntu), prefer C:\Windows\sysnative over C:\Windows\System32 to use the 64-bit versions.
"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe"

I found, however, that it opens the 32bit Powershell.exe. Which, for me, did not have its execution policy set. So I set it using the following...

I elevated my permissions (Powershell's version of sudo):

Start-Process Powershell -Verb Runas

Then, in the new elevated Powershell window:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Answer 2

At the moment, the customization is more geared towards changing the keys / conditions that trigger the actions, rather than adding new actions.

It would be great to be able to create custom actions too - and the Visual Studio Code team are interested in hearing ideas on their User Voice site.

I have added a suggestion for custom actions.