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Setting up ConEmu with Git Bash on Windows

Tim Kye

The Windows command prompt sucks. It just does. Every other terminal in every other operating system is better than it, and Microsoft doesn't seem to care.

ConEmu is here for you. If you want to know what it's all about, Scott Hanselman has a blog on it with the details.

That's not what this bog is about. This blog is about getting ConEmu setup with Git Bash on Windows, because for some reason that is a pain in the ass.

For starters I recommend installing it from Chocolatey, with this package. After you have it installed, play around with it a bit. You can get to the settings by right-clicking the window bar (why this isn't on a [gear] icon is beyond me). If you want it to take over as the default command prompt, the option you want is under Integration > Default Term, its the first checkbox.

Now, to get the MySysGit Bash to open:

  1. Go to Startup > Tasks

  2. Hit the [+] Button to create a new task

  3. Give it a name

  4. Set the task parameters to /single /Dir "[YourStartupDir]" /icon "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Git\etc\git.ico"

  5. Set the shell with the command %systemroot%\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /c ""%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Git\bin\sh.exe" --login -i" "-cur_console:t:Git Bash"

This task can now open then git bash, which will include any tab-completion or branch prefixes you have set up. You can set your startup window to this task in Startup by selecting it on the 3rd radio.

I had to play around with the task parameters quite a bit to get it to behave the way I expected it to. I wanted it to open on startup, but I also wanted it to always open a new tab when the task was used with a task hotkey. The /single is supposed to do this on its own, but I had inconsistent luck when opening multiple tabs. The shell command's last parameter, the cur_console one worked, but only when combined with single. I honestly don't understand entirely how these two work in conjuction, so let me know if you do.