Integrating Cmder with VS Code

Windows only

This is for Windows users only! All credit goes to Kelly Kiki for the walkthrough.

This might not always work? I've heard conflicting reports.

If you're doing this for my class and we're still doing setup, skip this for now. You can come back to it later.

We want to set Cmder as the default shell in VS Code.

First, open up VS Code. Then click File (first tab on the top menu) > Preferences > Settings.

Using the search bar up at the top, search for terminal.integrated.profiles.windows, and click Edit in settings.json.

Now we'll define a new Cmder terminal profile and set Cmder as the default profile. First, add the line of code below to the second-to-last line. It tells VS Code to use Cmder as the default:

    "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "Cmder",

Then we need to describe how Cmder works. On line 4, paste the following code:

        "Cmder": {
            "path": [
                "${env:windir}\\Sysnative\\cmd.exe",
                "${env:windir}\\System32\\cmd.exe"
            ],
            "env": {"CMDER_ROOT": "${env:USERPROFILE}\\Desktop\\cmder"},
            "args": [
                "/K",
                "%CMDER_ROOT%\\vendor\\bin\\vscode_init.cmd"
            ],
            "icon": "cmder",
        },

Change the "CMDER_ROOT": "%userprofile%\\Desktop\\cmder" section to point to where your Cmder actually lives. In this example, mine lives on the Desktop. If instead yours lived in the Documents folder, it would instead be "CMDER_ROOT": "%userprofile%\\Documents\\cmder".

Overall, your settings.json should look something like the code below.

{
    "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
        "Cmder": {
            "path": [
                "${env:windir}\\Sysnative\\cmd.exe",
                "${env:windir}\\System32\\cmd.exe"
            ],
            "env": {"CMDER_ROOT": "${env:USERPROFILE}\\Desktop\\cmder"},
            "args": [
                "/K",
                "%CMDER_ROOT%\\vendor\\bin\\vscode_init.cmd"
            ],
            "icon": "cmder",
        },
        "PowerShell": {
            "source": "PowerShell",
            "icon": "terminal-powershell"
        },
        "Command Prompt": {
            "path": [
                "${env:windir}\\Sysnative\\cmd.exe",
                "${env:windir}\\System32\\cmd.exe"
            ],
            "args": [],
            "icon": "terminal-cmd"
        }
    },
    "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "Cmder",
}

If yours is giving you squiggly lines under the text, something's probably wrong! You can probably just cut and paste what's above and replace the whole settings.json.

Save settings.json by selecting File > Save, then restart VS Code.