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Kenya-West/(Almost) automatically install oh-my-posh.md

Last active February 12, 2025 17:04
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This is a guide that helps you install oh-my-posh and its necessary boilerplate without deep dive to their documentation
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(Almost) automatically install oh-my-posh.md

(Almost) automatically install oh-my-posh

This is a guide that helps you install oh-my-posh and its necessary boilerplate without deep dive to their documentation

0. Pre-requisites

In this guide, it is assumed that you have installed:

  1. VS Code (User setup, not system one);
  2. PowerShell 6+, whatever way (Microsoft Store, WinGet, Portable);
  3. Windows Terminal from Microsoft Store.

If not, you need to modify all following scripts below to make it work with different environment.

1. Install it!

Install oh-my-posh, posh-git and then close tab.

winget install XP8K0HKJFRXGCK --source msstore --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements
Install-Module posh-git -Scope CurrentUser
exit

Then close Windows Terminal window or reopen a tab, because we need environment variables to refresh.

2. Add exclusions to make oh-my-posh faster

Open Windows Terminal/pswh from admin:

Win+R, type wt, Ctrl + Shift + Enter, click "Yes"

then execute these commands:

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "oh-my-posh.exe"

You now can close tab from admin, it will not be needed again.

3. Add profile

PowerShell can do some things before launch. We need posh-git and oh-my-posh to launch on every PowerShell instance.

Open wt/pwsh and then execute this code:

if (Test-Path -Path $Profile -PathType Leaf) {
    Write-Host "Profile already exists"
} else {
    New-Item -Path $PROFILE -Type File
    Write-Host "Profile Created"
}

function AddLineToFile {
    param (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [string]$PathToFile,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [string]$Pattern,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [string]$LineToAdd
    )
    
    # get the file contents
    $fileContents = Get-Content -Path $PathToFile
    
    $found = $False
    Foreach ($item in $fileContents)
    {
        If ($item -like $Pattern) 
        {
            Write-Host "`"$Pattern`" string already exists"
            Write-Host "Nothing to do"
            $found = $True
            break
        }
    }

    if ($found -ne $True) {
        Add-Content -Path $PROFILE -Value $LineToAdd
        Write-Host "`"$LineToAdd`" line was added"
    }
}

AddLineToFile $PROFILE "Import-Module posh-git*" "Import-Module posh-git";
AddLineToFile $PROFILE "oh-my-posh init pwsh*" "oh-my-posh init pwsh | Invoke-Expression";

You can add some tweaks in your $PROFILE later, above is just necessary stuff to get oh-my-posh work.

4. Add fonts and configure Windows Terminal and VS Code settings

This code does what the paragraph says:

  1. It downloads the latest CaskaydiaCove font zip-file;
  2. Unzips it;
  3. Installs all the kinds of the font;
  4. Removes downloaded font files;
  5. Patches Windows Terminal settings with backup;
  6. Patches VS Code settings with backup.

You can execute this code with the same pwsh instance from previous paragraph:

# Initial setup
$developerName = "ryanoasis";
$repoName = "nerd-fonts";
$wtFileToDownload = "CascadiaCode.zip";
$fontNameToSet = "CaskaydiaCove NFM";

# Get latest NerdFont release version
$url = "https://github.com/$developerName/$repoName/releases/latest";
$request = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($url);
$response = $request.GetResponse();
$realTagUrl = $response.ResponseUri.OriginalString;
$version = $realTagUrl.split("/")[-1].Trim("v");
$wtFileName = $wtFileToDownload; # $wtFileName should be because maybe there is $version in its name
$realDownloadUrl = $realTagUrl.Replace("tag", "download") + "/" + $wtFileName;
Write-Host $realDownloadUrl;

# Download Nerdfont file
$fontsFileLocation = "$env:TEMP/$wtFileName";
$fontsDirectoryLocation = "$env:TEMP/"+(Split-Path $fontsFileLocation -LeafBase);
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $realDownloadUrl -OutFile $fontsFileLocation;

# Extract Nerdfont file
Write-Host "Expanding $fontsFileLocation";
Expand-Archive $fontsFileLocation -DestinationPath $fontsDirectoryLocation;

Get-ChildItem -Path $fontsDirectoryLocation -Include "*.ttf","*.ttc","*.otf" -Recurse | ForEach-Object {(New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace(0x14).CopyHere($_.FullName, 0x10)};

Write-Host "Removing file at path $fontsFileLocation";
Remove-Item $fontsFileLocation -ErrorAction Continue;
Write-Host "Succesfully removed file at path $fontsFileLocation";
Remove-Item $fontsDirectoryLocation -ErrorAction Continue -Recurse;
Write-Host "Succesfully removed directory at path $fontsDirectoryLocation";
Write-Host "";

# Set font in Windows Terminal
$wtSettingsFileLocation = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\settings.json";
if (Test-Path -Path $wtSettingsFileLocation) {
    Write-Host "File at path $wtSettingsFileLocation exists. Performing changes";
    # get backup copy file with .bak extension
    $configPath = $wtSettingsFileLocation;
    $configPathBak = $configPath + ".bak";
    Copy-Item $configPath $configPathBak -ErrorAction Continue;

    # change font-face
    $wtFile = Get-Content $wtSettingsFileLocation -raw | ConvertFrom-Json -Depth 100;
    $success = $False;
    try {
        if (-not $wtFile.profiles.defaults.font) {
            Write-Host "No font property found in $wtSettingsFileLocation. Creating it";
            $jsonContent = [PSCustomObject]@{}
            $wtFile.profiles.defaults | Add-Member -NotePropertyName "font" -NotePropertyValue ([PSCustomObject]@{"face" = $fontNameToSet})
        } else {
            if (-not $wtFile.profiles.defaults.font.face) {
                Write-Host "No font.face property found in $wtSettingsFileLocation. Creating it";
                Add-Member -InputObject $wtFile.profiles.defaults.font -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "face" -Value $fontNameToSet
            } else {
                $wtFile.profiles.defaults.font.face = $fontNameToSet;
            }
        }
        $success = $True;
        Write-Host "File $wtSettingsFileLocation successfully modified";
    }
    catch {
        $wtFileName = Split-Path $wtSettingsFileLocation -Leaf;
        Write-Host "Error modifying $wtFileName file contents: $_";
    }
    # save successfully modified file
    if ($success -eq $True) {
        Set-Content -Value ($wtFile | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100) -Path $wtSettingsFileLocation;
    }
} else {
    Write-Host "File at path $wtSettingsFileLocation does not exist. No changes will be made";
}

# Set font in VS Code
$vscodeSettingsPath = "$env:APPDATA\Code\User\settings.json";

# get backup copy file with .bak extension
if (Test-Path -Path $vscodeSettingsPath) {
    Write-Host "File at path $vscodeSettingsPath exists. Performing changes";
    $configPath = $vscodeSettingsPath;
    $configPathBak = $configPath + ".bak";
    Copy-Item $configPath $configPathBak -ErrorAction Continue;
    
    $fontSetting = "terminal.integrated.fontFamily";
    $vscodeFile = Get-Content -Raw -Path $vscodeSettingsPath -ErrorAction silentlycontinue | ConvertFrom-Json -Depth 100

    $success = $False;
    try {
        if (-not $vscodeFile.$fontSetting) {
            Add-Member -InputObject $vscodeFile -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $fontSetting -Value $fontNameToSet
        } else {
            $vscodeFile.$fontSetting = $fontNameToSet;
        }        
        $success = $True;
        Write-Host "File $vscodeSettingsPath successfully modified";
    }
    catch {
        $vscodeFileName = Split-Path $vscodeSettingsPath -Leaf;
        Write-Host "Error modifying $vscodeFileName file contents: $_";
    }
    # save successfully modified file
    if ($success -eq $True) {
        Set-Content -Value ($vscodeFile | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100) -Path $vscodeSettingsPath;
    }
}

We are using Caskaydia Cove font, but you can change $wtFileToDownload and $fontNameToSet to set a different one. List is here.

Script also creates backup files of configs for a case if somethings is getting corrupted. Follow these paths to restore or modify configs:

  • Windows Terminal config path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState
  • VS Code config path: %APPDATA%\Code\User

5. Use theme

You can use either this command, getting the latest of theme, not tied up with oh-my-posh setup:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh/main/themes/M365Princess.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

Or use the same theme but out-of-the-box:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH/M365Princess.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

I prefer the second one, because who knows what breaking changes would happen by theme?

You can set a different theme from here.

That's all, folks! You just need 3 wt instances and 5 scripts to install oh-my-posh. Hope this is the simplest guide you ever met!

@bimber-ua
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Thanks for your job! Can you please integrate the auto-skipping for the fonts installation? I have a Win11, and for the command:

Get-ChildItem -Path $fontsDirectoryLocation -Include "*.ttf","*.ttc","*.otf" -Recurse | ForEach-Object {(New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace(0x14).CopyHere($_.FullName, 0x10)};
I should manually skip or confirm the installation for all font they already installed in my system.
Best regards

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