Oh My Posh Setup Guide — Windows 11 + Windows Terminal + PowerShell

What Is Oh My Posh?

Oh My Posh is a cross-shell prompt theme engine. It replaces your shell's default prompt (the PS C:\Users\you> line) with a customizable, information-rich prompt that can display your current directory, Git branch and status, exit codes, language versions, execution time, and more.

Screenshot from ohmyposh.dev

Why it works everywhere: Oh My Posh is a single standalone binary written in Go. Your shell (PowerShell, Bash, Zsh, etc.) calls that binary every time it needs to draw a prompt, and the binary renders the prompt based on a JSON/YAML/TOML config file. This means one tool and one theme format work across every shell you use — including WSL2.

Prerequisites

• Windows 11 (Windows 10 also works)
• Windows Terminal (preinstalled on Windows 11; otherwise available from the Microsoft Store)
• PowerShell 7 (pwsh) recommended — install with winget install Microsoft.PowerShell
• winget (preinstalled on Windows 11)

Step 1 — Install Oh My Posh

Open a PowerShell tab in Windows Terminal and run:

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh --source winget

This installs the oh-my-posh executable and adds it to your PATH.

Verify the install:

oh-my-posh version

Step 2 — Install a Nerd Font

Oh My Posh themes use special glyphs — Git branch symbols, arrows, OS logos, powerline separators — that standard fonts don't contain. A Nerd Font is a regular font patched with thousands of these extra icons. Without one, your prompt will render as boxes and question marks.

Oh My Posh has a built-in font installer. Run it from an elevated (Administrator) terminal so the font installs system-wide:

oh-my-posh font install

Use the arrow keys to pick a font. Recommended options:

Step 3 — Set the Font in Windows Terminal

Installing the font isn't enough — Windows Terminal must be told to use it.

1. Open Windows Terminal settings: Ctrl+,
2. In the left sidebar, select your PowerShell profile (or Defaults to apply it to all profiles, including WSL)
3. Go to Appearance → Font face
4. Select your Nerd Font, e.g. MesloLGM Nerd Font
5. Click Save

Step 4 — Configure Your PowerShell Profile

Your PowerShell profile is a script that runs automatically at the start of every session. This is where Oh My Posh gets hooked in.

Open (or create) your profile

notepad $PROFILE

If Notepad reports the file doesn't exist, create it first:

New-Item -Path $PROFILE -Type File -Force
notepad $PROFILE

$PROFILE is an automatic variable holding the path to your profile script for the current PowerShell version and host. For PowerShell 7 this is typically: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

Add the init line

Add this line to the file and save:

oh-my-posh init pwsh | Invoke-Expression

oh-my-posh init pwsh prints a shell-integration script tailored to PowerShell. Invoke-Expression executes it — replacing PowerShell's built-in prompt function with one that calls Oh My Posh on every draw.

Reload

Open a new tab, or reload the profile in place:

. $PROFILE

You should now see the default Oh My Posh theme.

  Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Step 5 — Choose and Set a Theme

Browse themes

Preview every theme with screenshots at the official gallery: ohmyposh.dev/docs/themes

Try themes live

Swap the theme in your current session by re-running init with a theme name — no profile edits needed:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config atomic | Invoke-Expression
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config catppuccin_mocha | Invoke-Expression
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config jandedobbeleer | Invoke-Expression

When given a bare theme name, Oh My Posh downloads the config from the official repository and caches it locally so subsequent shell startups don't re-download it. Your prompt changes instantly against your real directory and Git state.

Make it permanent

Once you've picked a theme, update the init line in $PROFILE:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config atomic | Invoke-Expression

Save, then open a new tab or run . $PROFILE.

Use a local copy (recommended)

Name-based themes require an internet connection on first use and re-fetch when the cache expires. For a fully offline, version-controlled setup, export the theme locally once:

oh-my-posh config export --config atomic --output "$HOME\.config\my_theme.omp.json"

Then point your profile at the file — always use the full absolute path:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$HOME\.config\my_theme.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

Optional Extras

Terminal-Icons — file and folder icons in ls output

Install-Module -Name Terminal-Icons -Repository PSGallery

Add to $PROFILE:

Import-Module -Name Terminal-Icons

Oh My Posh in WSL2

The same engine works inside your Linux distros. Install via the Linux install script or Homebrew, then add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

eval "$(oh-my-posh init bash --config atomic)"

Since Windows Terminal renders WSL tabs, the Nerd Font from Step 3 already covers them. You can even share a single theme file — your Windows home directory is reachable from WSL at /mnt/c/Users/<username>/.

Keeping Oh My Posh updated

winget upgrade JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh --source winget

Troubleshooting

Icons show as boxes or question marks

The terminal isn't using a Nerd Font. Confirm Step 3 — the Font face for your active profile must be the Nerd Font. If you use VS Code's integrated terminal, set the font there too:

"terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "MesloLGM Nerd Font"

Get-PoshThemes is not recognized

Expected on modern versions — the function was removed around v25.6. Browse themes at ohmyposh.dev/docs/themes and reference them by name. If an old guide told you to use it, the rest of that guide is likely outdated.

$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH is empty

Also expected — the MSIX-packaged winget install doesn't ship local themes or set that variable. Use name-based references or oh-my-posh config export.

oh-my-posh is not recognized

Close and reopen the terminal — PATH updates don't apply to already-open sessions. If still failing, verify the install:

winget list JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh

If you ever installed the old PowerShell module version, uninstall it — it's deprecated and conflicts with the binary:

Uninstall-Module oh-my-posh -AllVersions

Remove any Import-Module oh-my-posh or Set-PoshPrompt lines from $PROFILE as well.

Profile edits do nothing

Two common causes:

Wrong profile file — PowerShell 7 and Windows PowerShell 5.1 use different profiles. Run $PROFILE inside the exact tab you're using and confirm that's the file you edited.

OneDrive redirection — if your Documents folder is synced by OneDrive, the profile path includes OneDrive\Documents\.... Trust the output of $PROFILE, not what you expect the path to be.

CONFIG ERROR appears in the prompt

Oh My Posh can't load the config file. Verify the path exists and is a full absolute path — prefer $HOME over ~ on Windows. If your profile still references $env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\theme.omp.json, that path no longer exists. Switch to a theme name or an exported local file.

CONFIG ERROR but Test-Path returns True

The file exists but can't be parsed. Three common causes:

• Wrong content — saved a GitHub page (HTML) instead of the Raw file. Check: Get-Content <path> -TotalCount 5 — it should start with { and a "$schema" line
• Truncated JSON — partial copy-paste. Validate with:

  Get-Content <path> -Raw | ConvertFrom-Json | Out-Null

Silence = valid; an error = malformed JSON

• Wrong encoding — files created via > in Windows PowerShell 5.1 are UTF-16. Check: Get-Content <path> -AsByteStream -TotalCount 3 — 255 254 = UTF-16 (broken), 123 = UTF-8 (fine)

  oh-my-posh config export --config <theme_name> --output <path>
  . $PROFILE

Prompt renders incorrectly after upgrading to PowerShell 7.4+

PowerShell 7.4 has a known encoding issue affecting prompt rendering. Add this above the Oh My Posh init line in $PROFILE:

[console]::InputEncoding = [console]::OutputEncoding = [System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new()

Treat this as a temporary workaround — forcing UTF-8 session-wide can affect other executables.

Prompt feels slow

oh-my-posh debug

This shows per-segment timings and identifies the culprit. Antivirus real-time scanning commonly delays the binary on every prompt draw. Add a Windows Defender exclusion for the executable:

(Get-Command oh-my-posh).Source

If only Git repos are slow, run git gc inside the repo to optimize it.

Glyphs broke after a Nerd Fonts v3 update

Nerd Fonts v3 relocated many icons. Oh My Posh ships a built-in migration:

oh-my-posh config migrate glyphs --config "path\to\your\theme.omp.json"

A .bak backup of your config is created alongside it.

Quick Reference

Theme gallery: ohmyposh.dev/docs/themes Official docs: ohmyposh.dev/docs