Tutorial: Opening Your Shell

Tutorial: Opening Your Shell#

NOTE: The following screenshots show the Mac OS terminal/shell. Folks with other operating systems should still be able to follow the procedural steps.

Terminal icon

To launch the terminal…

Mac:

  • By default, the shell is located in Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal

Windows:

  • Run Git Bash from the directory that you installed it in. You will have to run it as an administrator - to do so, right click on the program and select ‘Run as Administrator.’

Terminal screenshot

When the terminal or shell is running, you will see a window that looks similar to the image above.

Terminal settings

For Mac users who want to customize the terminal’s visual appearance:

  • Open the Settings menu (in Preferences, under Terminal)

  • Click the Settings tab to change the color scheme

Windows users can right-click on the application’s top bar and select Properties to open the Properties tab.