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How to change the dark blue in wsl (Windows Subsystem for Linux) to something brighter? Here is a picture of a config file opened with vim. I basically see a black screen. I cannot read it. And the property window of the console does not allow to change specific colors. Only the background and the main text.
That will change the color in the console palette (used for example to highlight the cwd in the PS1 prompt). However the vim screenshot you provided uses the dark blue color directly and not trough the palette. To change colors in vim see https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/88879/better-colors-so-comments-arent-dark-blue-in-vim.
Edit
Windows Terminal now has the option modify and define color schemes in "Settings (Ctrl+,)" -> "Color Schemes".
You can also select a different color scheme for each Profile in "Settings (Ctrl+,)" -> "[pick a Profile, e.g. Ubuntu]" -> "Appearance".
There is already an answer that provides a solution to this specific question (change one color of the current scheme) but Microsoft also provides a more comprehensive solution.
You can update the colour scheme to another preset and define your own schemes / presets. They made the ColorTool and it is available on github: https://github.com/Microsoft/Terminal/tree/master/src/tools/ColorTool
When you download the zip file and extract it, there may already be a built .exe hidden in a subdir somwhere (terminal\src\tools\ColorTool\ColorTool\bin\Debug\net461\) and the schemes were in a different place.
For me it was
C:\Users\[username]\Documents\GitHub\terminal\src\tools\ColorTool\ColorTool\bin\Debug\net461
C:\Users\[username]\Documents\GitHub\terminal\src\tools\ColorTool\schemes
Copy both the .exe and the schemes folder to the same place and run (for example):
ColorTool.exe -b campbell.ini
That's it :-)
More info on MS dev blog: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/introducing-the-windows-console-colortool/
If you cannot find the .exe in the specified path you can try building it from source. Other people can help with that :-)
Change your .bashrc file in your home folder.
EX: Replace the line start by LS_COLORS by this:
LS_COLORS='rs=0:di=1;35:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:.tar=01;31:.tgz=01;31:.arj=01;31:.taz=01;31:.lzh=01;31:.lzma=01;31:.tlz=01;31:.txz=01;31:.zip=01;31:.z=01;31:.Z=01;31:.dz=01;31:.gz=01;31:.lz=01;31:.xz=01;31:.bz2=01;31:.bz=01;31:.tbz=01;31:.tbz2=01;31:.tz=01;31:.deb=01;31:.rpm=01;31:.jar=01;31:.war=01;31:.ear=01;31:.sar=01;31:.rar=01;31:.ace=01;31:.zoo=01;31:.cpio=01;31:.7z=01;31:.rz=01;31:.jpg=01;35:.jpeg=01;35:.gif=01;35:.bmp=01;35:.pbm=01;35:.pgm=01;35:.ppm=01;35:.tga=01;35:.xbm=01;35:.xpm=01;35:.tif=01;35:.tiff=01;35:.png=01;35:.svg=01;35:.svgz=01;35:.mng=01;35:.pcx=01;35:.mov=01;35:.mpg=01;35:.mpeg=01;35:.m2v=01;35:.mkv=01;35:.webm=01;35:.ogm=01;35:.mp4=01;35:.m4v=01;35:.mp4v=01;35:.vob=01;35:.qt=01;35:.nuv=01;35:.wmv=01;35:.asf=01;35:.rm=01;35:.rmvb=01;35:.flc=01;35:.avi=01;35:.fli=01;35:.flv=01;35:.gl=01;35:.dl=01;35:.xcf=01;35:.xwd=01;35:.yuv=01;35:.cgm=01;35:.emf=01;35:.axv=01;35:.anx=01;35:.ogv=01;35:.ogx=01;35:.aac=00;36:.au=00;36:.flac=00;36:.mid=00;36:.midi=00;36:.mka=00;36:.mp3=00;36:.mpc=00;36:.ogg=00;36:.ra=00;36:.wav=00;36:.axa=00;36:.oga=00;36:.spx=00;36:.xspf=00;36:'; export LS_COLORS
You can find more here: https://medium.com/@iraklis/fixing-dark-blue-colors-on-windows-10-ubuntu-bash-c6b009f8b97c
ls and other programs to use a less annoying color, I think the question here was "how do you make the defined colors more readable". This does not provide a solution for 2 reasons: a) this needs to be defined for every single program and b) if for a legitimate reason another program prints blue output it will still be unreadable.
I know right. The dark blue is SO hard to read on a black background.
On my WSL instance's bash terminal it is as simple as changing one character in one file; a file you already have more likely.
Edit vim ~/.bashrc
Look for the following at about line 60.
if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;32m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
fi
Following the then, edit the value of the PS1 variable.
Specifically changing what is for me the 89th character ...:\[\033[01;32m\]\w\... to ...:\[\033[01;33m\]\w\... will render the directory foreground text of the prompt in yellow.
Save, close vim, and the easiest way to test is to type bash<enter>.
Then exit<enter> to return. Or close and reload your terminal window.
The value for this single character is the foreground color of the text that is, by enormously insightful default, dark blue on a black background.
Fun tip: The character just before this is background color of the same text.
I apologize to everyone for Microsoft's user interfering choices.
Don't forget to read the rest of the remarks in this .bashrc file. Someone obviously spent a lot of time thinking about the choices they made when constructing the file that everyone using WSL bash would have as a template.
For the vim editor as shown in the screenshot, use the set bg=dark command in .vimrc.
This is an addition to Zbyněk Winkler's answer. You can use the following colour scheme for a better looking WSL window.
This will update your colours to a slightly lighter version of the existing colours.
Enjoy your new console.
Now in Windows 11, if you open wsl from Windows Terminal and choose Ubuntu, it will open it as original Ubuntu terminal color.
You can also change your default profile to Ubuntu in Windows Terminal.
