2026: How to setup Git colorization on Windows 11

ColorsForGitWin11.md

Install Windows Terminal

Install the Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store.

Alternatively,

winget install --id Microsoft.WindowsTerminal -e

choco install microsoft-windows-terminal

choco upgrade microsoft-windows-terminal

Install Nerd Fonts

Cascadia

JetBrains Mono

Specifically install the *NF.TTF files to prevent confusion from installing all.

Enable the Nerd Font

1. Launch settings (ctrl+,)
2. Scroll down to PROFILES
3. Select DEFAULTS under Profiles
4. Click Appearance (under Additional Settings)
5. Assign Font Face Cascadia Mono NF or Jetbrains
6. Color scheme, i'm using Dark+

Save

To verify font installation:

echo "  ⇡  ⇣  ✘  ⚡"

If you only see boxes with a lightning bolt, the setup is not correct. Note the web presentation should show boxes, but echo should show glphys.

Starship

The replacement to posh-git.

winget install Starship.Starship

Verify installation:

starship --version

Note: Starship by default folds git repository paths to the repo. Do not be surprised to see ...\MyRepo even when you're under the C:\Users\YOU\source\repos parent dirctory.

Starship profile integration

notepad $PROFILE

Confirm to create the profile ps1 file if it does not exist.

Append to your profile:

if (Get-Command starship -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
    Invoke-Expression (&starship init powershell)
}

Save and exit file.

Restart Windows Terminal

Starship extra

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $HOME\.config | Out-Null
New-Item -ItemType File -Force -Path $HOME\.config\starship.toml | Out-Null

notepad $HOME\.config\starship.toml

Update content

add_newline = false

format = "$directory$git_branch$git_status$character"

[directory]
style = "bold"
truncation_length = 3
truncation_symbol = "…/"
repo_root_style = "bold cyan"

[git_branch]
symbol = " "
style = "bold purple"

[git_status]
style = "yellow"
format = "($style )"
conflicted = "⚔️"
untracked = "?"
modified = "!"
staged = "+"
renamed = "»"
deleted = "✘"
ahead = "⇡"
behind = "⇣"
diverged = "⇕"

[character]
success_symbol = "[➜](bold green)"
error_symbol   = "[➜](bold red)"

Starship reloads its config on every prompt render, meaning: NO TERMINAL RESTARTS!

Extras

git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.ci commit
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.br branch