How do I define a default color scheme for all terminals?

[Torge Rosendahl (torgeros)]

Description of the new feature/enhancement

Allow the user to set the color scheme for all (or some) profiles.

I personally use the new terminal (only) for working with the WSL. I have different profiles that load different .bashrc-files according to what I am planning to work with.

I would like to be able to set the color schemes of those in one quick action. That is especially important as I switch between light and dark themes for my OS very often, sometimes even time-of-day-depoendent. Having to switch the color schemes for each profile individually is very annoying.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

1. A dropdown menu to set the default color scheme to one of the defined schemes
2. For each profile: an option in the dropdown that selects the theme that points to "Default scheme"

---

An even better solution could be to be able to set a default light-mode theme and a default dark-mode theme. That would change the colors of a console tab from light to dark when toggling light/dark mode in WIndows System Settings.

[James Holderness (j4james)]

An even better solution could be to be able to set a default light-mode theme and a default dark-mode theme.

There's already an issue open for that feature. See #4066.

[Torge Rosendahl (torgeros)]

There's already an issue open for that feature. See #4066.

Okay but then in addition to that, the main point of this issue should be to be able to set a default theme that applies to all profiles

[Mike Griese (zadjii-msft)]

You could always try setting the colorScheme in profiles.defaults.

"profiles": {
  "defaults": {
    "colorScheme": "Campbell"
  }
  "list": [...]
}

You can also quickly switch schemes with the Command palette and the "select color scheme..." action

[Torge Rosendahl (torgeros)]

You could always try setting the colorScheme in profiles.defaults.

"profiles": {
  "defaults": {
    "colorScheme": "Campbell"
  }
  "list": [...]
}

You can also quickly switch schemes with the Command palette and the "select color scheme..." action

That is good to know, but the existing "default-scheme" is only used when creating a new profile, isn't it? The problem that I cant change the color theme for multiple open tabs with different profiles remains.

[Mike Griese (zadjii-msft)]

is only used when creating a new profile, isn't it?

Nope, it's used whenever a profile doesn't have another scheme set. So in this example:

"profiles": {
  "defaults": {
    "colorScheme": "Campbell"
  },
  "list": [
    {
      "name": "foo",
      "colorScheme": "Solarized"
    },
    {
      "name": "bar"
    }
  ]
}

foo's color scheme would be "Solarized", but bar's would fall back to "Campbell". Change "Campbell" to "Monokai" in the profiles.defaults section, and now bar's scheme would automatically change to "Monokai"

[Torge Rosendahl (torgeros)]

Thank you, that is good to know!

If I understand correctly, there are two things missing to create the wanted behaviour:

First one is an option to unset the used theme from the GUI-settings, which could be done by inserting an option "default" to the theme-dropdown and making it remove the line "colorScheme": "..." from the JSON file when it is selected.

Second one is an option under "Appearance" that select a default color scheme as that is currently only possible through JSON.
After this has been implemented it could be used to make fixing #4066 a little easier..

That sounds sufficiently easy to fix, if I find time to do it, I will fix it myself.

[Mike Griese (zadjii-msft)]

Torge Rosendahl (@torgeros) You actually don't need to worry about that! We're already working on bringing the "Defaults" back to the SUI. That'll have a separate page for the defaults, and little buttons to revert individual profile settings back to the value in the defaults:

IIRC that's in 1.10 Preview (#10588)