How can I open the terminal for executing shell commands in Visual Studio (Community Edition)?

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12 Answers

Visual Studio 2022/2019

Now Visual Studio has a built-in terminal:

Menu View → Terminal (Ctrl + ")

To change the default terminal

Menu Tools → Options → Terminal → Set As Default

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Before Visual Studio 2019

From comments, the best answer is from Hans Passant.

1. Add an external tool.

   Menu Tools → External Tools → Add

   Title: Terminal (or name it yourself)

   Command = cmd.exe or Command = powershell.exe

   Arguments = /k

   Initial Directory = $(ProjectDir)

2. Menu Tools → Terminal (or whatever you put in title)

3. Enjoy!

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You can have an integrated terminal inside Visual Studio using one of these extensions:

Whack Whack Terminal

Terminal: CMD or PowerShell

Shortcut: Ctrl + </kbd>, Ctrl + </kbd>

Supports: Visual Studio 2017

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BuiltinCmd

Terminal: CMD or PowerShell

Shortcut: CtrlShiftT

Supports: Visual Studio 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019

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As a tricky solution, you can use Package Manager Console to execute CMD or PowerShell commands.

Shortcut for Package Manager Console: Alt + T, + N, O

Tested on Visual Studio 2017 Community version.

Also it's available now as part of Visual Studio version 16.3 Preview 3

The shortcut is Ctrl + `, the same as Visual Studio Code.

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New in the most recent version of Visual Studio, there is menu View → Terminal, which will open a PowerShell instance as a Visual Studio dockable window, rather than a floating PowerShell or CMD instance from the Developer Command Prompt.

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Microsoft just included an integrated Windows Terminal in Visual Studio version 16.3 Preview 3. Go to menu Tools → Options → Preview Features, enable the Experimental VS Terminal option and restart Visual Studio.

Say hello to the new Visual Studio terminal!

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In Visual Studio 2019, you can open Command/PowerShell window from menu Tools → Command Line:

If you want an integrated terminal, try
BuiltinCmd:

You can also try WhackWhackTerminal (does not support Visual Studio 2019 by this date).

In Visual Studio 2019, menu Tools → Command Line → Developer Command Prompt.

I am not sure if this will help, but I usually pull the command prompt up by going into "Synchronization" tab in Team Explorer and clicking on "Actions".

When the command prompt opens, it is in the directory of the project.

Right click on your solution and above "Properties" is the option "Open Command Line" which gives access to the default CMD, PowerShell and developer command prompts.

Alternatively, you can use the shortcuts Alt + Space for the default (CMD), Shift + Alt + , for Developer (cmd), Shift + Alt + . for PowerShell.

To open the terminal:

• Use the Ctrl + ` keyboard shortcut with the backtick character. This command works for both Linux and macOS.
• Use the menu View → Terminal menu command.
• From the Command Palette (Shift + ⌘ + P), use the View: Toggle Integrated Terminal command.

Please find more about the integrated terminal in Integrated Terminal.

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Menu View → Debug console (Ctrl + Shift + Y). Next to the debug console is the terminal.

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For Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2017 use Ctrl+Alt+A

Alternatively from command panel view -> Other Windows -> Command Window

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