Forging the “Stronghand” Terminal: From Chaos to Command

4 min readApr 28, 2025

“Stronghand” is the name I gave my computer after the latest reformat. I destroyed EVERYTHING across all my drives — four disks totaling over 10TB — wiping them clean to zero.

Why? Because clutter carries inertia. Because old data is old gravity. Because sometimes the only way forward is to burn the ship.

After the reset, I divided my new empire into two main territories:

V: Vault — Permanent archive. Memories, music, videos, source materials. Things to keep safe.
F: Forge — Active workspace. Development, documentation, experimentation. Things to build and break.

Every project, every piece of work, either belongs to the Vault (long-term memory) or the Forge (current creation).

Clear. Brutal. Freeing.

There are moments when you realize your tools no longer match your mind. That’s what happened when I looked at the stock Windows 11 terminal experience. Too noisy. Too slow. Too soft.

I needed a cockpit. A blade. A command center worthy of the mission ahead. So I forged one.

Today, I’m sharing the exact steps I took to build my personal development terminal on Windows 11 — using WezTerm. Whether you’re a web developer, gamer, engineer, or just someone who wants your machine to actually obey you, this is a path you can follow.

Phase 1: Kill the Noise — Install WezTerm

I replaced the default Windows Terminal with WezTerm (Wez Furlong, 2024).

Why? It’s fast, lightweight, GPU-accelerated, and cross-platform.
In short: a weapon, not a toy.

Installed WezTerm
Created wezterm.lua manually at %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\wezterm\wezterm.lua
Set default shell to PowerShell 7, not cmd.exe

You can find the configuration I used here: wezterm configs. In a nutshell, we are looking at something like this:

return {
  default_prog = { 'pwsh.exe', '-NoLogo' },
  font = wezterm.font("JetBrainsMono Nerd Font"),
  font_size = 12.5,
  color_scheme = "Catppuccin Mocha",
}

Phase 2: Upgrade the Shell — PowerShell 7, Oh-My-Posh, and Zoxide

Stock PowerShell? Slow. Clunky. Old. I installed PowerShell 7 (Microsoft, 2023) via winget and tuned it with:

Oh-My-Posh for visual clarity
Zoxide for teleportation-level folder navigation

Important: When initializing zoxide inside PowerShell 7, use:

Invoke-Expression (& { (zoxide init powershell | Out-String) })

(not ‘pwsh’ — zoxide expects ‘powershell’ as input.)

I also added these to my PowerShell $PROFILE:

oh-my-posh init pwsh | Invoke-Expression
Invoke-Expression (& { (zoxide init powershell | Out-String) })

Plus a few battle-tested aliases like gs (git status), gp (git push), serve (launch local servers). See my full list of alises here (not exhaustive, just some to get your creative juices flowing):

# Custom Aliases
Set-Alias gs git status
Set-Alias gc git commit
Set-Alias gp git push
Set-Alias gl git pull
Set-Alias gco git checkout
Set-Alias gb git branch
Set-Alias serve npx serve

# Quick Directory Shortcuts (Optional)
Set-Alias dev "cd F:\Dev"
Set-Alias pers "cd F:\Dev\Personal"
Set-Alias work "cd F:\Dev\Work"

Phase 3: Install the Right Dev Tools

nvm-windows to manage Node.js versions cleanly (Butler, 2024)
fzf for fuzzy file finding
Organized folders into F:\Dev\Personal, F:\Dev\Work, etc.

Simple structure = simple mind = powerful output.

Why This Matters

Most developers (and creators in general) live in accidental friction. Every terminal glitch, every PATH pollution, every second lost accumulates.

By building a terminal intentionally:

You speed up mentally and physically
You enjoy the craft more
You eliminate avoidable frustrations
You create a cockpit for serious work, not casual dabbling

This wasn’t about “fancy customization.”
This was about forging a sharper interface with reality. This is about moving with INTENTION! And when your interface is sharp, your spirit sharpens too.

Closing Words

Your machine reflects your mind.
Your terminal reflects your discipline.

Forge them both carefully and intentionally.

And when you’re ready for more? There are even deeper rituals to unlock — tmux sessions, worktrees, containerized dev environments.

But first: master your cockpit.
Everything else follows.

(If this guide helped you, feel free to share your own terminal screenshots — I’d love to see what weapons you’re building.)

References

Butler, C. (2024). nvm-windows. GitHub. https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows
Microsoft. (2023). PowerShell. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/
Wez Furlong. (2024). WezTerm Terminal Emulator. https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/
De Dobbeleer, J. (2024). Oh My Posh. https://ohmyposh.dev/
D’Souza, A. (2024). zoxide. GitHub. https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide