If you don’t like or use Azure Cloud Shell, you can remove it. Here is how to remove Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Terminal.
Windows Terminal is one of the best applications introduced by Microsoft in recent years. For a very long time, Windows has suffered from a lack of a good and modern terminal application. The best thing about Windows Terminal is that it has all the features and bells & whistles you will ever need. These features include but are not limited to terminal customizations, the ability to add and use multiple shells, better settings management, and more. Most of all, it is included by default in Windows 11.
One of the useful features of Windows Terminal is that it can detect and add shells to it automatically separate profiles. For example, if you install Ubuntu in Windows, Windows Terminal can see and add the Ubuntu shell. This allows you to use the said shell directly in the terminal.
One such shell Windows Terminal automatically adds is the Azure Cloud Shell. Though useful for some, it is pretty useless and unnecessarily takes up the profile dropdown space if you don’t use Azure Cloud.
The good thing is that Windows Terminal is customizable. i.e., you can add or remove profiles with ease. Azure Cloud Shell is nothing different.
This quick and easy guide shows you how to remove Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Terminal.
Table of contents:
Why does Terminal add Azure Cloud Shell profile?
Windows Terminal might automatically add Azure Cloud Shell profile to Terminal if you turn on Windows Developer options, Windows Sandbox, Windows Subsystem for Linux, or Hyper-V.
Not everyone who installed or enabled the above components use Azure Cloud. For example, I’ve enabled Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, and Windows Subsystem for Linux but don’t use Azure Cloud. As such, the Azure Cloud Shell is not helpful to me.
You can disable or remove Azure Cloud Shell in the terminal if you think the same.
Remove Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Terminal
You can delete the Azure Cloud Shell profile to remove it from Windows Terminal. However, the terminal might automatically add the profile again if it thinks it is needed or when you update the application.
You must do two things to ensure Azure Cloud Shell doesn’t appear again. i.e., hide the Azure Cloud shell from the dropdown menu and stop Windows Terminal from automatically adding it. Both these things are easy to do. Let me show you how.
1. First, open Windows Terminal. You can search for it in the Start menu or use the “wt.exe” Run (Win + R) command.
2. After opening Windows Terminal, select “Settings” from the title bar dropdown menu. You can also use the “Ctrl + ,” shortcut to open the Settings page.
3. Click the “Open JSON file” option at the bottom of the sidebar. This action will open the Settings.json file in the default text editor.
4. In the JSON file, find the “defaultProfile” line.
Related: How to change default profile in Windows Terminal
5. Place the cursor at the end of the line (after “,”) and press Enter to create a new line. Next, paste the below code. Refer to the below image to see what to code should look like after pasting the given code.
What this code does is that it prevents the terminal from automatically adding the Azure Cloud Shell even if it thinks it is needed. That way, you will not see the profile even after you update or upgrade the terminal or other dependencies.
"disabledProfileSources": [
"Windows.Terminal.Azure"
],
6. Next, find the “Azure Cloud Shell” profile in the “Settings.json” file. You can see it under the “Profiles” object.
7. Once you find the profile, set “hidden” to “true.” Setting this flag to true will remove Azure Cloud Shell from Windows Terminal.
8. Finally, click “File > Save” or press “Ctrl + S” to save the changes made to Settings.json file. You can lose the editor after saving.
9. With that, you have successfully removed Azure Cloud Shell from Windows Terminal. You will no longer see it in the dropdown menu.
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That is all. It is that simple to remove Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Terminal.
I hope this simple how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need some help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.
