Setting up your command-line terminal

Setup of your command-line terminal is a crucial step which allows you to gain control over the communication with your computer. It will be useful for you to place a terminal icon (or an alias under MacOS) on your desktop, so that the command-line terminal will be quickly accessible when needed. From the paragraphs below, choose the operating system which you use on your computer.

To create a shortcut of the command-line terminal, click on the desktop with the right mouse button, choose New and then Shortcut. In the input line, write cmd and click on the button Next. If nothing happens (mainly in older versions of Windows), try writing command instead. In the next window, assign this icon the name Terminal and click on Finish. Your desktop should now display a shortcut for your command-line terminal. Open up your terminal window.

If you are a lucky owner or user of Apple with running MacOS X, the setup of your command-line terminal is a straightforward task. Click on the hard drive icon which should be on your desktop, then on Applications in the upper part of the window and open the folder Utilities. You should now see the icon Terminal. To create its alias, press and hold Ctrl and click on this icon, then choose Make alias. Finally drag the icon Terminal alias onto the desktop and, possibly, give it a name Terminal. Open up your terminal window.