Windows with PowerShell

Introduction

This will install Terraform at the Windows 10 or Windows 11 OS level. Uses Windows Terminal, and winget for installs. WSL2 is not required, nor is jq as PowerShell has full object handling.

Note that you may need to translate any example Bash commands found in this site’s labs to their PowerShell equivalents.

Install

1. Windows Terminal

   Newer versions of Windows 11 have Windows Terminal pre-installed and set as the default terminal application.

   If not then install Windows Terminal. Refer to the Windows Terminal documentation if you wish to customise.

2. Install the terraform binary

   Download either x86 or ARM64 from the downloads page.

3. Winget

   Newer versions of Windows 11 also have winget by default. It is the Windows Package Manager.

   Open a PowerShell windows using Windows Terminal and type winget to check if it is there.

   If Winget is not installed there then install the App Installer on the Microsoft Store. (There are other install options available.)

4. Git

   winget install --exact --id "Git.Git" --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements --silent
   

5. GitHub CLI

   winget install --exact --id "GitHub.cli" --silent
   

6. Terraform

   winget install --exact --id "Hashicorp.Terraform" --silent
   

7. Azure CLI

   winget install --exact --id "Microsoft.AzureCLI" --silent
   

8. Visual Studio Code

   winget install --exact --id "Visual Studio Code" --source msstore --accept-package-agreements
   

9. Install the Hashicorp Terraform extension

   The HashiCorp Terraform extension for Visual Studio Code (VS Code) with the Terraform Language Server adds editing features for Terraform files such as syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, code navigation, code formatting, module explorer, etc.

Validation

As a test, open up your terminal and check the following commands:

1. Show the Azure CLI version

   az version
   

2. Show the Terraform version

   terraform version
   

3. Make a directory and move into it

   mkdir test
   cd test
   

4. Open vscode from the command line

   code .
   

   This should open vscode with the current working directory in the Explorer pane.

   If you are using Ubuntu on WSL2 then you should see the Remote Development icon in the left hand side of the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

5. Open the integrated terminal

   Click on View > Terminal in the menu, or use the keyboard shortcuts, Win+'.

   Your selected shell should open up in the integrated terminal pane.

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