winwal

A wrapper around pywal16 for Windows. (Original pywal has been archived by author, pywal16 is recommended moving forward).

Art from wallpaperhub

Dependencies

Only 1 backend is needed to get started, but each backend will provide slightly different color schemes.

pywal supports more backends, but I have not tried figuring them all out on Windows yet.

Use pip to install:

• pywal16
• colorthief
• colorz (does not install on arm64 versions of Python on Windows)
• haishoku

For wal Backend, install ImageMagick and add the install directory to your path:

winget install imagemagick.imagemagick

Windows on ARM64 Please install the static version of ImageMagick from their downloads to avoid issues.

For schemer2 backend, install Go and run:

go install github.com/thefryscorer/schemer2@latest

PowerShell-Core winget install -e Microsoft.PowerShell

Note: PowerShell versions less that 6 don't support JSON with comments

winget install Python.Python.3.13
pip install pywal16 colorthief colorz haishoku

Installing

Clone the repository and update your powershell profile to have:

Import-Module .\path\to\winwal.psm1

To open your profile with code:

code $profile

PowerShell profile and Oh My Posh

Add winwal to your PowerShell $PROFILE so Update-WalTheme is available in new terminals. If you cloned this repo to C:\Users\you\GitHub\winwal, use:

Import-Module "C:\Users\you\GitHub\winwal\winwal.psm1"

If you use Oh My Posh, keep your own theme initialization in $PROFILE with a --config path:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$HOME\.config\oh-my-posh\my-theme.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

Then run winwal when you want to refresh colors:

Update-WalTheme

On later runs, winwal updates the wal cache and templates, detects the active Oh My Posh config from $env:POSH_THEME or from oh-my-posh init pwsh --config ... / -c ... lines in your PowerShell profile, and refreshes that same config. If the detected config points to a wal-generated Oh My Posh theme, the refreshed prompt uses the new wal colors; winwal does not switch you to a bundled theme.

If you do not use Oh My Posh, do not add an Oh My Posh line. Starship and other prompt users can keep their existing profile setup; winwal only refreshes Oh My Posh when oh-my-posh is installed and a supported config path is detected.

Using

To update wal cache Windows Terminal Color Scheme using the current wallpaper:

Update-WalTheme

To use a different backend with the current wallpaper:

Update-WalTheme -Backend haishoku

To update wal cache, Windows Terminal Color Scheme, and set the desktop wallpaper:

Update-WalTheme -Image .\path\to\new\background.jpg

Notes: winwal will download ColorTool and use it to set the new default color schemes to cmd.exe.

Keep WSL in sync

In WSL, you can symlink the wal cache directory to the Windows directory:

ln -s /mnt/c/Users/username/.cache/wal ~/.cache/wal

There's also instructions in pywal on setting up your dot files that need to be followed (look for .bashrc instructions).

VS Code Plugins Used

• wal-theme - Wal Theme for VS Code
• GlassIt-VSC - Transparency for VS Code

Recommended PowerShell Modules

• Terminal-Icons (requires using a nerd font)
• oh-my-posh