Configure Alacritty on Windows for WSL

Introduction

Windows Terminal can feel sluggish inside WSL; Alacritty stays far more responsive, so use it on Windows and point it directly at your Ubuntu distribution.

Install

Install Alacritty using winget, scoop or downloading the installer from the website

Scoop:

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install extras/alacritty

Winget:

winget install -e --id Alacritty.Alacritty

Configure Fonts

Install Nerd Fonts for maximum compatibility with Alacritty configuration:

The easiest way is to install it using scoop:

scoop bucket add nerd-fonts
scoop install nerd-fonts/JetBrainsMono-NF

Configure Alacritty

Drop the following config into C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\alacritty\alacritty.toml (or copy the provided template from /mnt/c/Users/{username}/AppData/Roaming/alacritty/alacritty.toml):

[window]
dimensions = { columns = 100, lines = 40 }
padding = { x = 10, y = 10 }
dynamic_padding = true
decorations = "Full"
opacity = 1.0
blur = true
startup_mode = "Windowed"
title = "Alacritty"
dynamic_title = false
decorations_theme_variant = "Dark"
resize_increments = false
level = "Normal"

[scrolling]
history = 20000
multiplier = 3

[font]
normal.family = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font"
bold.family = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font"
italic.family = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font"
bold_italic.family = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font"
size = 12
offset = { x = 0, y = 0 }

[terminal]
shell = { program = "wsl", args = ["-d", "Ubuntu", "--cd", "~"] }

Run Alacritty

Now, once you open Alacritty, WSL Ubuntu distribution will be open automatically if configured.

You can change shell = { program = "wsl", args = ["-d", "Ubuntu", "--cd", "~"] } to any distribution you have installed if you prefer.