Is there a way to change the default shell in Windows Terminal?

When opening the new Windows Terminal, it opens up PowerShell. Also by default new tabs are PowerShell.

You have to manually switch to your desired shell.

Is there a way in the settings JSON file to change this to cmd or something else?

windows version : 1903

Answer

Open Windows Terminal JSON settings. Next, in profiles array find the object for the shell you're searching and copy the guid value from it. The last step is to paste this value into the globals > defaultProfile node.

{
    "globals" : 
    {
        "alwaysShowTabs" : true,
        "defaultProfile" : "CMD GUID GOES HERE",
        "initialCols" : 120,
        "initialRows" : 30,
        "keybindings" : 
....

It may change your default shell.