Windows Terminal became the default command line tool in Windows 11 back in October 2022, which means that Microsoft is more focused than ever on making it a suitable CLI for millions of customers. The company regularly updates Windows Terminal with new functionalities, while maintaining two release branches: Windows Terminal and Windows Terminal Preview. Now, it has released Windows Terminal Preview 1.17 and updated the stable release to version 1.16 too.
Windows Terminal Preview 1.17 includes support for dropdown customization to add folders, separators, and profiles by editing the settings.json file. Additionally, another feature some might like is the ability to restart a process by pressing Enter after it has terminated. Moreover, launch position parameters in the Startup section of the Settings UI can be configured too.
On the aesthetics side, there is support for Mica as a background material in Windows 11 by setting the useMica property to “true” in the settings.json file. Similarly, the Color schemes page has been updated again to be more intuitive. You’ll even be able to see a preview of a color scheme before you select it.
Other items from the changelog are quoted below:
- Other Color Scheme Improvements
- You can now configure a color scheme (per profile) to apply in System Light theme and System Dark theme
- You can now configure a color scheme (per profile) to apply in Application theme
- Virtual Terminal (VT) and Output
- HUGE shoutout to @j4james for his amazing contributions in the VT space. James worked tirelessly to improve support for VT features, including rewriting how text output is processed in Windows Terminal. Here is a brief summary of the VT contributions that James made for this release:
- Added support for DEC macro operations
- Added support for DECARM (Auto Repeat Mode)
- Added support for IRM (Insert Replace Mode)
- Added support for private options in DSR queries
- Added support for selective erase operations (DECSED)
- Added support for the DECRQM escape sequence
- Added support for the rectangular area operations (DEC*RA)
- Merged the legacy and extended attributes
- Rewrote how we handled text embedded in a stream of VT, which closed 8 bugs!
- Added support for line rendition attributes (DECDHL) over ConPTY
- Added support for soft fonts over (DECDLD) ConPTY as well
- Wide characters will no longer cause weird cursor leavings
- VT reports once again work when DECARM is disabled
- Thanks again for all your help, James!
- Usability Updates
- wt now supports the –pos and –size commandline arguments to control the position and size of the new window (thanks @ianjoneill!)
- When you duplicate a tab, the new tab will open next to the current tab (thanks @vamsiikrishnaak!)
- You can now use exe and dll resources for icon paths
- Accessibility Improvements
- We’ve removed a leading cause of crashes closing panes and tabs while screen reading was active
- Our internal management window will no longer appear as an empty pane to screen readers
- Miscellaneous Improvements
- Windows Terminal now supports remaining FinalTerm mark types (command input start, command executed, and command finished)
- You can now set the scroll bar to be always displayed in $profile.scrollbarState
- The contents of the Terminal package are now code-signed, so those of you who deploy it unzipped will no longer get in trouble with your IT folks
- Bug Fixes
- The Export and Find context menu items work on unfocused tabs (thanks @ianjoneill!)
- We’ve retooled how we launch Terminal elevated when you use an elevate: true profile (or Ctrl+Shift-click a profile in the dropdown menu.) (thanks @jboelter!)
- The about dialog (and other dialogs) will finally block the entire window even if you resize it
- We now attempt to account for transparent tab backgrounds when calculating the text foreground color
- You can now drag/drop more than 16 items directly out of 7-Zip (and some other applications) (thanks @jiejasonliu!)
- Malformed settings objects will no longer cause an “Application error 0x%” settings warning
- “Use Acrylic in Tab Row” no longer requires a relaunch
- Split pane borders no longer display in the wrong theme color
- In separate titlebar mode, Terminal will now default to a dark title bar when you are using a dark theme
- The “Add Appearance” button will now be read out properly by screen readers
Although what we have above is the changelog for Windows Terminal Preview 1.17, you can also view the changelog for Windows Terminal 1.16 – now generally available – in our previous article here.
You can download Windows Terminal and Terminal Preview from the Microsoft Store here and here, respectively, or through the GitHub repository here.