Windows Command Line

Windows Terminal, Console and Command Line, Windows Subsystem for Linux, WSL, Windows Package Manager

Windows Command-Line: Backgrounder

This is the first of a series of posts in which we’ll explore all things command-line – from the origins of the command-line and the evolution of the terminal, to what we’re doing to overhaul and modernize the Windows Console & command-line in future Windows releases.

Join us for a hot cup o Chocolatey!

Setting up a dev box should be easy and fast.  At BUILD 2018 we announced a collaboration with Chocolatey and Boxstarter.  The project founders discuss the collaboration in the following video. https://youtu.be/p8q-2d801xU Improving Machine Setup Have you set up a new dev machine and found it was frustrating or time consuming?  It's ...

Tabbed Console starts here

[2018-06-29: Important Note: As announced in the release notes for Windows 10 Insider build 17704, Sets and Tabs will NOT ship in the next mainstream release of Windows (codenamed RS5). Please read the first bullet under the heading "General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC" for more details.]   [2018-04-16: Updated to better reflect...

What’s new for the Command Line in Windows 10 version 1803

The next Windows 10 update includes many new features for Command Line developers. In this post we'll review WSL, Hyper-V, new tools, and UWP Console applications coming to the Microsoft Store.  We want to thank everyone who tried these updates via the Insiders program and provided feedback.  We really appreciate hearing from you both when ...

Share Environment Vars between WSL and Windows

Hey WSL users—we have more features to share with you! Our latest Windows Insider build lets you share environment variables between WSL and Windows. Starting with Build 17063, let’s look at how you can leverage the new “WSLENV” to enhance environmental variable interop between Win32/WSL. Summary For the pros who’ve already heard ...

A Guide to Invoking WSL

There are a variety of ways to invoke the Windows Subsystem for Linux from Windows commandlines and they all behave a little differently. Let’s get to the bottom of it.    “wsl” The first (and recommended!) method will start up your default distro. Additionally, it starts the distro in the current working directory where you invoke ...

WSL & Console team ch…ch…ch…chaaaaanges!

Dear friends of WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux, nee "Bash on [Ubuntu on] Windows") & Windows Console: I would like to share with you some changes to our org' that will benefit WSL, Windows Console and the Windows command-line in general moving forward. After shipping a major new release, Microsoft often shuffles teams and people ...

What’s new in Windows Console in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (FCU) releasing on October 17th 2017, we thought it time to post the list of improvements coming to Windows Console in FCU. Note: For fans of our sister project, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), please also read our post on "What's New in WSL in FCU". The Windows Console team have been hard at work ...

Introducing the Windows Console Colortool

Last week we announced the exciting news that Windows Console has a new default color scheme, and also promised you that we would release a tool to make it easier to change the console to your desired scheme. The Windows Console team is proud to present the 'Colortool' which you can use to apply the new default color scheme, and several ...