Windows Command Line
Insights from the teams behind Windows Terminal, PowerToys, WinGet, and WSL
Latest posts
Windows Package Manager Preview
We are thrilled to announce the Windows Package Manager preview! If you’re already familiar with what a package manager is, feel free to skip this paragraph. If you’re still reading, you’re going to love this! A package manager is designed to help you save time and frustration. Essentially, it is a set of software tools that help you automate the process of getting software on your machine. You specify which apps you want installed, and it does the work of finding the latest version (or the exact one you specified) and installing it on your machine. Just about every developer has wanted a native package manager...
Windows Terminal Preview v0.11 Release
We are back with one last major update before the 1.0 release of Windows Terminal! Releases between now and then will be revisions of this version. This is the v0.11 release and you can download the Terminal from the Microsoft Store or from the GitHub releases page. Let's see what has changed with this update! Azure visualization - https://github.com/msleal/asciivmssdashboard Localization This is the first Windows Terminal version that has support for non-English UI languages. We are still working out the bugs with this, so please bear with us. 😊 If you find any translation issues, please file them on our Git...
Windows Terminal Preview v0.10 Release
Welcome to the v0.10 release of the Windows Terminal! As always, you can install the Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store or download the package from the GitHub releases page. Let's dive into what's new! Mouse Input The Terminal now supports mouse input in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) applications as well as Windows applications that use virtual terminal (VT) input. This means applications such as tmux and Midnight Commander will recognize when you click on items in the Terminal window! If an application is in mouse mode, you can hold down to make a selection instead of sending VT input. Settings...
WSL 2 will be generally available in Windows 10, version 2004
WSL 2 will soon be officially available as part of Windows 10, version 2004! As we get ready for general availability, we want to share one additional change: updating how the Linux kernel inside of WSL 2 is installed and serviced on your machine. We’ve heard lots of community feedback that the install experience could be streamlined, and we’re taking the first step towards this by improving the servicing model of the Linux kernel. We’ve removed the Linux kernel from the Windows OS image and instead will be delivering it to your machine via Windows Update, the same way that 3rd party drivers (like graphics, or to...
Windows Terminal Preview v0.9 Release
The v0.9 release of the Windows Terminal has arrived! This is the last version of the Terminal that will include new features before the v1 release. You can download the Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store or from the GitHub releases page. Let's dive into what's new! Command Line Arguments The execution alias now supports command line arguments! You can now launch Terminal with new tabs and panes split just how you like, with the profiles you like, starting in the directories you like! The possibilities are endless! Here are some examples: Opens the Terminal with the default profile in the current worki...
Windows Terminal Preview v0.8 Release
The release of the Windows Terminal preview v0.8 has arrived! You can download the Terminal from the Microsoft Store or from the GitHub releases page. Let's jump into what's new! Search Search functionality has been added to the Terminal! The default key binding to invoke the search dropdown is . Feel free to customize this key binding in your profiles.json if you prefer different key presses! The dropdown allows you to search up and down through the buffer as well as with letter case matching. Retro Terminal Effects (Experimental) Do you miss the days of scanlines and glowing text? Well this is the Termina...
Happy Holidays from the Windows Terminal Team!
What a crazy year 2019 has been for the Windows command line! Let's take a look at everything that has happened and where we're going from here. Announcement at Microsoft Build On May 6th of this year, the Windows Terminal was announced at the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle, WA. Here's all of the content that came with our announcement: 🌟 Introducing Windows Terminal 🌟 The new Windows Terminal 🌟 Windows Terminal: Building a better command line experience for developers - BRK3069 The same day as the announcement, the code for the Terminal and the Windows console host were both open sourced on Gi...
Windows Terminal Preview v0.7 Release
Another release is out for the Windows Terminal preview! This release is labeled as v0.7 in the About section of the Terminal. As always, you can download the Terminal from the Microsoft Store and from the GitHub releases page. Here's what's new in this release: Windows Terminal Updates Panes You are now able to split your Terminal window into multiple panes! This allows you to have multiple command prompts open at the same time within the same tab. 👉 Note: At the moment, you're only able to open your default profile within a new pane. Opening a profile of your choice is an option we're planning to include in...
Memory Reclaim in the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2
We’ve added a new Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) feature in Windows Insider Preview Build 19013: Memory Reclamation for WSL 2! Previously, when the memory needs of the WSL2 Virtual Machine (VM) would grow, either from your workflow or by the Linux kernel, the overall memory allocated to the VM would also grow by allocating more memory from the host. But, once the workflow is done, that memory which is no longer needed by the workflow would not get released back to the host. Now with memory reclamation in WSL 2, when the memory in Linux is no longer needed it can be reported back to the host where it will be fr...