Windows Command Line
Insights from the teams behind Windows Terminal, PowerToys, WinGet, and WSL
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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...
Windows Terminal Preview 1910 Release
Another update to the Windows Terminal has just been released! As always, you can download the Terminal from the Microsoft Store, the Microsoft Store for Business, and GitHub. 👉 Note: In the About popup within the Terminal, this version will appear as v0.6. Updated UI The Terminal now has even better tabs! The WinUI TabView used in the Terminal has been updated to version 2.2. This version has better color contrast, rounded corners on the dropdown, and tab separators. Also, when too many tabs fill the screen, you can now scroll through them with buttons! Dynamic Profiles Windows Terminal now automatically ...
Sharing SSH keys between Windows and WSL 2
I recently wrote an article for Smashing Magazine that covers how I set up my personal development environment to use the Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2 (WSL 2). One of the things that I cover in that article is how to get SSH setup in WSL with Github. I mention in that section that you can share SSH keys between Windows and WSL, but I never showed exactly how to do it. There’s a good reason for that. I couldn’t figure it out. An SSH key is specific to a machine. Your machine. The problem is that the Linux distro you install in WSL see’s itself as it’s own operating system, and it wants its own set of SS...
Cascadia Code 1910.04
Cascadia Code has received a major update with some new characters! You can download the latest version of the font from the GitHub releases page and it is also shipped in the latest update of the Windows Terminal. 👉 Note: The Terminal will use its shipped version over the separately installed version from GitHub, however it will use font fallback when needed. This means you will still receive the new characters and glyphs in the Terminal, but any changes to the original character set will not be reflected until your Terminal receives the update. Latin Characters Cascadia Code now includes Latin-1 characters! ...