Windows Command Line
Windows Terminal, Console and Command Line, Windows Subsystem for Linux, WSL, Windows Package Manager
Latest posts
Introducing Windows Terminal
We are beyond excited to announce Windows Terminal! Windows Terminal is a new, modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL. https://aka.ms/terminal-video Windows Terminal will be delivered via the Microsoft Store in Windows 10 and will be updated regularly, ensuring you are always up to date and able to enjoy the newest features and latest improvements with minimum effort. Windows Terminal key features Multiple tabs You've asked and we've listened! The most frequently requested feature for the Ter...
Shipping a Linux Kernel with Windows
Beginning with Windows Insiders builds this Summer, we will include an in-house custom-built Linux kernel to underpin the newest version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This marks the first time that the Linux kernel will be included as a component in Windows. This is an exciting day for all of us on the Linux team at Microsoft and we are thrilled to be able to tell you a little bit about it. Tuned for WSL The term “Linux” is often used to refer both to the Linux kernel as well as the GNU userspace. As with WSL1, WSL2 will not provide any userspace binaries. Instead, the Microsoft kernel will interfac...
Announcing WSL 2
Today we’re unveiling the newest architecture for the Windows Subsystem for Linux: WSL 2! Changes in this new architecture will allow for: dramatic file system performance increases, and full system call compatibility, meaning you can run more Linux apps in WSL 2 such as Docker. What exactly is WSL 2? Our top requests from the WSL community have been to increase the file system performance, and make more apps work inside of WSL (i.e: introduce better system call compatibility). We have heard your feedback, and are glad to announce that WSL 2 helps solve these issues. WSL 2 is a new version of the architecture ...
What’s new for WSL in Windows 10 version 1903?
The next Windows update is coming soon and we’re bringing exciting new updates to WSL with it! These include accessing the Linux file system from Windows, and improvements to how you manage and configure your distros in the command line. Accessing Linux files from Windows In the past, creating and changing Linux files from Windows resulted in losing files or corrupting data. Making this possible has been a highly requested and long anticipated feature. We’re proud to announce you can now easily access all the files in your Linux distros from Windows. Linux Files inside of File Explorer The best way to get sta...
New Experimental Console Features
As of Windows 10 build 18298, when you open the properties page of any Console window, you’ll notice an additional “Terminal” tab. Click on this tab and you’ll see several new settings for some experimental features we’re working on for future OS releases: Important Note: These settings are "experimental", because in certain scenarios, it's possible that they might not behave like you would expect them to, may not make it into the next OS release, and may change completely before we ship! But have fun with them anyway and let us know how you get on – we’d love to hear your feedback. Let’s outline each of th...
Windows Command-Line: Unicode and UTF-8 Output Text Buffer
In this post, we'll discuss the improvements we've been making to the Windows Console's internal text buffer, enabling it to better store and handle Unicode and UTF-8 text. Posts in the Windows Command-Line series: This list will be updated as more posts are published: [Source: David Farrell’s “Building a UTF-8 encoder in Perl”] The most visible aspect of a Command-Line Terminal is that it displays the text emitted from your shell and/or Command-Line tools and apps, in a grid of mono-spaced cells – one cell per character/symbol/glyph. Great, that’s simple. How hard can it be, right – it’s just l...
What’s New for WSL in the Windows 10 October 2018 Update
On October 2, 2018, Microsoft announced that the availability of the** Windows 10 October 2018 Update**. After the update was paused, the rollout resumed on November 13, 2018. You can read more about the Windows 10 quality approach here. This post, however, will cover what you can expect to see in WSL for the October 2018 Update, Windows 10 version 1809, and from recent Windows Insiders builds. You can find additional information on features and fixes in our detailed release notes. Additional Linux Distributions now available in the Microsoft Store We’re excited to share two additional distros in the Microsoft ...
Windows Console: CTRL + Scroll to zoom and Dark Theme Scrollbar
Many of you have been asking for Windows Console to support zoom. Well, today is your lucky day! 😜 Install today's Windows 10 Insider build #18272 and you can! How does one perform this magic? After upgrading to Win10 Insider build #18272 or later, open any Console window (E.g. launch , , , etc.) and then hit and hold CTRL while scrolling your mouse wheel / trackpad. The observant will also notice that Console now honors your Light/Dark Theme settings: If you are using the Dark Theme, your Console's scroll-bar is also dark-themed! We call this the Halloween 2018 Feature :D Enjoy!
Re-Open-Sourcing MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0
In March 2014, Microsoft released the source code to MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 via the Computer History Museum. The announcement also contains a brief history of how MS-DOS came to be for those new to the subject, and ends with many links to related articles and resources for those interested in learning more. Today, we're re-open-sourcing MS-DOS on GitHub. Why? Because it's much easier to find, read, and refer to MS-DOS source files if they're in a GitHub repo than in the original downloadable compressed archive file. ** Important: As noted on the repo readme, the source files are being (re)published for histor...