Windows Command Line
Insights from the teams behind Windows Terminal, PowerToys, WinGet, and WSL
Latest posts
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...
Using WSL in an Enterprise
Recently, customers in an enterprise environment have asked if there is a way to install WSL without an internet connection. These companies had some machines that would benefit from having WSL, but don't have an internet connection for security, logistics, or other reasons. Enter: The Microsoft Store for Business We (the WSL team) took a look into this issue and found that enterprises could use the Microsoft Store for Business to help deploy WSL distros to their company, including offline distribution! The Microsoft Store for Business is essentially another way to interact with the Microsoft Store, but from an...
Windows Command-Line: Introducing the Windows Pseudo Console (ConPTY)
In this, the fourth post in the Windows Command-Line series, we'll discuss the new Windows Pseudo Console (ConPTY) infrastructure and API - why we built it, what it's for, how it works, how to use it, and more.
Windows Command-Line: Inside the Windows Console
Welcome to the third post in the Windows Command-Line series. In this post, we'll start to dig into the internals of the Windows Console and Command-Line, what it is, what it does ... and what it doesn't do!
A Guide to Upgrading your Ubuntu App’s Release
Canonical recently released Ubuntu 18.04 in the Microsoft Store. We received many questions around the various Ubuntu releases in the Store in addition to how best to upgrade your existing releases. With the help of our friends at Canonical, we have created a guide to upgrading your Ubuntu release. We will soon add a short-form version of this guide to the WSL distribution management documentation. First, let’s start with an explanation of the Ubuntu apps in the Store. Ubuntu apps in the Store You’ll notice there are currently three Ubuntu apps in the Store – Ubuntu, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 18.04. Ubuntu T...
Windows Command-Line: The Evolution of the Windows Command-Line
Welcome to the second post in this "Windows Command-Line" series. In this post we'll discuss some of the background & history behind the Windows Command-Line. Specifically, we’ll explore its humble origins in MS-DOS, to its modern-day incarnation supporting tools like PowerShell and Windows Subsystem for Linux.