We’re back with another Windows Terminal release! Windows Terminal has moved to version 1.4 and includes the features described in the 1.4 release blog post. Windows Terminal Preview has moved to version 1.5 and includes the features described below. You can download both versions from the Microsoft Store or from the GitHub releases page. Let’s dive into what’s new!
Full hyperlink support
We have improved the hyperlink functionality to automatically detect links inside your terminal. These links are clickable and will open in your default browser using Ctrl+Click.
Audible bell 🔔
Windows Terminal now supports the BEL character. You can enable or disable the bell with the "bellStyle" profile setting.
"bellStyle": "audible",
"bellStyle": "none"
Profile icon emoji support
Have you ever wanted to set your profile icon to an emoji? Well today is your lucky day! You can now use emojis as profile icons throughout your terminal by setting your profile’s "icon" to an emoji.
👉 Note: The jump list does not support emojis as icons, so your profiles will be listed without the emojis.
Tab switcher order setting
The "useTabSwitcher" setting has received an upgrade! You can now specify "mru" or "inOrder", which will enable the tab switcher with the tabs listed either in most recently used order or in order of their layout in the terminal.
// Enables the tab switcher
"useTabSwitcher": "mru",
"useTabSwitcher": "inOrder"
// Disables the tab switcher
"useTabSwitcher": "disabled"
Desktop wallpaper background image
A new option has been added to the "backgroundImage" setting! You can set your background image to "desktopWallpaper", which will set your terminal background image to your desktop wallpaper. Thanks @bennettnicholas!
Focus launch modes
New launch modes have been added to the "launchMode" setting. You can now specify the terminal to launch in focused mode or maximized focus mode. Focus mode hides the tabs and the title bar. Thanks @Don-Vito!
"launchMode": "focus",
"launchMode": "maximizedFocus"
Disable animations
We added animations for when you create and close panes. If you would like to disable animations throughout the terminal application, you can use the "disableAnimations" global setting.
"disableAnimations": true
👉 Note: If you have animations disabled at the OS level, you will not see animations inside your terminal unless you set "disableAnimations" to false.
Command palette improvements
Reconfigured > prefix
We switched the > prefix to action mode inside the command palette, thus matching VS Code’s command palette functionality. Backspacing will remove the > character and place you in command line mode, allowing you to run command line arguments.
Back button
When entering a nested menu from the command palette, you can now navigate back to the root menu without having to exit the command palette. Thanks @Hegunumo!
Bold matching search terms
When searching for commands in the command palette, the results will bold the matching text to make it easier to find your desired command. Thanks @Don-Vito!
New actions
Open tab rename text box
You can now open the tab renaming text box using the "openTabRenamer" action. Thanks @Coridyn!
Toggle pane zoom
You can use the "togglePaneZoom" action to expand a pane to fit the entire contents of the terminal window.
Bug fixes
🐛 The terminal is much faster when launching, opening tabs, and closing tabs when you have a lot of profiles.
🐛 Clicking links inside the terminal will no longer hang.
🐛 The jump list will now display icons that use forward slashes in their file paths.
🐛 Failure to write to your settings file will now display a warning.
🐛 When using a screen reader, it is much faster when moving to the next word.
Top contributors
We had a ton of wonderful contributions for this release and we would love to recognize those who have especially made an impact!
Contributors who opened the most non-duplicate issues
🏆 vefatica
🏆 j4james
Contributors who created the most merged pull requests
🏆 Don-Vito
🏆 Hegunumo
Contributors who provided the most comments on pull requests
🏆 Don-Vito
Cheers!
Full documentation for all settings can be found on our docs site. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to Kayla (@cinnamon_msft) on Twitter. If you have any feature requests or have found some bugs that need filing, you can create a new issue on GitHub. We hope you enjoy this latest version of Windows Terminal Preview!
It would also be nice if our settings weren't randomly changed, like ctrl+tab behaviour. Why not just make it the default for new profiles? Why not give us the option to not have our settings changed just because the devs thought we might like it? I came back from many years in the *nix world so I had stopped being used to Microsoft's paternal "you'll like it better this way, and if you don't well...
It would be nice if there were a way to disable right-click paste.
How to get this update ?
Awesome! Are we also planning WT for Mac and Ubuntu ??
Not at this time. This is a common request, and we’re not averse to doing so, but we’re concentrating our efforts on making Windows Terminal great on Windows for now.
Hi. 😊
I see you’ve gone through the trouble of recording full-screen animated GIFs. However, it seems there is no way to see them at full size unless someone guesses that their size could be bigger (I did) and explicitly use the browser features to open them in a new tab.
Exciting updates. Hoping for window transparency like cmd and PowerShell soon!
amazing! it would be good to have sample setting for how to change backgroundImage to desktopWallpaper!