Welcome to the Windows Terminal, Console and Command-Line repo

This repository contains the source code for:

• Windows Terminal
• Windows Terminal Preview
• The Windows console host (conhost.exe)
• Components shared between the two projects
• ColorTool
• Sample projectsthat show how to consume the Windows Console APIs

Related repositories include:

• Windows Terminal Documentation(Repo: Contribute to the docs)
• Console API Documentation
• Cascadia Code Font

Installing and running Windows Terminal

�� Note: Windows Terminal requires Windows 10 1903 (build 18362) or later

Microsoft Store [Recommended]

Install the Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store.This allows you to always be on the latest version when we release new buildswith automatic upgrades.

This is our preferred method.

Other install methods

Via GitHub

For users who are unable to install Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store,released builds can be manually downloaded from this repository's Releasespage.

Download the Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_<versionNumber>.msixbundle file fromthe Assets section. To install the app, you can simply double-click on the.msixbundle file, and the app installer should automatically run. If thatfails for any reason, you can try the following command at a PowerShell prompt:

# NOTE: If you are using PowerShell 7+, please run
# Import-Module Appx -UseWindowsPowerShell
# before using Add-AppxPackage.

Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_<versionNumber>.msixbundle

�� Note: If you install Terminal manually:

• Terminal will not auto-update when new builds are released so you will needto regularly install the latest Terminal release to receive all the latestfixes and improvements!

Via Windows Package Manager CLI (aka winget)

winget users can download and installthe latest Terminal release by installing the Microsoft.WindowsTerminalpackage:

winget install --id=Microsoft.WindowsTerminal -e

Via Chocolatey (unofficial)

Chocolatey users can download and install the latestTerminal release by installing the microsoft-windows-terminal package:

choco install microsoft-windows-terminal

To upgrade Windows Terminal using Chocolatey, run the following:

choco upgrade microsoft-windows-terminal

If you have any issues when installing/upgrading the package please go to theWindows Terminal packagepage and follow theChocolatey triage process

Via Scoop (unofficial)

Scoop users can download and install the latest Terminalrelease by installing the windows-terminal package:

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install windows-terminal

To update Windows Terminal using Scoop, run the following:

scoop update windows-terminal

If you have any issues when installing/updating the package, please search foror report the same on the issuespage of Scoop Extras bucketrepository.

Windows Terminal 2.0 Roadmap

The plan for delivering Windows Terminal 2.0 is describedhere and will be updated as the project proceeds.

Project Build Status

Terminal & Console Overview

Please take a few minutes to review the overview below before diving into thecode:

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is a new, modern, feature-rich, productive terminal applicationfor command-line users. It includes many of the features most frequentlyrequested by the Windows command-line community including support for tabs, richtext, globalization, configurability, theming & styling, and more.

The Terminal will also need to meet our goals and measures to ensure it remainsfast and efficient, and doesn't consume vast amounts of memory or power.

The Windows Console Host

The Windows Console host, conhost.exe, is Windows' original command-line userexperience. It also hosts Windows' command-line infrastructure and the WindowsConsole API server, input engine, rendering engine, user preferences, etc. Theconsole host code in this repository is the actual source from which theconhost.exe in Windows itself is built.

Since taking ownership of the Windows command-line in 2014, the team addedseveral new features to the Console, including background transparency,line-based selection, support for ANSI / Virtual Terminalsequences, 24-bitcolor,a Pseudoconsole("ConPTY"),and more.

However, because Windows Console's primary goal is to maintain backwardcompatibility, we have been unable to add many of the features the community(and the team) have been wanting for the last several years including tabs,unicode text, and emoji.

These limitations led us to create the new Windows Terminal.

You can read more about the evolution of the command-line in general, and theWindows command-line specifically in this accompanying series of blogpostson the Command-Line team's blog.

Shared Components

While overhauling Windows Console, we modernized its codebase considerably,cleanly separating logical entities into modules and classes, introduced somekey extensibility points, replaced several old, home-grown collections andcontainers with safer, more efficient STLcontainers,and made the code simpler and safer by using Microsoft's Windows ImplementationLibraries - WIL.

This overhaul resulted in several of Console's key components being availablefor re-use in any terminal implementation on Windows. These components include anew DirectWrite-based text layout and rendering engine, a text buffer capable ofstoring both UTF-16 and UTF-8, a VT parser/emitter, and more.

Creating the new Windows Terminal

When we started planning the new Windows Terminal application, we explored andevaluated several approaches and technology stacks. We ultimately decided thatour goals would be best met by continuing our investment in our C++ codebase,which would allow us to reuse several of the aforementioned modernizedcomponents in both the existing Console and the new Terminal. Further, werealized that this would allow us to build much of the Terminal's core itself asa reusable UI control that others can incorporate into their own applications.

The result of this work is contained within this repo and delivered as theWindows Terminal application you can download from the Microsoft Store, ordirectly from this repo'sreleases.

Resources

For more information about Windows Terminal, you may find some of theseresources useful and interesting:

• Command-Line Blog
• Command-Line Backgrounder BlogSeries
• Windows Terminal Launch: Terminal "SizzleVideo"
• Windows Terminal Launch: Build 2019Session
• Run As Radio: Show 645 - Windows Terminal with RichardTurner
• Azure Devops Podcast: Episode 54 - Kayla Cinnamon and Rich Turner on DevOpson the WindowsTerminal
• Microsoft Ignite 2019 Session: The Modern Windows Command Line: WindowsTerminal -BRK3321

FAQ

I built and ran the new Terminal, but it looks just like the old console

Cause: You're launching the incorrect solution in Visual Studio.

Solution: Make sure you're building & deploying the CascadiaPackage project inVisual Studio.

⚠ Note: OpenConsole.exe is just a locally-built conhost.exe, the classicWindows Console that hosts Windows' command-line infrastructure. OpenConsoleis used by Windows Terminal to connect to and communicate with command-lineapplications (viaConPty).

Documentation

All project documentation is located at aka.ms/terminal-docs. If you would liketo contribute to the documentation, please submit a pull request on the WindowsTerminal Documentation repo.

Contributing

We are excited to work alongside you, our amazing community, to build andenhance Windows Terminal!

BEFORE you start work on a feature/fix, please read & follow ourContributor'sGuide tohelp avoid any wasted or duplicate effort.

Communicating with the Team

The easiest way to communicate with the team is via GitHub issues.

Please file new issues, feature requests and suggestions, but DO search forsimilar open/closed pre-existing issues before creating a new issue.

If you would like to ask a question that you feel doesn't warrant an issue(yet), please reach out to us via Twitter:

• Kayla Cinnamon, Program Manager:@cinnamon_msft
• Dustin Howett, Engineering Lead: @dhowett
• Michael Niksa, Senior Developer:@michaelniksa
• Mike Griese, Developer: @zadjii
• Carlos Zamora, Developer: @cazamor_msft
• Leon Liang, Developer: @leonmsft
• Pankaj Bhojwani, Developer
• Leonard Hecker, Developer: @LeonardHecker

Developer Guidance

Prerequisites

• You must be running Windows 1903 (build >= 10.0.18362.0) or later to runWindows Terminal
• You must enable Developer Mode in the Windows Settingsappto locally install and run Windows Terminal
• You must have PowerShell 7 or later installed
• You must have the Windows 10 1903SDKinstalled
• You must have at least VS2019 installed
• You must install the following Workloads via the VS Installer. Note: Openingthe solution in VS 2019 will prompt you to install missing componentsautomatically:
  • Desktop Development with C++
  • Universal Windows Platform Development
  • The following Individual Components
    • C++ (v142) Universal Windows Platform Tools

Building the Code

This repository uses gitsubmodules for some of itsdependencies. To make sure submodules are restored or updated, be sure to runthe following prior to building:

git submodule update --init --recursive

OpenConsole.sln may be built from within Visual Studio or from the command-lineusing a set of convenience scripts & tools in the /tools directory:

Building in PowerShell

Import-Module .\tools\OpenConsole.psm1
Set-MsBuildDevEnvironment
Invoke-OpenConsoleBuild

Building in Cmd

.\tools\razzle.cmd
bcz

Running & Debugging

To debug the Windows Terminal in VS, right click on CascadiaPackage (in theSolution Explorer) and go to properties. In the Debug menu, change "Applicationprocess" and "Background task process" to "Native Only".

You should then be able to build & debug the Terminal project by hittingF5.

�� You will not be able to launch the Terminal directly by running theWindowsTerminal.exe. For more details on why, see#926,#4043

Coding Guidance

Please review these brief docs below about our coding practices.

�� If you find something missing from these docs, feel free to contribute toany of our documentation files anywhere in the repository (or write some newones!)

This is a work in progress as we learn what we'll need to provide people inorder to be effective contributors to our project.

• Coding Style
• Code Organization
• Exceptions in our legacy codebase
• Helpful smart pointers and macros for interfacing with Windows in WIL

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code ofConduct. For more information see the Code of ConductFAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with anyadditional questions or comments.