The first release of Windows Terminal in 2022 already is here and will please those who, in addition to functions, value consistency in design and a good visual finish. Surely something that was lacking until now the one that pretends to be «the ultimate console» for Windows.
Windows Terminal is the command line tool that Microsoft began developing in 2019 as a standalone application to Windows. Free and released as open sourceexudes a well-defined ‘Linux flavor’ from its very name and -as in the free system- is an alternative to using graphical interfaces, ideal for medium/advanced users and administrators to perform tasks in the operating system in a more flexible way and fast.
Although it was created independently, it was clear from the beginning that Microsoft would include it in its operating systems. It was already announced that it would be the default terminal for Windows 11, the one that would launch by default when opening a command line application replacing the Windows Host Console, conhost.exe, which has been used in Windows since time immemorial.
WindowsTerminal 1.13
This tool may seem simple, but it is extremely powerful handling both the command prompt (the basic interpreter used starting with Windows NT) and the advanced PowerShell console, as well as running separate tabs for WSL 2, the second generation of the Linux subsystem for Windows created to run Linux distributions and applications inside Windows . Announced along with Windows Terminal, it is curious that some believe that the best thing about Windows 11 is its support for Linux.
Getting into the matter, the first version of Windows Terminal in 2022 stands out for its changes in the visual section based on WinUI version 2.6. A new user interface that you’ll quickly recognize because it looks a lot like the General Settings tool in Windows 11.
There’s a clean sidebar with clearly marked sections for Home, Appearance, Color, and others. Also, secondary settings are more clearly labeled once you click on them. Very descriptive and visually attractive for an application that -let’s not forget- still works in text mode.
Another new feature is the new “elevated profile” setting. This allows automatically starting a profile in administrator mode with privileges. other changes are:
- New text rendering engine, which runs at the screen refresh rate, regardless of resolution.
- You can now customize your profile bell sound using settings bellSound. This setting accepts a file path as a string.
- You can now restore recently closed tabs or panels with the new action restoreLastClosed.
- the new action exportBuffer allows you to export the text inside the buffer to a text file.
- The new snap action allows you to change the opacity of the terminal window at runtime.
- Now supports the new Windows 11 window management, Snap Layouts.
You can download the latest version of Windows Terminal and Windows Terminal Preview from the Microsoft Store or its GitHub repository. It works from Windows 10 19041 (20H1) onwards and Microsoft will surely include it as the default terminal in the next Windows 11 update.
