The new Windows Terminal, and the original Windows console host -- all in the same place!
This repository contains the source code for:
- Windows Terminal
- The Windows console host (
conhost.exe) - Components shared between the two projects
- ColorTool
- Sample projects that show how to consume the Windows Console APIs
Other related repositories include:
Build Status
| Project | Build Status |
|---|---|
| Terminal | |
| ColorTool |
Terminal & Console Overview
Please take a few minutes to review the overview below before diving into the code:
Windows Terminal
Windows Terminal is a new, modern, feature-rich, productive terminal application for command-line users. It includes many of the features most frequently requested by the Windows command-line community including support for tabs, rich text, globalization, configurability, theming & styling, and more.
The Terminal will also need to meet our goals and measures to ensure it remains fast, 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 user experience. It implements Windows' command-line infrastructure, and is responsible for hosting the Windows Console API, input engine, rendering engine, and user preferences. The console host code in this repository is the actual source from which the conhost.exe in Windows itself is built.
Console's primary goal is to remain backwards-compatible with existing console subsystem applications.
Since assuming ownership of the Windows command-line in 2014, the team has added several new features to the Console, including window transparency, line-based selection, support for ANSI / Virtual Terminal sequences, 24-bit color, a Pseudoconsole ("ConPTY"), and more.
However, because the Console's primary goal is to maintain backward compatibility, we've been unable to add many of the features the community has been asking for, and which we've been wanting to add for the last several years--like tabs!
These limitations led us to create the new Windows Terminal.
Shared Components
While overhauling the Console, we've modernized its codebase considerably. We've cleanly separated logical entities into modules and classes, introduced some key extensibility points, replaced several old, home-grown collections and containers with safer, more efficient STL containers, and made the code simpler and safer by using Microsoft's WILheader library.
This overhaul work resulted in the creation of several key components that would be useful for any terminal implementation on Windows, including a new DirectWrite-based text layout and rendering engine, a text buffer capable of storing both UTF-16 and UTF-8, and a VT parser/emitter.
Building a new terminal
When we started building the new terminal application, we explored and evaluated several approaches and technology stacks. We ultimately decided that our goals would be best met by sticking with C++ and sharing the aforementioned modernized components, placing them atop the modern Windows application platform and UI framework.
Further, we realized that this would allow us to build the terminal's renderer and input stack as a reusable Windows UI control that others can incorporate into their applications.
FAQ
Where can I download Windows Terminal?
The Windows Terminal preview can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.
I built and ran the new Terminal, but I just get a blank window app!
Make sure you are building for your computer's architecture. If your box has a 64-bit Windows, change your Solution Platform to x64.
To check your OS architecture go to Settings -> System -> About (or Win+X -> System) and under
To check your OS architecture go to Settings -> System -> About (or Win+X -> System) and under
Device specifications check for the System type.I built and ran the new Terminal, but it looks just like the old console! What gives?
Firstly, make sure you're building & deploying
CascadiaPackage in Visual Studio, NOT Host.EXE. OpenConsole.exe is just conhost.exe, the same old console you know and love. opencon.cmd will launch openconsole.exe, and unfortunately, openterm.cmd is currently broken.
Secondly, try pressing Ctrl + T. The tabs are hidden when you only have one tab by default. In the future, the UI will be dramatically different, but for now, the defaults are supposed to look like the console defaults.
I tried running WindowsTerminal.exe and it crashes!
- Don't try to run it unpackaged. Make sure to build & deploy
CascadiaPackagefrom Visual Studio, and run the Windows Terminal (Dev Build) app. - Make sure you're on the right version of Windows. You'll need to be on Insider's builds, or wait for the 1903 release, as the Windows Terminal REQUIRES features from the latest Windows release.
Getting Started
Debugging
- To debug in VS, right click on CascadiaPackage (from VS Solution Explorer) and go to properties, in the Debug menu, change "Application process" and "Background task process" to "Native Only".
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