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microsoft
terminal
C++2018–2026
microsoft / terminal
terminal
The new Windows Terminal and the original Windows console host, all in the same place!
202Distinct people
270Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
105.4KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
The new Windows Terminal and the original Windows console host, all in the same place!
GitHub
Where it is used
- Visual Studio — Visual Studio uses Windows Terminal’s core to power its integrated terminal, providing a more robust terminal experience and faster adoption of new functionality. Source
What people are saying
A quick off-the-cuff remark based solely on the title: in 2024, I think the state of the terminal has never been better, in large part to Microsoft making a high quality…
eminence32 used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- cmuratori/refterm · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 4:01:40 AM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year270 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2018-03-30 18:23:14 UTC to 2026-10-22 16:10:14 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 45 | 12 | 33 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 54 | 6 | 48 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 56 | 7 | 49 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 47 | 4 | 43 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 29 | 6 | 23 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 13 | 1 | 12 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 1 | 6 |
What Hacker News says
10 sourcesVOvoltagex_·Dec 12, 2018
This is changing:
* Desired State Configuration: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/dsc/overview
* Powershell Remoting (please, please let SSH replace this)
* Microsoft's new command line push - cmd and the underlying console have had big updates recently
* https://github.com/microsoft/console
* https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/07/20/wind...
In Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSHAfter some time of experimenting with this. I probably can't recommend any colors.
The issue I've found is that of the 16 build in colors. cmd defaults to trivial colors.
(eg Blue is 000080 and Bright blue is 0000FF.)
Which give terrible contrast. MS seems to be working on improving things on their end. Then I'll be able to make it readable. (Eg: https://github.com/Microsoft/console/tree/master/tools/Color...)
In 12 Factor CLI Apps> terminal has no tabs and crappy colors
Okay, the tabs thing we haven't been able to fix yet, but if you want to change the console colors real quick, you can use ColorTool:
https://github.com/Microsoft/console/tree/master/tools/Color...
Also, it you want a tab-like experience, you could always try tmux. It's a linux commandline tool that gives you tabs, panes, and all sorts of other goodies, and as of 1809 you can even use cmd.exe within it.
In Windows 10 October 2018 Update no longer deletes your dataSo this is a confusing situation on Windows.
Commandline applications on linux rely on a TERM setting (with termcaps) to be able to know what VT sequences the terminal is able to support. On Windows, we only really have one terminal, conhost.exe, and our goal there is to be compatible with TERM=`xterm-256color`. That's why you'll see that WSL has that set as the default term setting.
Now even with ConPTY, when a client writes VT sequences, they still need to be interpreted by conhost. This is because technically, a console application could use both VT and the console API, and we need to make sure the buffer is consistent. So clients should still assume that they should write out `xterm-256color` compatible sequences.
Now on the other side of thngs, the "master"/terminal side of conpty, we're going to "render" the buffer changes to VT. Fo
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rtunately, we'd dont really need a deep VT vocabulary to make this possible, so the VT that's coming out of a conpty is actually pretty straightforward, probably even vt100 level (or I guess vt100-256colors, as insane a termcap that would be).
It's definitely a future feature that we'd like to add to make conpty support multiple different TERM settings, and change the sequences we emit based on what the terminal on the other side is going to expect.
We haven't really gotten into the nitty gritty of all of this quite yet, so if you find bugs or have feature requests, we're happy to take a look at them. You can file issues on [our github](https://github.com/microsoft/console) and we'll add them to our backlog
Add an issue: https://github.com/microsoft/console/issues
In Introducing the Windows Pseudo Console (ConPty)I think rich (@bitcrazed) already talked a bit about #1, so I'll share a bit on #2.
I agree, the current properties story is INSANE. I don't get how whoever wrote it even came up with it - it's likely a frankencode system that we're stuck supporting for now. I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain how the console settings work, and how your settings can be different depending on how you launch the console. It's been a pain point I've had a particular eye on since I started here.
It's a powerful system that is very prone to "you moved my cheese" syndrome - It's REALLY hard to change it into a sane system without breaking someone's workflow.
That being said, I have a bone to pick with that system, and I think I might have some spare cycles to finally get to it soon :)
PS: While we're on the subject of colors, lemme quick throw o
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ut (Colortool)[https://github.com/Microsoft/console/tree/master/tools/Color...]. It can be really helpful for quickly changing the color scheme of the console. It's not great for everything, but I've found it super helpful.
Pty-like API sounds great. I assume you are referring to what's discussed here https://github.com/Microsoft/console/issues/57 .
In Inside the Windows ConsoleThe thing is that on Windows it isn't really possible to make a terminal/console app which talks directly to the shell (cmd.exe etc) running in it. What everyone is doing is opening a hidden 'console' component which runs cmd.exe/powershell.exe and then screen-scraping the contents out of it and rendering it elsewhere. Most emulators on Windows which support cmd.exe and friends are using a little bit of software which handles the hidden console, monitors its contents and then outputs a VT style stream of the updates. It is not pretty. MS have been working to improve the situation though: https://github.com/Microsoft/console/issues/57
The bizarre twist to this story is that it is going to be easier to add shell integration features to PowerShell Core running on every platform which ISN'T Windows.
In Eshell as a main shellAlso the default Windows terminal is getting tabs: https://github.com/Microsoft/console/issues/49
This is also fascinating: https://github.com/Microsoft/console/issues/57 - a proper PTY for Windows, implemented by Microsoft, with the ConEmu guy giving it a thumbs up.
In Hyper 2, Electron based terminalDo you mean any of the following:
https://i.imgur.com/zyC4A73.png
Colors can be customized, but changing them is a PITA so we made (ColorTool)[https://github.com/Microsoft/console/tree/master/tools/Color...] to make it a little easier
Auto updating the prompt isn't possible in CMD unfortunately. I do believe it's possible in powershell, but that's not my cup of tea. I do have a batch script that gets the branch and re-sets my prompt. You could create a git.bat that calls such a script on every git command, or like me, create `vf.bat` that I use to cd and update the prompt at once.
Also in this picture: cmd.exe running inside tmux in WSL. Coming soon to Insider's Builds near you
In Microsoft is putting Windows on the back burner