Microsoft rolls out new preview and stable versions of Windows Terminal

Microsoft has just released a pair of versions of Windows Terminal. A stable version of Windows Terminal 1.12 is now available. People can also download Windows Terminal Preview 1.13 from this week. Microsoft describes new features in Windows Terminal Preview 1.13 in a recent blog post. Windows Terminal 1.12 includes the changes listed by Microsoft when this version became available in preview.

The latest Windows Terminal update has a new Settings UI that aligns with Windows 11 using WinUI 2.6. Microsoft has also added a new setting to Windows Terminal called “elevate” that lets you launch a profile as an administrator. A new text rendering engine and the ability to customize the Windows Terminal bell sound also come with the recent update.

Here’s everything new in Windows Terminal:

New actions

• ⚡ You can now restore recently closed tabs or panes with the new restoreLastClosed action (Thanks @Rosefield!). Note: This will restore the profile in the tab/pane, but not the buffer history or the running command line applications.
• ⚡ The new exportBuffer action allows you to export buffer text to a text file.
• ⚡ New adjustOpacity action allows you to change terminal window opacity at runtime.

Various improvements

• 🛠️ Terminal now supports Instant Layouts in Windows 11!
• 🛠️ System context menu now has an item to open settings (Thanks @serd2011!).
• 🛠️ Background image path is now displayed in settings UI (Thanks @ianjoneill!).

Bug fixes

• 🐛 //wsl$/ paths and ~ should now work as home directory for WSL distributions.
• 🐛 Azure Cloud Shell profile can now be duplicated using the settings UI.
• 🐛 Transparency setting will no longer re-enable acrylic when disabled.
• 🐛 The AltGr + Space key combination should now work correctly.
• 🐛 AltGr should now work correctly in the settings UI.

Microsoft often releases previews and stable builds of Windows Terminal side-by-side. In October 2021, Microsoft released Windows Terminal 1.11. and Windows Terminal Preview 1.12. Version 1.11 was the first version that could be set as the default terminal emulator in Windows.

Windows Terminal Preview 1.13 requires Windows 10 version 19041 (20H1) or higher.

New Changes

Microsoft will start testing Windows 11 experimental features with Insiders

Microsoft announced today that it is changing the way it pushes preview builds of Windows 11 to registered Insiders in the Dev or Beta channels. Going forward, both channels should be considered the “active development branch”, but for different types of feature testing.