Microsoft has moved Windows Terminal out of preview and announced the release of version 1.0. The release of version 1.0 moves Windows Terminal into full stable release. Windows Terminal includes multiple tabs, panes, customizable shortcuts, support for Unicode and UTF-8 characters, and custom themes and styles. The terminal can support PowerShell, cmd, WSL, and other command-line tools.
Windows Terminal allows running of any command line application inside tabs and panes. Profiles can be created for each command line application. These can then be opened side-by-side. In addition, profiles will automatically be created for Windows Subsystem for Linux distributions and each additional PowerShell version installed.
Included with the release are a number of customization options. Terminal supports both dark and light themes and a number of color options. It is also possible to create custom color palettes. Terminal also supports custom background images that can be applied per profile.
Terminal uses the GPU to render text. According to Kayla Cinnamon, program manager at Microsoft, "this provides a much faster experience when using the command line." Additionally, the renderer supports Unicode and UTF-8 characters allowing for support of multiple languages within the terminal. This release also includes their newest font, Cascadia Code. The default font is set to Cascadia Mono, which is a font variant that does not include programming ligatures.
Custom key bindings can also be created within Windows Terminal. Key bindings can be structured as in the following example that sets the shortcut key alt+f4 to close the terminal window:
{ "command": "closeWindow", "keys": "alt+f4" }
It is also possible to create key bindings that run commands with arguments. In the following example the shortcut key ctrl+shift+1 is used to open a new tab in the terminal based on the first profile in the dropdown menu.
{ "command": { "action": "newTab", "index": 0 }, "keys": "ctrl+shift+1" }
Documentation on Windows Terminal and the features available is also available. The documentation includes details on the settings and features that terminal has, as well as tutorials to showcase how to customize terminal.
Windows Terminal is available from the Microsoft Store or from the GitHub releases page. Starting in July, there will be monthly updates available with a roadmap soon to be published on the GitHub page. A preview release is also available with monthly updates starting in June..