Out With The Old: Microsoft Has A New Terminal Coming

For many Windows power users, the built-in Command Prompt has been lacking. While many terminals build in basics like tab support, the lowly CMD.exe has continued to exist with minimal updates, and certainly no polish. The aptly-named PowerShell has helped rectify this issue, but ultimately, the simple command prompt is often enough to get a job done, whereas PowerShell can seem to over-complicate simple tasks.

What if you could have a terminal that had it all? That’s exactly what Microsoft is planning, and it’s throwing a bunch of surprises at us at the same time. First and foremost, this new terminal is open-source, and in fact, some code is now available over at GitHub. So far, we’re really liking what we’re seeing.

The lack of tabs has been handled, and from within the same interface, you can launch a new tab that behaves as CMD, PowerShell, or any one of your installed Linux distributions. This terminal is going to be fully customization, which means you can change colors, fonts, scaling, and increase window transparency.

Improving on some other terminals (including some in Linux), there is smart interpretation that can take place in this new CLI, such as using icons instead of ASCII in output, and other niceties like being able to click a hyperlink in the terminal to open it in a webpage (which beats having to copy/paste it out of there).

While experienced users can compile the code at any time, Microsoft expects that a preview will be published to the Windows Store this summer, with the final version landing in the winter. The company also says its ears are wide-open for feedback, so if this is a project you care about, you will want to follow the GitHub page.