In context: At its annual Build conference earlier this year, Microsoft teased an update for Windows 10 to overhaul its command line experience. That has now come with Windows Terminal, a new command line app with an early preview released on the Microsoft Store, which brings support for traditional cmd line, PowerShell and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
Last month, Microsoft's Build conference saw the company announcing a new "Windows Terminal" app for Windows 10 that's now available to download from its store. Although the app's code was available on GitHub for developers, the company has now launched an easy installer in the form of an early preview release on its storefront.
Users running Windows 10 version 18362 (that'll be the May 2019 Update or version 1903) or later (those running insider builds) can download the app, which the company says will be regularly updated with feature improvements and bug fixes. The features included in the preview release include support for multiple tabs, Unicode and UTF-8 characters support as well as custom themes and styles.
Users can even change the app's background and make other configuration changes via a JSON file, instructions for which the company has laid down in a blog post.
"The profiles.json file is where all the magic happens. This is where your settings can be customized to create your own unique Terminal experience. To access this file, you can click on the settings button within the dropdown menu and the file will open within your default JSON text editor. Each profile is a JSON object with customizable properties that can be modified to your liking. After saving your new changes within the settings, the Terminal will automatically refresh to display your latest updates!"
There's also support for full GPU-based text rendering that uses DirectX to display regular text characters, symbols and glyphs, as well as emojis for added flair. The Terminal team plans to release several preview versions of the app with access to the latest features as they become available. Live release of the app called Windows Terminal 1.0 will be coming to the Microsoft Store this winter.
The company also put out a rather sleek but short video for its new terminal app giving a quick glance on its refreshed new look and various new features.