Tabbed Console starts here

April 13th, 2018

[2018-06-29: Important Note: As announced in the release notes for Windows 10 Insider build 17704, Sets and Tabs will NOT ship in the next mainstream release of Windows (codenamed RS5) . Please read the first bullet under the heading “General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC” for more details.]

[2018-04-16: Updated to better reflect “Sets” terminology]

For quite a while now, the most up-voted open item in our Windows Console UserVoice has been an ask for Console to support multiple tabbed pages.

In Windows 10 Insider build 17618, the first taste of the new “Sets” feature built by the Windows Shell team (thanks all!) has arrived. Sets allow users to group multiple apps together, and switch between them using “tabs” in the title-bar. You can read more about tab sets in the Windows 10 Insiders build 17618 announcement post.

The new “Sets” UX is being applied liberally to many Windows apps and tools, including File Explorer, and … in our case … Windows Console! 🙂

So what does the Sets-enabled Console look like?

In the screenshot below, you can see that the PowerShell Console has one tab in the title-bar, indicating that this set contains one member app! To the right of this tab, is a + button that you can click to create a new tab (alternatively, you can create a new tab by hitting WIN + CTRL + T).

Here are a few keyboard shortcuts you can try out:

• Ctrl + Win + Tab – switch to next tab
• Ctrl + Win + Shift + Tab – switch to previous tab
• Ctrl + Win + T – open a new tab
• Ctrl + Win + W – close current tab.

1. The Tabbed Console feature is very new and not yet finished!
2. Currently, when you hit the new tab button (or hit WIN + CTRL + T), you’ll see a “new tab” page
3. We’re working with the Shell Tabs team to populate the new tab page with useful links in future builds and we’d love to hear your thoughts & suggestions
4. Please, submit Tabbed Console feedback via the Windows 10 Feedback Hub app (Desktop Environment –> Sets*) which will routed your feedback directly to the Shell team!
5. Please DO NOT file tabbed Console bugs on the Console team’s GitHub issues page

Thanks in advance for your support & feedback! We look forward to hearing from you!

Rich Turner

Sr. Program Manager, Windows Console & Command-Line

About ConEmu

ConEmu-Maximus5 aims to be handy, comprehensive, fast and reliable terminal window where you may host any console application developed either for WinAPI (cmd, powershell, far) or Unix PTY (cygwin, msys, wsl bash).

As Windows console window enhancement (local terminal emulator), ConEmu presents multiple consoles and simple GUI applications (like PuTTY for example) as one customizable tabbed GUI window with various features.

Moreover, due to deep integration, ConEmu is the best companion for Far Manager (FAR in Wikipedia), my favorite shell replacement.

ConEmu is an active project, open to suggestions.

Take a look at screencasts about ConEmu.

Disclaimer

ConEmu is not a shell, so it does not provide «shell features» like remote access, tab-completion, command history and others. ConEmu is an advanced console window where you can run any shell of your choice. However, some of these features have been placed in the RoadMap. You may also try Clink for bash-style completion in cmd.exe and PSReadLine or PowerTab in powershell.exe.

Or even choose bash or any other unix-like shell from cygwin, git-for-windows, msys2, mingw and others.

Documentation and links

Description

ConEmu starts a console program in a hidden console window, and provides an alternative customizable GUI window with various features:

• smooth and friendly window resizing;
• tabs for editors, viewers, panels and consoles;
• run simple GUI apps like PuTTY in tabs;
• Windows 7 Jump Lists and Progress on Taskbar buttons;
• easily run old DOS applications (games) in Windows 7 or 64-bit OS;
• thumbnails and tiles in Far Manager;
• normal, maximized and full screen graphical window modes;
• window font anti-aliasing: standard, ClearType, disabled;
• window fonts: family, height, width, bold, italic, etc.;
• Chinese versions of Windows supported;
• using normal/bold/italic fonts for different parts of the console simultaneously;
• using 24-bit colors in Far Manager 3.x;
• ANSI X3.64 and Xterm 256 colors;
• cursor: standard console (horizontal) or GUI (vertical);
• optional per-application settings (e.g. palette);
• vertical console buffer scrolling using the keyboard (BufferHeight mode);
• show full output (1K+ lines) of last command in Far Manager’s editor/viewer;
• customizable Far Manager right click behaviour (long click opens context menu);
• drag and drop (explorer style) of files and folders in Far Manager;
• limited support of BDF fonts;
• user friendly text and block selection;
• transparency and desktop mode;
• customizable starting tabs;
• configurable and clickable status bar;
• and more, and more. take a look at Documentation, Settings pages and What’s New.

All settings are read from the registry or ConEmu.xml file (multiple named configurations are supported), after which the command line parameters are applied. Parameters /Config and /BufferHeight can only be specified on the command line. Most settings are configured using the Settings dialog, not from the command line.

Requirements

• Windows XP or later for 32-bit.
• Windows Vista or later for 64-bit.

Installation

In general, ConEmu installation is easy. Just unpack or install to any folder and run `ConEmu.exe`.

For more information about installation options refer to Installation page.

Introducing Windows Terminal

We are beyond excited to announce Windows Terminal! Windows Terminal is a new, modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL.

Windows Terminal will be delivered via the Microsoft Store in Windows 10 and will be updated regularly, ensuring you are always up to date and able to enjoy the newest features and latest improvements with minimum effort.

Windows Terminal key features

Multiple tabs

You’ve asked and we’ve listened! The most frequently requested feature for the Terminal is multiple tab support and we are SUPER excited to FINALLY be able to deliver this key feature. You will now be able to open any number of tabs, each connected to a command-line shell or app of your choice, e.g. Command Prompt, PowerShell, Ubuntu on WSL, a Raspberry Pi via SSH, etc.

Beautiful text

The Windows Terminal uses a GPU accelerated DirectWrite/DirectX-based text rendering engine. This new text rendering engine will display text characters, glyphs, and symbols present within fonts on your PC, including CJK ideograms, emoji, powerline symbols, icons, programming ligatures, etc. This engine also renders text much faster than the previous Console’s GDI engine!

You will also have the option of using our new font! We wanted to create a fun, new, monospaced font to enhance the modern look and feel of the Terminal. Not only will this font include programming ligatures, but it will also be open sourced and have its own repository. Stay tuned for more information on the new font project!

Settings and configurability

We have connected with so many command-line users who LOVE to customize their terminals and command-line applications. Windows Terminal provides many settings and configuration options that give you a great deal of control over the Terminal’s appearance and each of the shells/profiles that you can open as new tabs. Settings are stored in a structured text file making it easy for users and/or tools to configure.

Using Terminal’s configuration mechanism, you will be able to create multiple “profiles” for each shell/app/tool you want to use, whether it be PowerShell, Command Prompt, Ubuntu, or even SSH connections to Azure or IoT devices. These profiles can have their own combination of font styles and sizes, color themes, background blur/transparency levels, etc. You can now create your own custom-styled Terminal that is personalized to your unique taste!

After we’ve shipped Windows Terminal 1.0, we plan to get started on many of the features already in our backlog, in addition to the many features you as the community are likely to add!

When can I get my hands on it?

As of today, the Windows Terminal and Windows Console have been made open source and you can clone, build, run, and test the code from the repository on GitHub: https://github.com/Microsoft/Terminal

This summer in 2019, Windows Terminal previews will be released to the Microsoft Store for early adopters to use and provide feedback.

This winter in 2019, our goal is to launch Windows Terminal 1.0 and we’ll work with the community to ensure it’s ready before we release!

[Happy Joy Gif – Giphy]

Wait… did you say open source?

Yes we did! We are excited to announce that we are open sourcing not just Windows Terminal, but also the Windows Console which hosts the command-line infrastructure in Windows and provides the traditional Console UX.

We can’t wait to work with you on improving and enhancing the Windows command-line experience!

This sounds awesome, but why couldn’t you just improve the existing Windows Console?

The primary goal of the Windows Console is to preserve backward compatibility with existing command-line tools, scripts, etc. While we’ve managed to introduce many key improvements to the Console’s features (e.g. adding VT and 24-bit color support, etc. see this blog post), we are unable to introduce further meaningful improvements to the Console’s UI without “breaking the world.”

Therefore, the time has come for a new, fresh approach.

Windows Terminal installs and runs alongside the existing in-box Windows Console application. If you run Cmd/PowerShell/etc. directly, they will start attached to a traditional Console instance in the exact same way they do today. This way, backward compatibility remains intact while providing you the option of experiencing Windows Terminal if/when you wish to do so. Windows Console will continue to ship within Windows for decades to come in order to support existing/legacy applications and systems.

Okay, but what about contributing to an existing open source terminal/app project instead?

We carefully explored this option during planning and determined our involvement in an existing project would require changing the project’s requirements and architecture in ways that would be too disruptive.

Instead, by creating a new open-source terminal application, and open-sourcing Windows Console, we can now invite the community to collaborate with us on improving the code and leveraging it in their respective projects.

We believe there is plenty of room in the market for new/different ideas about what a terminal can and should do and we aim to help the ecosystem of terminal (and related) applications flourish and grow through the introduction of new ideas, interesting approaches, and exciting innovations in this space.

I’m sold! How can I get involved?

Visit the repo at https://github.com/Microsoft/Terminal to clone, build, test, and run the Terminal! You can file bugs and share feedback with us and the community as well as fix issues and make improvements on GitHub.

Starting this summer, try installing and running Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store. If you come across any bugs, share feedback either via the Feedback Hub or GitHub issues for detailed issues/discussions.

We are thrilled to be working with you! If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to Kayla @cinnamon_msft and/or Rich @richturn_ms on Twitter. We can’t wait to see what exciting improvements and features you make to Windows Terminal and Windows Console.

How To Use The Tabbed Command Prompt In Windows 10

Just like tabs for your browser

If you’re someone who uses the Command Prompt utility for most of your tasks, you likely often have multiple utility windows open at the same time on your screen. Managing these windows becomes a bit difficult when the number of the windows grows. A tabbed Command Prompt interface can help you out here.

Just like your browser tabs, you can also enable tabs in your Command Prompt windows. That way you don’t need to open a new window for each of your CMD tasks. You can open a new tab instead for your Command Prompt instances. It helps you avoid getting your screen cluttered with all your CMD windows scattered here and there.

This is possible using some of the apps available for your Windows computer.

Use The Windows Terminal For Tabbed Command Prompt

The current Command Prompt utility on your Windows 10 computer doesn’t come with the tab feature. So for now, the only way to run multiple instances of the utility is to open a new window for each.

However, there’s now a preview version of the Windows Terminal app available on the Microsoft Store. It helps you add the tabbed interface feature to your computer so you can open new tabs instead of Windows to run your commands.

• Launch the Microsoft Store app on your PC and search for and click on Windows Terminal Preview. Install the app on your computer.
• Launch the app and you’ll immediately notice a few new icons right next to the app name at the top.

The X icon lets you close the current tab that’s open on your screen.
The + (plus) icon lets you open a new tab in the same window in the utility.
The down-arrow icon lets you choose the utility you want to open a new tab for (PowerShell or CMD).

• You can choose from any of the available options and a new tab will open in the utility. You can manage these tabs just like how you do your browser tabs.

Windows Terminal is currently in the preview stage meaning it isn’t currently ready to be included in the Windows installations. However, it won’t be too long before it comes as a stock app on your Windows machines.

Using Console For a Tabbed Terminal In Windows

Another way to enable tabbed Command Prompt on your Windows machine is to use a third-party app. There’s an app called Console (free) that allows you to have a tabbed CMD interface on your computer.

This app offers several more features than the Windows Terminal app.

• Download Console and extract the files from the ZIP archive.
• Double-click on Console.exe to launch the app.
• It’ll immediately open your first Command Prompt tab. To add a new tab, click on the File menu at the top and select New Tab followed by Console2.

• You can switch between your tabs by clicking on any of the tab names. You can customize the names of these tabs as well.

• To close a tab, you can either click on the X icon at the top-right corner of the tab or select the File menu followed by Close Tab.

This utility’s been around for quite a long time and is a good one to use a tabbed Command Prompt interface.

Get The Tabbed Command Prompt With PowerCMD

PowerCMD (free) is yet another way to add tabbed functionality to your Command Prompt utility. This app offers much more than what you get with the default utility on your computer.

• Download and install the app on your PC.
• Right-click on the app icon on your desktop and choose Run as administrator.

• The app will launch with a CMD tab open in it. To open new tabs, either click on the + icon or select the File menu followed by New Prompt Window (although it says Window, it opens a tab actually).

• You can access the open tabs by clicking on them like you do in other apps.

Enable Tabbed Command Prompt Using ConEmu

ConEmu is an open-source and free tool that lets you open multiple tabs in a Command Prompt window on Windows machines. It comes with a basic and clutter-free user interface so you can focus on your actual commands.

• Download and install the app on your computer.
• You’ll be asked to configure the app options. It’s optional and you can do it at a later time, too.
• Click on the + (plus) sign to add a new tab. You’ll see the number of open tabs right next to this sign.

Mahesh has been obsessed with technology since he got his first gadget a decade or so ago. Over the last few years, he’s written a number of tech articles on various online publications including but not limited to MakeTechEasier and Android AppStorm. Read Mahesh’s Full Bio