14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced that Windows Terminal will become the default command line application on Windows 11 at some point in 2022, with user already allowed to make this change manually on their devices.
The company explains that changing the default command line tool on Windows 11 is already possible from multiple places, including directly from the Windows Terminal settings on the Startup page.
However, Microsoft says that next year, the operating system will get new settings to let users enable other terminals to become the default setting on the operating system. Once this happens, the Terminal will be configured as the default option on Windows 11.
“A default terminal is the terminal emulator that launches by default when opening a command line application. Starting from the dawn of Windows, the default terminal emulator has always been the Windows Console Host, conhost.exe. This means that shells such as Command Prompt and PowerShell have always opened inside the Windows Console Host,” Microsoft explains.
“For a long time, users have not been easily able to replace the console host. There were definitely third parties who hooked the OS to make it possible, but it was never truly supported. Now, we are opening up the functionality to allow for other terminals to be set as default, including Windows Terminal.”
The change to first go live for insiders
Needless to say, devices that are enrolled in the Windows Insider program will be the first to receive the change, and as usual, Microsoft says it’s waiting for feedback to polish the experience before the update goes live for everybody already running Windows 11.
“Over the course of 2022, we are planning to make Windows Terminal the default experience on Windows 11 devices. We will start with the Windows Insider Program and start moving through rings until we reach everyone on Windows 11. We would love to have your feedback while we are working on this to help iron out all of the bugs and ensure everyone has a great experience with Terminal. You can always file issues and feature requests on our GitHub,” it says.