Windows Terminal Preview 1.17 Adds Process Restart and Mica Support

Windows 11

Microsoft has updated the preview release of Windows Terminal to version 1.17. The latest update brings several new features and enhancements based on customer feedback, including Mica and process restart support, dropdown menu customizations, an updated color schemes page, and much more.

First off, Microsoft has added support for dropdown menu customization to help users organize their Profiles in Windows Terminal. The latest update lets users add separators, folders, and profiles by editing the settings.json file. Furthermore, Windows Terminal allows users to restart a terminated process by pressing the Enter key.

Windows Terminal Preview 1.17 Adds Process Restart and Mica Support

In addition to this, Microsoft touted that Windows Terminal allows users to use Mica as background material on Windows 11 PCs. It’s possible to enable Mica support by setting the “useMica” attribute to true in the settings.json file. Microsoft has also introduced the ability to set the launch position parameters in Settings.

Windows Terminal Preview 1.17 introduces color schemes page updates and more

Microsoft released color schemes page updates to make the experience more intuitive for customers. Users will now be navigated to the edit scheme page while adding a new scheme or clicking on a color scheme in the list view.

Windows Terminal Preview 1.17

Moreover, Windows Terminal Preview 1.17 enables users to view a preview of the color scheme before choosing it. Other updates include visual, accessibility, as well as usability improvements, and you can check out the full changelog below:

  • Other Color Scheme Improvements
    • You can now configure a color scheme (per profile) to apply in System Light theme and System Dark theme
    • You can now configure a color scheme (per profile) to apply in Application theme
  • Virtual Terminal (VT) and Output
    • HUGE shoutout to @j4james for his amazing contributions in the VT space. James worked tirelessly to improve support for VT features, including rewriting how text output is processed in Windows Terminal. Here is a brief summary of the VT contributions that James made for this release:
    • Added support for DEC macro operations
    • Added support for DECARM (Auto Repeat Mode)
    • Added support for IRM (Insert Replace Mode)
    • Added support for private options in DSR queries
    • Added support for selective erase operations (DECSED)
    • Added support for the DECRQM escape sequence
    • Added support for the rectangular area operations (DEC*RA)
    • Merged the legacy and extended attributes
    • Rewrote how we handled text embedded in a stream of VT, which closed 8 bugs!
    • Added support for line rendition attributes (DECDHL) over ConPTY
    • Added support for soft fonts over (DECDLD) ConPTY as well
    • Wide characters will no longer cause weird cursor leavings
    • VT reports once again work when DECARM is disabled
    • Thanks again for all your help, James!
  • Usability Updates
    • wt now supports the –pos and –size commandline arguments to control the position and size of the new window (thanks @ianjoneill!)
    • When you duplicate a tab, the new tab will open next to the current tab (thanks @vamsiikrishnaak!)
    • You can now use exe and dll resources for icon paths
  • Accessibility Improvements
    • We’ve removed a leading cause of crashes closing panes and tabs while screen reading was active
    • Our internal management window will no longer appear as an empty pane to screen readers
  • Miscellaneous Improvements
    • Windows Terminal now supports remaining FinalTerm mark types (command input start, command executed, and command finished)
    • You can now set the scroll bar to be always displayed in $profile.scrollbarState
    • The contents of the Terminal package are now code-signed, so those of you who deploy it unzipped will no longer get in trouble with your IT folks
  • Bug Fixes
    • The Export and Find context menu items work on unfocused tabs (thanks @ianjoneill!)
    • We’ve retooled how we launch Terminal elevated when you use an elevate: true profile (or Ctrl+Shift-click a profile in the dropdown menu.) (thanks @jboelter!)
    • The about dialog (and other dialogs) will finally block the entire window even if you resize it
    • We now attempt to account for transparent tab backgrounds when calculating the text foreground color
    • You can now drag/drop more than 16 items directly out of 7-Zip (and some other applications) (thanks @jiejasonliu!)
    • Malformed settings objects will no longer cause an “Application error 0x%” settings warning
    • “Use Acrylic in Tab Row” no longer requires a relaunch
    • Split pane borders no longer display in the wrong theme color
    • In separate titlebar mode, Terminal will now default to a dark title bar when you are using a dark theme
    • The “Add Appearance” button will now be read out properly by screen readers

If you haven’t done it yet, you can head over to the Microsoft Store to download Windows Terminal Preview. Alternatively, you can install the preview version of Windows Terminal through GitHub.