Microsoft emits a colourful Windows Terminal preview

The Windows Terminal gang has got back into its preview groove with an update for the open-source command-line front-end. Version 1.1 now allows fans to launch the app in the context of a selected folder with a right click from File Explorer as well as having it open at startup (unless disabled by organisation policy). The …

[Dave Pickles]

Windows Terminal Preview

A preview of the end of Windows???

[Richard 12]

Open Cmd Here?

Finally. Such a thing has been requested by all since the heady days of NT.

Or maybe earlier? I'm a mere whippersnapper, after all.

[richardcox13]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

Would it interest you that this has existed in standard Windows 10 for ages?

In Explorer, navigate to a folder, and click on File: either cmd or PowerShell to open at the select folder (plus as administrator options).

[katrinab]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

And in Windows 8

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

And in WIndows 7 - shift+right click....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

And to go in reverse, type start . in the command window.

[LenG]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

I can open a folder in powershell but not cmd. I'd like to set a right-click menu option to open in Cygwin Terminal but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that and there is no "Open With" on folders as opposed to files.

[doublelayer]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

You can add a program to that menu. It's a little tricky, and usually the program will add the shortcuts for you, but if you enable it to launch a program with the selected folder or file name, it can do that. It looks like the shell included with Git for Windows will open in a directory if it's provided, so I'm guessing Cygwin will too.

[HarrisMirza]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

It will be possible with a registry entry to add one when right clicking blank space within a folder, I can't remember the exact key you need to add, but I have done it before back in Windows 7.

[Data Mangler]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

I don't have Cygwin, but if you have the Ubuntu subsystem installed, you can shift-right-click on a folder and "Open Linux shell here".

[logicalextreme]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

Alt-D to get to the address bar, type cmd, hit enter.

No admin mode though :(

[logicalextreme]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

Of course, it's not possible to do that with Windows Terminal, because everything new must be significantly less convenient.

[richardcox13]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

Because typing wt is harder?

[logicalextreme]

Re: Open Cmd Here?

Aha! That is in fact what I was griping about. Both procexp and the Start Menu shortcut had shown me a WindowsTerminal.exe; had I dug deeper into the image properties in procexp I would've seen the wt.exe symlink (meaning I can remove the one I created myself, which is embarrassingly enough called wt.exe). Have a beer or other beverage of your choosing.

[Chewi]

They read my mind

I kid you not, I was literally thinking just yesterday that it would be really handy to have an "Open Terminal Here" option in Explorer just like Xfce has. Good job.

[crayon]

Re: They read my mind

KDE Dolphin allows you to open a terminal pane at the directory using F4, very handy. But Dolphin as a file manager is very lacking.

[Paul Johnston]

I'm getting old but..

There used to be something which allowed you to do that, it was some third party add-on if I remember.

Can any one put me out of my misery remind me what it was called?

Cheers

[Stumpy]

Re: I'm getting old but..

It was a native part of Windows, and was the context menu option 'Command prompt here'

[John Miles]

Re: I'm getting old but..

Probably Microsoft PowerToys back in WIndows 95 days, it had several useful features, including Command Prompt Here and one I found useful send filename to clipboard

[Paul Johnston]

Re: I'm getting old but..

Thanks, you know how recall gets as we become more "mature".

[Malcolm 1]

Re: I'm getting old but..

You may already know this, but "Copy as path" is available by default if you shift right-click on a file or folder in explorer.

[John Miles]

Re: but "Copy as path"

Thanks, I didn't know that

Not exactly what you'd call discoverable though

[Anonymous Coward]

Stuck in an enterprise environment, still can't use it last I checked as it requires more modern Windows version.

[9Rune5]

it ain't json

Last time I checked, the json format does not support comments.

It is good that there exists exceptions to that rule. :)

(they might be using hjson: https://stackoverflow.com/a/22537629)

[NerryTutkins]

Re: it ain't json

This is one of the reasons I just don't get this obsession over the last few years to adopt JSON everywhere for config files. Microsoft is at it in .net too.

Technically comments aren't in the spec, and config files without comments is absurd.

There was nothing wrong with XML. This whole JSON thing is just because it's fashionable.

JSON makes perfect sense for Web API stuff, returning data in a format ready for client side use by javascript. But using it for terminal stuff or server config files makes no technical sense at all. I wish Microsoft and others would stop just chasing the latest thing and don't just change stuff for the sake of it.

[Andy Mac]

Re: it ain't json

Personally, I find the whole property-names-in-quotes thing to cause an involuntary twitch in my eye.

[Tim99]

Re: it ain't json

"This is one of the reasons I just don't get this obsession over the last few years to adopt JSON everywhere for config files

So like MS had INI files in DOS-->Windows ME then? (Other than comments).

[Glen 1]

Re: it ain't json

JSON aint perfect, but speaking as someone who has had to deal with XML in a similar context....

JSON > XML

[Maventi]

Re: it ain't json

> There was nothing wrong with XML.

It is a fiddly format to use as a human though.

I'd prefer to see good old tidy INI, or alternatively YAML if more complex data structures are required in a config file for some reason.

[Daniel von Asmuth]

Re: it ain't json

Has Redmond losts its faith in the holy Registry for configuration settings?

[Strahd Ivarius]

Re: it ain't json

Until someone adds a registry to Linux or MacOS, I think so...

[logicalextreme]

Re: it ain't json

I'm assuming you haven't come across JSON stored as values in the Registry yet; you lucky, lucky person.

[mischkl]

Re: it ain't json

They're using JSONC aka "JSON with comments" - which is basically a non-specification that is entirely dependent on the implementation as to what features it supports. In VS Code the functionality is provided by MS's own library https://github.com/Microsoft/node-jsonc-parser while in Terminal it's provided by the library https://github.com/open-source-parsers/jsoncpp ... The fact that both tools support comments and trailing commas means that - in theory, if the Terminal config file has a ".jsonc" extension - VS Code should have no problem editing it with correct syntax/error highlighting. But that's more of a coincidence that both tools implemented the same extensions to JSON, none of which are standardized or even part of any formal specification. It's a shame they didn't just go with https://json5.org from the get-go, which would have probably saved them a bunch of effort, alone just in terms of amount of discussion needed.

[Malcolm 1]

Re: it ain't json

I seem to remember the very early JSON spec did support comments, but then various ne'er-do-wells decided that comments were an excellent place to encode unofficial parser extensions, breaking compatibility between implementations. So Douglas Crockford felt forced to remove them entirely. This is why we can't have nice things...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds good.

If I had anything left that runs Windows I'd certainly try it out.

[phuzz]

Re: Sounds good.

It's open source (here), but after a quick search, I can't find any evidence of anyone trying to port it.

Shame really, can you imagine how many flame wars that would encourage? ;)