• Picks
  • Discover
  • Alternatives
  • About

© 2026 Willet

  • Newsletter
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
Join the Discord (opens in a new tab)
Microsoft avatar

Windows Terminal

Tabbed terminal app for Windows plus the classic console host

  • Developer tools
  • System utilities
View on GitHub

What it is

This repository holds Windows Terminal, a tabbed terminal application for running PowerShell, Command Prompt, WSL shells, and SSH sessions side by side, along with the source for the legacy Windows console host (conhost.exe). It also includes shared rendering and text components, the ColorTool utility, and sample code for the Windows Console APIs. Developers and administrators who spend their day at a command line on Windows use it for split panes, profiles, themes, and GPU-accelerated text rendering.

Images

Facts

Stars
105,198 GitHub stars.
105,198

Forks
9,667
Commits
5,072
Contributors
500+
Language
C++
License
MIT
Last commit
Oct 19, 2026
On GitHub since
August 2017
First release
August 2017
Platforms
Windows
Self-hostable
No
Tags
  • terminal-emulator

Last synced from GitHub on Oct 20, 2026

The 10 best overlooked open-source projects, every Monday.

Share and more

Comments

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

Similar projects

  • Ghostty avatar

    Ghostty

    GPU-accelerated terminal emulator with native macOS and Linux apps

    62.4k
  • Wave Terminal avatar

    Wave Terminal

    Desktop terminal with built-in AI chat, SSH sessions, and file previews

    22.5k
  • Warp avatar

    Warp

    Rust terminal with a built-in coding agent and support for CLI agents

    65.6k

What people are saying

Updated Oct 21, 2026
  • Hacker NewsTyping inside of the default WSL terminal feels amazing (2018)Dec 23, 2019 · 332 points · 117 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsWindows Terminal Source CodeMay 11, 2022 · 151 points · 203 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsWindows Terminal Quake ModeApr 30, 2021 · 182 points · 88 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsPixel Shaders in Windows TerminalJan 29, 2021 · 141 points · 54 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsThe Windows Console gets support for Sixel imagesJul 1, 2024 · 53 points · 37 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsShould Windows have a default CLI editor?Dec 14, 2023 · 27 points · 49 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Terminal is one star shy of 100,000 on GitHub!!! Let’s breach the 100k for one of my favorite tools.”Sep 9, 2025 · 11 likes · 0 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsMicrosoft: Extremely slow performance when processing virtual terminal sequencesOct 5, 2021 · 3 points · 3 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsNew Windows terminal renders at 2fpsJun 17, 2021 · 3 points · 3 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Terminal is a very powerful CLI for Windows. Has tabs, each tab can run a different interpreter (PowerShell, cmd.exe, bash, etc) Winget is an excellent…”Dec 6, 2024 · 3 likes · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsWindows Feature Exploration: Default CLI Text EditorDec 11, 2023 · 3 points · 0 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsDefault Terminal is now supported on Windows 10Jun 4, 2023 · 3 points · 0 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsTyping inside of the default WSL terminal feels amazingApr 9, 2022 · 3 points · 0 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsExtremely slow performance when processing virtual terminal sequencesJul 7, 2021 · 2 points · 1 comment (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsExtremely slow performance when processing virtual terminal sequencesJun 19, 2021 · 2 points · 1 comment (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsWindows TerminalJan 17, 2021 · 3 points · 0 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“I went all in on the terminal for this year's edition of what they forgot to teach you about R: The windows experience is fine if you're using git bash. wt is…”Oct 11, 2023 · 1 like · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsAdd Stories to Windows TerminalNov 30, 2020 · 2 points · 0 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsRelease Windows Terminal v1.0May 19, 2020 · 2 points · 0 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Windows Terminal is a modern host application for the command-line shells. Like: ▪️ Command Prompt ▪️ PowerShell ▪️ Bash 🔗 #Windows #WindowsTerminal #DevOps…”Mar 24, 2024 · 1 like · 0 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)