{"slug": "windows-terminal", "name": "Windows Terminal", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 3.646, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2026-01-10", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "The Windows Terminal (and no, not what opens running Command Line or Powershell, it is a different application", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "The Windows Terminal (and no, not what opens running Command Line or Powershell, it is a different application", "icon": true, "domain": "wikipedia.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://github.com/microsoft/terminal", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Windows Terminal"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803072752, "item_id": 50192047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50192047", "by": "delis-thumbs-7e", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The Windows Terminal (and no, not what opens running Command Line or Powershell, it is a different application", "excerpt": "I think for few years MS has tried to be a bit more developer friendly. The Windows Terminal (and no, not what opens running Command Line or Powershell, it is a different application: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Terminal) is kinda good actually. It\u2019s not Alacritty, but a lot better than any previous terminal emulator. I have also poked around their developer tools and they do seem to make using windows a li", "context": "network work, Linux user", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "I can't believe PowerShell is good"}, {"id": 777471632, "item_id": 48591977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48591977", "by": "tracker1", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love the new MS Terminal", "excerpt": "I'm not really using anything too exotic... my hardware all works, and my printer has generally been without issue (HP Color Laser on ethernet) regardless of what I use to print from. For me, I switched when the start menu started showing internet ads as part of the results... I ran insiders for years, often joking that WSL was my favorite Linux distro... I love the new MS Terminal, and pretty happy with a lot of thi", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 774567234, "item_id": 48410452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410452", "by": "epolanski", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a great Terminal", "excerpt": "Also lack of specific software on the Linux side. Adobe suite (I used Figma and Adobe tools in my webdev career), PDF editing is a huge issue and lackluster on Linux, most of the office suite is not available natively on Linux (no, there's no valid replacements when your company is deep into VBA tooling, etc), PowerBI, but also many specific internal tools that many businesses have and have been developed as Windows-", "context": "webdev career, uses Windows for work", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "delis-thumbs-7e", "context": "network work, Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50192047", "date": "2026-10-22"}, {"by": "epolanski", "context": "webdev career, uses Windows for work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410452", "date": "2026-06-05"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["terminal", "terminal emulator"], "compared": [{"slug": "visual-studio-code", "name": "Visual Studio Code", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wsl", "name": "WSL", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "powershell", "name": "PowerShell", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows", "name": "Windows", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248055", "title": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50190959", "title": "I can't believe PowerShell is good", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584207", "title": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48533101", "title": "Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48403377", "title": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46562790", "title": "You probably don't need Oh My Zsh", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804037523, "item_id": 50252345, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50252345", "by": "xp84", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Open on my desktop right now: Slack, Outlook, Zoom, Windows Terminal, Edge, Claude, Obsidian, whatever the Windows image viewer is called, Cursor, and VS Code", "excerpt": "> I use lots Oh really? I, sadly, use nearly none. Open on my desktop right now: Slack, Outlook, Zoom, Windows Terminal, Edge, Claude, Obsidian, whatever the Windows image viewer is called, Cursor, and VS Code. Only the last 2 have menu bars. And I can\u2019t be certain that I didn\u2019t dig through the preferences of one or both of them when I first installed them to tell them to knock off the bullshit and give me back the m", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 803072752, "item_id": 50192047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50192047", "by": "delis-thumbs-7e", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The Windows Terminal (and no, not what opens running Command Line or Powershell, it is a different application", "excerpt": "I think for few years MS has tried to be a bit more developer friendly. The Windows Terminal (and no, not what opens running Command Line or Powershell, it is a different application: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Terminal) is kinda good actually. It\u2019s not Alacritty, but a lot better than any previous terminal emulator. I have also poked around their developer tools and they do seem to make using windows a li", "context": "network work, Linux user", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "I can't believe PowerShell is good"}, {"id": 777471632, "item_id": 48591977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48591977", "by": "tracker1", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love the new MS Terminal", "excerpt": "I'm not really using anything too exotic... my hardware all works, and my printer has generally been without issue (HP Color Laser on ethernet) regardless of what I use to print from. For me, I switched when the start menu started showing internet ads as part of the results... I ran insiders for years, often joking that WSL was my favorite Linux distro... I love the new MS Terminal, and pretty happy with a lot of thi", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 776601044, "item_id": 48537565, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537565", "by": "tenderfault", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows terminal is almost OK.", "excerpt": "I switched to Windows 10 as my main development machine few years ago after 25 years of continuously crashing Linux with an enormous pleasure. FreeBSD, well, there's nothing to crash there, that's the problem with it. Nothing. I didn't know almost anything about this Windows OS so I just started playing some sort of whac-a-mole game with it. I don't know what I did but right now I'm a happy (windows 11) user. I use H", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything"}, {"id": 774567234, "item_id": 48410452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410452", "by": "epolanski", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a great Terminal", "excerpt": "Also lack of specific software on the Linux side. Adobe suite (I used Figma and Adobe tools in my webdev career), PDF editing is a huge issue and lackluster on Linux, most of the office suite is not available natively on Linux (no, there's no valid replacements when your company is deep into VBA tooling, etc), PowerBI, but also many specific internal tools that many businesses have and have been developed as Windows-", "context": "webdev career, uses Windows for work", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}, {"id": 745027792, "item_id": 46564237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46564237", "by": "forrestthewoods", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use basic ass vanilla Windows terminal. It\u2019s fine.", "excerpt": "This thread feels so foreign to me. I use basic ass vanilla Windows terminal. It\u2019s fine. I also use the vanilla built-in to VSCode terminal. It is also fine. Terminals are such a small, unimportant part of my job I barely even think about them.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "You probably don't need Oh My Zsh"}]}