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Bug with "Open windows from a previous session" and defaults profile run as admin #14932
Description
Windows Terminal version
1.16.10261.0
Windows build number
10.0.19045.2604
Other Software
No response
Steps to reproduce
Set "When Terminal Starts" to "open windows from a previous session"
Set Defaults to run this profile as administrator
Expected Behavior
When opening terminal from start menu it opens as administrator with saved tabs
Actual Behavior
Terminal opens with default profile and new window with previous tabs.
This happens even with saved tab being the startup default
Reacted by Matt Dillard, Mio Taalas, Ingvar Stepanyan, Serat00l951, Jost, Octavio Araiza and frederikhors
Activity
Quenom commentedon Feb 28, 2023
I think it might be similar to #14861 and #14799
Could setting be added to run terminal itself as administrator, and not profiles? As there is no way to set default way microsoft store apps open
zadjii-msft commentedon Mar 1, 2023
Okay I don't think we have a dupe for this after all. It's different enough from:
Though, it's ultimately the same nexus as all them
mtaalas commentedon Jun 4, 2023
I have this as well on the exact same specifications.
Expected behavior is that the old session starts (if "load previous session" is configured) 1:1 without any new windows or tabs UNLESS I exclusively tell it to do something else. :)
mtaalas commentedon Jun 4, 2023
I think I see the real issue in my case.
I've installed Terminal from windows store to get auto updates and it has created an app shortcut (or it's not really a shortcut in a normal sense) that calls the terminal with the following:
"c:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_(version)\windowsTerminal.exe" new-tab --profile [profile path]
So t's exclusively asking to launch a new tab when it's opened... but I've never set it up to do that.
I cannot change these parameters in any way.. it seems to be hard coded. I can only see this because it's trying to run as admin and I select "show details" on UAC prompt.
I'm still not sure what type of shortcut / program this is (I'm not familiar with windows store peculiarities) but these seem to come when you install the terminal using the store.
Can someone confirm or explain what's going on?
zadjii-msft commentedon Jul 24, 2023
Mio Taalas (@mtaalas) Sorry, just seeing that comment after getting back from leave.
That looks to me like you've got the Terminal set up to run your default profile elevated (as admin) by default. In that case, when you launch the Terminal unelevated, it needs to explicitly shell out to create another new instance of the Terminal as admin. When that happens, it explicitly passes
new-tab -p {{profile_guid}}as the args, so that the new terminal window gets created with the correct profile.Now, maybe there's an easy solution here - when the Terminal is getting launched elevated for the default profile, maybe we shouldn't pass those args? That'd cause the Terminal to start up, and either
Right now, because we are passing the
new-tab -p {{blah}}, that tells the terminal EXPLICITLY "I want something new ({{blah}}), also, bring back what I had before"Serat00l951 commentedon Mar 2, 2024
Hello guys. Is there any ETA of fixing this bug? I have encountered this bug in 1.17 (#15738) and it still exists in 1.19.
foxtrottNB commentedon Apr 29, 2025
Hello guys. Is there any ETA of fixing this bug?
frederikhors commentedon Apr 9, 2026
If I set in "Startup" > "When Terminal starts" > "Open windows from a previous session" and then I use some "Run this profile as Administrator" and open Terminal it opens previous sessions windows and a new one. Each time. Very very very annoying.
I found a work-around: I can open Windows Terminal in Administrator mode from Windows. But each time I need to open it with right click from the taskbar or start menu. How can I set it by default in "Run as administrator"?