After updating Windows Terminal, pressing Ctrl+Profile will not inherit the working directory

Windows Terminal version

1.16.10262.0

Windows build number

10.0.22621.1537

Other Software

No response

Steps to reproduce

Set the startup directory in Windows Terminal settings to ".".
Go to a folder in File Explorer (for example: D:\SomeDir).
Right-click and select "Open with Terminal" from the context menu.
Hold down the Ctrl key on the title bar of the new Windows Terminal and create any tab (to create as an administrator).`

Expected Behavior

In the new Windows Terminal that runs as an administrator, the working directory is inherited as D:\SomeDir

Actual Behavior

In the new Windows Terminal that runs as an administrator, the working directory is reset to C:\Windows\System32

In the first stable version that supports creating an administrator profile window by holding down Ctrl (Version 1.15.2525.0), its behavior was as expected. After Windows Store updated Windows Terminal recently, I found that its behavior was broken.
Currently I can only solve this behavior change by using the powershell -Command Start-Process wt -Verb runAs command, but it is very inconvenient.

I just tested every stable version and found that 1.15.3465.0 and 1.15.3466.0 are the last stable versions that can inherit the working directory, while 1.16.10261.0 and 1.16.10262.0 are the first stable versions that will not inherit the working directory.

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft)

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft) hm. ShellExecute("appsfolder:...") fallout?

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft)

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft) hm. ShellExecute("appsfolder:...") fallout?

probably

Also noticed this when looking into #14817 and in my case I was not able to set the working directory for ShellExecute. Somehow it was never talking into account and googling around didn't return anything useful.

1.15.2525.0 is just doing CreateProcessW here https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/blob/release-1.15/src/cascadia/ShellExtension/OpenTerminalHere.cpp#L47 but was not starting elevated then.

So indeed moving to ShellExecute is causing this. But don't know what would the best way to set the working directory then tbh.

Hmm. I bet this especially breaks in 1.18. I wonder actually if "startingDirectory": "." will be really broken, because the Terminal's CWD will always be the CWD of the first terminal window.

Butts.

Okay, I've got a possible solution, but I think I ended up building it on top of #5506, and that might be too much to pull in this late in the release.

Basically, the simple idea is:

Manually pass the evaluated CWD to _OpenElevatedWT,
so that we launch elevate-shim new-tab -p {guid} -d <path>.
That'll then ShellExecute({ "shell:AppsFolder\...", "new-tab -p {guid} -d <path>"}),
and then the elevated window would treat that as "manually start this profile with the CWD <path>"

I deeply worry that'll cause mysterious edge cases with like, c:\ or other string escaping nonsense.

This works for #15173, but no me gusta

note:

diff --git a/src/cascadia/ElevateShim/elevate-shim.cpp b/src/cascadia/ElevateShim/elevate-shim.cpp
index 50449ddca..ee90aec45 100644
--- a/src/cascadia/ElevateShim/elevate-shim.cpp
+++ b/src/cascadia/ElevateShim/elevate-shim.cpp
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #include <gsl/pointers>
 #include <shellapi.h>
 #include <appmodel.h>
+#include <wil/filesystem.h>^M

 // BODGY
 //
@@ -96,12 +97,15 @@ int __stdcall wWinMain(HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPWSTR, int)
     SHELLEXECUTEINFOW seInfo{ 0 };
 #pragma warning(pop)

+    auto cwd{ wil::GetCurrentDirectoryW<std::wstring>() };^M
+^M
     seInfo.cbSize = sizeof(seInfo);
     seInfo.fMask = SEE_MASK_DEFAULT;
     seInfo.lpVerb = L"runas"; // This asks the shell to elevate the process
     seInfo.lpFile = cmd.c_str(); // This is `shell:AppsFolder\...` or `...\WindowsTerminal.exe`
     seInfo.lpParameters = GetCommandLine(); // This is `new-tab -p {guid}`
     seInfo.nShow = SW_SHOWNORMAL;
+    seInfo.lpDirectory = cwd.c_str();^M
     LOG_IF_WIN32_BOOL_FALSE(ShellExecuteExW(&seInfo));

     return 0;
diff --git a/src/cascadia/TerminalApp/TerminalPage.cpp b/src/cascadia/TerminalApp/TerminalPage.cpp
index 99a1fdafd..00008642f 100644
--- a/src/cascadia/TerminalApp/TerminalPage.cpp
+++ b/src/cascadia/TerminalApp/TerminalPage.cpp
@@ -4181,6 +4181,8 @@ namespace winrt::TerminalApp::implementation
         STARTUPINFOW si{};
         si.cb = sizeof(si);

+        auto cwd{ wil::GetCurrentDirectoryW<std::wstring>() };
+
         LOG_IF_WIN32_BOOL_FALSE(CreateProcessW(exePath.c_str(),
                                                cmdline.data(),
                                                nullptr,
@@ -4188,7 +4190,7 @@ namespace winrt::TerminalApp::implementation
                                                FALSE,
                                                0,
                                                nullptr,
-                                               nullptr,
+                                               cwd.c_str(),
                                                &si,
                                                &pi));

did not just work

This works for #15173, but no me gusta

Manually pre-evaluate the starting directory when calling elevate-shim (

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft)

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft) you marked this up for 1.17 servicing but it has a hard dependency on the virtual CWD work. Do you think we should backport them as a pair, or would you be willing to retool the fix to be 1.17-specific?

Manually pre-evaluate the starting directory when calling elevate-shim (

Dustin L. Howett (@DHowett)

Dustin L. Howett (@DHowett) Uh, maybe there's a way to retool. The vCWD work is definitely too scary to backport straight to Stable

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft)

In version 1.17 Preview, the working directory inheritance was restored, but in the recent update to version 1.18, it broke again. What happened? 🤔 Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft)

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After updating Windows Terminal, pressing Ctrl+Profile will not inherit the working directory #15173

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After updating Windows Terminal, pressing Ctrl+Profile will not inherit the working directory #15173

Description

Windows Terminal version

Windows build number

Other Software

Steps to reproduce

Expected Behavior

Actual Behavior

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TGSAN commented on Apr 13, 2023

TGSAN commented on Apr 13, 2023

DHowett commented on Apr 13, 2023

zadjii-msft commented on Apr 18, 2023

kovdu commented on Apr 26, 2023

zadjii-msft commented on May 1, 2023

zadjii-msft commented on May 1, 2023

zadjii-msft commented on May 1, 2023

DHowett commented on May 15, 2023

zadjii-msft commented on May 17, 2023

TGSAN commented on Jun 30, 2023

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