Add support for wt.exe to run commands in an existing Terminal Window

Description of the new feature/enhancement

I have been playing around with Jetbrains Rider, and when i start a console app with that IDE, it runs the console window inside a docked window in the IDE.

So what i was thinking. How cool would it be, if Windows Terminal allows external applications to start a new Console window in the currently running Windows Terminal instance.

That way whether its VisualStudio or Rider, those IDE's can be configured to start a new Console window inside the Windows Terminal instance.

The way i see this working is: I press F5/ctrl-F5 in visual studio, and instead of opening a new cmd console window, a new tab appears in my running Windows Terminal instance.

Yes, please. There's a Visual Studio extension, that lets you open command line in the current project folder. I set it to launch wt.exe, and it always creates a new window, but I'd love if I could pass a parameter to wt.exe, so that if Terminal is already running, it would be activated a new tab would open there instead.

Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft)

Thanks for the request! I thought we had a backlog item for "allow remote control of a terminal" (like: wt.exe could --remote to control another open instance and add tabs or whatever), but it looks like we don't.

This is now that issue. Triaged into backlog.

/cc Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft): I may be wrong in not finding a "remote control" issue

Partially supported by #2080.

This was briefly mentioned in this spec

Future considerations

These are some additional argument ideas which are dependent on other features
that might not land for a long time. These features were still considered as a
part of the design of this solution, though their implementation is purely
hypothetical for the time being.

Instead of launching a new Windows Terminal window, attach this new
terminal to an existing one. This would require the work outlined in
[Spec for tab tear off and default app #2080], so support a "manager" process that could coordinate sessions
like this.

This would be something like wt --session [some-session-id] [commands], where --session [some-session-id] would tell us that
[more-commands] are intended for the given other session/window.
That way, you could open a new tab in another window with wt --session 0 cmd.exe (for example).

list-sessions: A command to display all the active Windows terminal
instances and their session ID's, in a way compatible with the above
command. Again, heavily dependent upon the implementation of [Spec for tab tear off and default app #2080].

Which yea is part of #2080, but I don't think has it's own issue.

Wow, I was just thinking about "starting a new program/task in any existing windows terminal window" or a "single instance mode" to populate a WT window with multiple tasks via CLI would be great.
But something like sessions would be even better and more flexible.

But I admit that I'd prefer a "quick and dirty" single instance mode in the near future over a flexible session management in the distant future (as I could use it sooner than later).

Ah, from WSL you'll need:

cmd.exe /c "wt.exe" -w 0 nt

Execution aliases do not work in WSL distributions. If you want to use wt.exe from a WSL command line, you can spawn it from CMD directly by running cmd.exe. The /c option tells CMD to terminate after running.

Also, you can read this in the docs

wt -w 0 nt

But this works only from with in cmd tab window.. This does not work if you issue this command from say within powershell tabbed window.

But this works only from with in cmd tab window.. This does not work if you issue this command from say within powershell tabbed window.

🤔

Beat me to the punch. Yes, it does work in a PowerShell tab. However, it does not work in a Windows Terminal window running as administrator (see #9628).

Beat me to the punch. Yes, it does work in a PowerShell tab. However, it does not work in a Windows Terminal window running as administrator (see #9628).

Yes indeed i am running Windows terminal as Administrator and I see this issue...However as you said, if I do not run at as administrator, it works just as expected. Thanks for confirming and making it more explicit and clear.

For those who are kinda new to this: here is how you can do it the easy way.(Works for me in Windows 10 Pro with Windows Terminal(not Preview))

Open Windows Terminal.
Open Settings.
Checkout this section in the startup menu.
Select as I did.
Test by clicking "Open in Windows Terminal" elsewhere.
Thanks Microsoft for adding this to GUI)

For those who are kinda new to this: here is how you can do it the easy way.

1. Open Windows Terminal.

2. Open Settings.

3. Checkout this section in the startup menu.
   ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/42899786/153727389-56f004b6-cd7b-4b35-9531-ef2227e28638.png)

4. Select as I did.

5. Test by clicking "Open in Windows Terminal" elsewhere.
   Thanks Microsoft for adding this to GUI)

Neither "Attach to the most recently used window" nor "Attach to the most recently used window on this desktop" work for me on Windows 11. I am not using the Preview version of Windows Terminal. Any idea what's up?

For those who are kinda new to this: here is how you can do it the easy way.
1. Open Windows Terminal.

2. Open Settings.

3. Checkout this section in the startup menu.
   ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/42899786/153727389-56f004b6-cd7b-4b35-9531-ef2227e28638.png)

4. Select as I did.

5. Test by clicking "Open in Windows Terminal" elsewhere.
   Thanks Microsoft for adding this to GUI)
Neither "Attach to the most recently used window" nor "Attach to the most recently used window on this desktop" work for me on Windows 11. I am not using the Preview version of Windows Terminal. Any idea what's up?

Sorry, buddy, no idea. Try checking the above comments (like modifying the registry). I'll update my prev comment, cuz I'm on windows 10.

Are there plans to launch a new tab in an existing window, but to choose the window based on MRU order?

choose the window based on MRU order?

that's... already how it's supposed to work?

choose the window based on MRU order?

that's... already how it's supposed to work?

That's not working for me when calling
wt.exe -w 0 nt
or
wt.exe -w 1 nt
via AutoHotkey when both AutoHotkey and both Windows Terminal windows are running as administrator. It always opens the new tab in the first wt window opened.

Wondering if that is related to #9628. Add this information to that bug so when it's evaluated for 1.14 this scenario will be included in that evaluation.

Yes, should be same issue as #9628 barring some strange behavior when called by AHK.

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Add support for wt.exe to run commands in an existing Terminal Window #4472

Description of the new feature/enhancement

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Add support for wt.exe to run commands in an existing Terminal Window #4472

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Description of the new feature/enhancement

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lostmsu commented on Feb 6, 2020

DHowett-MSFT commented on Feb 7, 2020

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zadjii-msft commented on Feb 7, 2020

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Rumbah2 commented on Feb 14, 2020

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