Microsoft recently announced Windows Terminal 1.9 (Preview) that adds some new features and improvements. If you are a fan of Windows Terminal, you can now set it as the default terminal emulator on Windows 10. This feature is currently available to the Windows Insiders who are on the Dev Channel build.
Apart from this, Microsoft also adds Quake Mode, an italic version of Cascadia Code font, and other new improvements to Windows Terminal 1.9 Preview. For more details, continue reading further.
Set the Windows Terminal as your default terminal emulator
If you are a Windows Terminal user, you will really love the new features and improvements that Microsoft adds to it. The first new feature that comes with Windows Terminal 1.9 Preview is the ability to set it as the default terminal on Windows 10. You can now set Windows Terminal Preview as your default terminal emulator on Windows! This means that any command-line application will launch inside your selected terminal emulator (i.e. double click on PowerShell and it will open inside Windows Terminal Preview by default)
, says Microsoft.
👉 Here's how to change the default terminal application in Windows 10
This feature is currently limited to Windows Insiders who are running the latest Dev Channel build of Windows 10. You can open the console property sheet to set the Windows Terminal as the default terminal application. The same can also be found on the Terminal settings page.
Windows Terminal 1.9 comes with quake mode
Windows Terminal now comes with quake mode, which will allow you to quickly open a new terminal instance from anywhere in Windows by pressing the keyboard shortcut Win + `. The quake window will appear on the top half of your screen and can easily be dismissed with the same keyboard shortcut.
You cannot bind quake mode to a keyboard shortcut that is already bound in the OS
, says Microsoft. If you are using the PowerToys version lower than 0.37, upgrade to the latest version in order to resolve the conflict. The PowerToys team recently changed their default keyboard shortcut to Win + Shift + ` to help avoid this conflict.
Cascadia Code font now has an italic variant
In addition to the above features, Microsoft adds an italic variant of Cascadia Code font with cursive letterforms. This italic variant comes by default inside the terminal and can also be downloaded from GitHub. Font versions without “Italic” in their name will have a standard italic without the cursive letters.
Microsoft also said that they are going to add Arabic and Hebrew characters to Cascadia Code, and that will be available in mid-June.