Windows Terminal gets new features with version 0.3

Microsoft releases a new preview of its new Windows Terminal, and here's all you need to know.

Windows Terminal version 0.3
Windows Terminal version 0.3

The Windows Terminal is the new command line app for Windows 10 designed to be the primary experience to use Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Linux distros, and starting with version 0.3, Microsoft is adding a slew of new improvements and features.

According to the company, Windows Terminal version 0.3 introduces the ability to click and drag the window from the title bar and new settings, improves drop-down menu and accessibility improvements, adds Azure Cloud Shell Connector, and more. Here’s a round up of the new improvements:

Windows Terminal Settings

You can now define the tab title of each profile within your settings by setting the “tabTitle” property in a profile.

It’s now possible to add a background image on top of an acrylic background with a color tint using the properties “backgroundImage”, “useAcrylic”, and “background.”

Also, you can offset your background image, as such it’s not only centered using the “backgroundImageAlignment” key and values of “center”, “left”, “top”, “right”, “bottom”, “topLeft”, “topRight”, “bottomLeft”, “bottomRight.”

Appearance changes

The title bar now has a refined look, and now, you can drag it from anywhere on the title bar.

The dropdown button has been resized and recolored, and it now stays to the right of the last opened tab. The minimize, maximize, and close buttons have also been recolored to provide a uniform experience.

Selection and Key Bindings

When using the mouse to click and drag to select text within the console, you are now able to drag your mouse outside the window to continue selecting text above and below.

You can now select sections of text by double or triple clicking. The delimiters for double clicking are set inside the profiles.json configuration file using the “wordDelimiters” property.

Also, OEM keys ({}_+-=|/?<>:”;’) are now available for mapping within key bindings. In addition, you can now have key bindings for copying, copying text without newline characters, pasting, and duplicating a tab.  

These keys are set in the profiles.json settings file within the “keybindings” property.

Accessibility improvements

The terminal’s controls and contents are now exposed as a User Interface Automation (UIA) tree, enabling tools like Narrator to interrogate, navigate, and read the contents of the Terminal’s UI controls and text content.

Azure Cloud Shell Connector support

You can now connect to the Azure Cloud Shell within the Windows Terminal. The Azure Cloud Shell is a browser-based command-line experience running in the cloud, which gives you access to your files and projects stored within Azure.

If you want to start testing the new windows Terminal, you can download the preview from the Microsoft Store on any device running Windows 10 version 18362 or higher release. In the case that you already have the app, then this update will download and install automatically.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].