Windows Terminal Preview 1.23: Windowing Rewrite and Expanded Settings UI

Microsoft's Windows Terminal has just received a major refresh — a Preview channel release that rewrites its windowing architecture, widens the Settings UI, and brings a handful of emulation, usability and accessibility improvements that together make this one of the heftiest updates in recent memory.

Background​

Windows Terminal has matured from a niche, open-source command-line alternative into the default, modern CLI host for Windows power users and developers. Over the past few years the project has introduced tabs and panes, GPU-accelerated rendering, Unicode improvements and richer profile customization. The pace of change accelerated with Preview releases that prototype larger rewrites — and the most recent Preview (v1.23.x) is notable because the team has reworked how Terminal manages windows and the UI process itself. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)
This update is rolling out through the standard Preview channels (Microsoft Store, GitHub releases, and winget) and will trickle downstream to Stable and Canary channels depending on reliability telemetry; the blog and release notes explain how features are being backported and which parts are Preview-only. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)

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What changed: new windowing architecture (the core rewrite)​

The headline: multi-windowing rewritten​

The most significant engineering change in this release is a rewrite of Terminal’s windowing architecture. The team replaced the older multi-window model to make window creation, cross-window actions, tray behavior and global hotkeys more reliable. The release notes explicitly call out a new, “much more reliable and robust” multi-windowing system and list several bug areas fixed or improved by the rewrite.

Why this matters technically​

• The Terminal team moved away from a brittle, multi-process orchestration that previously relied on complex coordination patterns (references to the old “Monarch/Peasant” and the effort to make the UI single-threaded appear in the repo conversation). This eliminates a number of race conditions and competing foreground/background problems that occasionally caused windows or hotkeys to misbehave.
• For users this should mean:
• Faster warm startup for additional windows when Terminal is already running.
• More reliable handling of global hotkeys and the tray icon.
• Fewer lost actions when commands or automation span multiple windows.

Practical effects and regressions to watch for​

Rewrites of this scale inevitably carry risk. Microsoft warns that users may see regressions around windowing or process management and asks Preview users to file issues if they experience problems. Expect edge-case regressions early in the Preview lifecycle — for example, system-key dispatch, cursor hiding on input, or foreground-rights handling were specifically referenced in the changelog buckets. Administrators and automation scripts that rely on precise window behavior should validate workflows on Preview builds before deploying widely.

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UI and Settings: the Settings UI overhaul and new toggles​

A Settings UI that now exposes more of the JSON options​

One clear goal for this release was to reduce the dependence on manual JSON editing. Many properties that previously required editing settings.json are now exposed in the Settings UI. Notable additions include:

• A top-level Compatibility settings page and a per-profile Terminal Emulation subsection to control compatibility-specific flags.
• New toggles for rainbow suggestions, cell width modes, web search URL, and other previously hidden flags.
• A richer New Tab Menu customization experience with folders and profile matchers. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)

These UI changes make the Terminal more approachable for casual power users while still preserving advanced JSON-first workflows for those who prefer them.

Full-screen tab bar and other small but useful UI tweaks​

A new boolean setting, showTabsFullscreen, allows users to keep the tab bar visible in fullscreen, a small but welcome change for workflows that use full-screen terminals but still want quick tab access. The release also adds a spatial padding editor, icon picker for New Tab entries, and improved high-contrast/Accessibility previews. (github.com, devblogs.microsoft.com)

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New emulation and clipboard controls​

Virtual Terminal updates and new escape-sequence support​

The update continues to tighten Terminal’s VT (Virtual Terminal) behavior: it adds support for sequences such as S8C1T and S7C1T and improves handling of RIS and title-reset behavior. These changes benefit applications that rely on precise VT behavior and improve compatibility with modern Unix-style terminals and advanced command-line apps.

OSC 52 (clipboard) controls and security posture​

One notable security/control addition is the profile setting compatibility.allowOSC52 (boolean, default true) that lets administrators or users disallow applications from writing to the system clipboard via escape sequences (OSC 52). This change recognizes that terminal escape sequences can be used to push clipboard content from remote sessions into a local machine — a feature used by SSH/Neovim clipboard providers but also a potential vector to exfiltrate sensitive text if you inadvertently visit a hostile shell session.
Security implications:

• OSC 52 is commonly used by remote tools to copy text to a client clipboard over SSH and can be a legitimate workflow saver.
• It can be abused by malicious remote servers if clipboard writes are not controlled or if the user is not aware that content is being copied locally.
• The Terminal team’s new toggle lets power users and admins opt out of automatic OSC 52 clipboard writes — a practical mitigation. Given the risk profile in servers or shared environments, conservative users should consider disabling OSC 52 by default.

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Fonts, color schemes, and rendering refinements​

This Preview also ships an updated Cascadia Code (2407.24) with fixes for Arabic glyph hinting and pilots a new color scheme called Ottosson, which uses the Oklab color space for better-balanced hues. The release also mentions fine-grained rendering tweaks to match Cascadia Mono’s glyph metrics, improving visual fidelity for box-drawing and monospaced glyphs. For anyone who lives inside text UIs, these refinements are meaningful.

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Features for WSL and path handling​

The release introduces a new pathTranslationStyle profile setting to control how paths are translated for WSL/MSYS2/Cygwin when dragging and dropping files into the terminal. This reduces friction for WSL users and prevents common path mangling when moving files between Windows and Linux contexts. The value choices are: none, wsl, msys2, cygwin (default none except for WSL profiles).

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New productivity features​

• Snippets pane and quick actions: The previews and recent releases have expanded the snippets feature so users can save and replay common commands quickly, including a quick actions flyout (Ctrl+Shift+Period) with suggestions and WinGet integration.
• Copy with control sequences: A copy action has a new withControlSequences option so copied text can optionally include ANSI control sequences — useful for pasting colored output into other terminals or documentation tools.
• Open current working directory action: Terminal can now open the directory reported by OSC 9;9 in File Explorer via a bindable action, which closes a small workflow gap for people switching between CLI and Windows file UI.

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Historical context: tab tear-out and the long road to this rewrite​

The windowing rewrite is not an isolated effort — it builds on years of refactoring. Earlier releases introduced tab tear-out and multi-window support that required a significant architectural pivot. Community posts and developer notes reveal that the team iterated on the design for a long time and that the current approach consolidates multiple windows within a single Terminal process for correctness and performance improvements. That history explains why this release feels like consolidation rather than a set of tiny incremental changes. (reddit.com, github.com)

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Risks, side effects and enterprise considerations​

Compatibility and regressions​

• Major reworks to window and process architecture increase the risk of regressions for automation or scripts that relied on previous behaviors.
• Worst-case: third-party integrations, shell extensions, or management tools that assume old behavior may break; test before wide rollout.

Security tradeoffs​

• The inclusion of OSC 52 support and the need to expose controls for it highlights a tradeoff between convenience (remote clipboard access) and security. Admins should review default profile settings in managed environments.

Accessibility and localization​

• The update includes several accessibility improvements and fixes for non-Latin glyph hinting, but any UI rewrite requires fresh accessibility testing — assistive technology users should validate workflows after upgrading. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)

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How to get it and recommended steps for users​

• Install or update via the Microsoft Store (Windows Terminal Preview) or download the release packages from the Terminal GitHub releases page. Alternately, winget can be used for CLI installs and updates. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)
• If you run automated scripts, CI, or depend on precise window behavior, test your workloads against the Preview build in a sandboxed environment before adopting system-wide.
• Review profile settings after updating, paying particular attention to:
• compatibility.allowOSC52 (set to false if you want to block remote clipboard writes).
• showTabsFullscreen and other UI toggles you might prefer via Settings UI. (github.com, devblogs.microsoft.com)
• File issues on GitHub if you encounter regressions; the Terminal team specifically requests feedback for windowing/process bugs so they can triage and stabilize prior to broader rollouts.

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Critical analysis — strengths and potential weak points​

Strengths​

• Engineering clarity: Rewriting the windowing model addresses long-standing reliability issues and reduces architectural complexity. This will pay dividends in stability and future features.
• User experience: Exposing more settings in the UI lowers the entry barrier for many users and decreases the chance of accidental misconfiguration.
• Security-aware controls: Adding toggles for clipboard escape sequences shows maturity in recognizing modern threat vectors while keeping useful functionality available for power users.

Weaknesses and risks​

• Preview-stage instability: As with any major internal change, some regressions are likely and the team explicitly warns about this. Large enterprises should be cautious until the Stable channel picks up the redesign.
• Documentation lag: Rapidly expanded Settings UI can outpace documentation; users who rely on JSON-driven provisioning may need to reconcile UI and configuration templates.
• Third-party compatibility: Automation, telemetry, and extensions that expect previous windowing semantics must be validated.

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Final verdict​

This update represents a meaningful maturation step for Windows Terminal. The windowing architecture rewrite is a major engineering milestone that should make Terminal more robust and maintainable, and the expanded Settings UI will widen its appeal beyond power users who edit JSON. At the same time, the team’s inclusion of explicit toggles for sensitive capabilities like OSC 52 shows a responsible balance between convenience and security.
For power users and administrators: test first, migrate thoughtfully, and consider disabling OSC 52 if you operate in high-risk or shared environments. For the broader Windows developer community, these changes signal that Terminal is continuing to evolve into a polished, stability-focused platform that can be trusted as the default CLI experience on Windows. (github.com, devblogs.microsoft.com)

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Appendix — Key technical references and details cited in this article

• Windows Terminal Preview release notes describing the new windowing architecture, Cascadia Code update, Ottosson color scheme and settings UI additions.
• Windows Command Line team blog post with the Preview 1.23 changelog and more detail about Settings UI exposures and virtual terminal updates.
• Discussion threads and repository notes referencing the architecture changes (Monarch/Peasant removal and UI single-threading) and calls for user bug reports.
• Community resources and OSC/clipboard projects that explain the OSC 52 control sequence and its implications for copy/paste over remote sessions.

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Source: Neowin Windows Terminal gets massive update with a new windowing architecture and a lot more