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powershellbatch-filewindows-terminal

Start Windows Terminal from the CLI and pass in an executable command to run

I can start Windows Terminal with wt. I have read the Windows Terminal documentation on command-line arguments, and it just covers passing an argument for setting up terminal panes, not passing in actual executable commands.

For example, a minimal reproducible example: Requires Windows Terminal installed:

Open a CMD prompt in Windows and type:

dir | wt

This starts Windows Terminal, but it does not receive the dir command. How does one pass the executable command to Windows Terminal?

Solution

  • Use

    wt new-tab -p "Command Prompt" -d "%cd%" cmd /k dir

    • You can omit new-tab (it’s a default command).

    • Omitting -d "%cd%" seems to be equivalent to -d "%USERPROFILE%".

    • You can omit -p "Command Prompt" if your default profile is set to the cmd.exe profile. Check the wt settings in the following file (Windows):

      %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\settings.json

    Try a more complex command than dir, for instance

    wt new-tab -p "Command Prompt" -d "%cd%" cmd /k "dir & type "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\settings.json""

    Please check the How to pass commands into the shell opened in new Windows Terminal question as well.