microsoft / microsoft/terminal

Starting directory as legacy cmd

Open
#16,853 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Issue-Bug Needs-Tag-Fix Tracking-External
Dominant language
C++
Stars
105k
Forks
9.6k
Avg merge
3d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
29

Description

When the command prompt is opened by the Win+X shortcut without administrator privilege, the working directory is %USERPROFILE%. If opened with administrator privilege, the working directory is %WINDIR%\system32.

But when the terminal is set to be the default terminal for the system and opened by the Win+X menu, if starting directory is set to ., it is always %WINDIR%\system32.

Is it possible to set the starting directory in windows terminal to make it behave like cmd?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the Win+X launch behavior with Windows Terminal set as the default terminal, using both administrator and non-administrator contexts and a starting directory of .. Compare the resulting directory with cmd's %USERPROFILE% and %WINDIR%\system32 behavior; done means Windows Terminal can preserve the corresponding starting directory behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.