microsoft / microsoft/terminal

Conditional settings - i.e. different colors when Administrator

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Area-Settings Issue-Feature Product-Terminal
Dominant language
C++
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description of the new feature/enhancement

As a user, it would be nice to be able to specify different color schemes based on some conditions.

For decades (ever since an errant recursive remove command executed as root) I have used light cyan on dark blue for normal command windows and bright white on red when I am operating as root or Administrator just to remind myself to be extra careful.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

This notion could be generalized as conditional profiles (or conditional attributes within a profile) to be applied when a specified expression evaluates to true. Conditional profiles (and/or attributes) would be guaranteed to be applied after all unconditional ones so they would override any default specifications, thus eliminating the need to add "else" or inverted duplicate conditionals. Order of evaluation/application of conditionals would be undefined (or, if you really want to get wild, they could be prioritized then undefined ordering among equal priorities).

When invoked as Administrator, any profile or attribute that was tagged as conditional based on having Administrator access would be applied; otherwise not. In my use case, any window I opened as me would be pleasantly colored while any window opened as Administrator would be "remember you're ROOT, stupid!" colored.

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Research direction

No implementation files, tests, or entry points are identified in the issue. Start by locating the existing profile, color-scheme, and settings handling in the Windows Terminal codebase, then determine how conditional Administrator-based settings should be represented and applied. Done means a documented, tested design and working conditional colors without changing ordinary windows.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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