microsoft / microsoft/terminal

Targeting current instance with "-w 0" command line doesn't work if running as administrator

Open
#9,628 21 comments 6 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Area-Remoting Issue-Bug Priority-2 Product-Terminal Tracking-External
Dominant language
C++
Stars
105k
Forks
9.6k
Avg merge
3d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
29

Description

### Windows Terminal version (or Windows build number)

1.7.572.0

### Other Software

_No response_

### Steps to reproduce

Launch Windows Terminal as administrator
Run the command line: wt -w 0 nt

### Expected Behavior

This should open a new tab in the current window

### Actual Behavior

Launches a new instance of Windows Terminal

It would make sense that I wouldn't be able to send commands to other WT windows that were running as admin, but running a command specifically targeting the current window should still work (as a special case if necessary).

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 elevated `wt -w 0 nt` command from the issue and trace the command-line handling for targeting the current window. Confirm that an elevated invocation opens a tab in the current window rather than a new instance, while preserving the stated restriction on targeting other administrator windows.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
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.