[Documentation] Please consider briefly explaining what .msixbundle is #10303

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opened 2026-01-31 02:17:51 +00:00 by claunia · 0 comments
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Originally created by @rubyFeedback on GitHub (Aug 26, 2020).

Hello developers who maintain/program on the Terminal project.

Before I explain my issue, allow me to briefly (I try to be succint) the situation.

On my main machine (oldschool desktop) I use slackware linux, compiling almost everything from source via
ruby. On my laptop, I actually use win10 (for various reasons). On that win10 machine I have WSL1 too,
ubuntu, and it works fine.

Oddly enough, I was also using oldschool cmd.exe quite a lot on that win10 machine, and while that works (I
can run my ruby code just fine), I actually grew tired of cmd.exe in general. This has many reasons, but one
big one is unicode-related problems aka the unicode symbols are not displayed properly.

There are some ways how to work around, so this is more my own lack of investing time here; I can use
other terminal clients too such as Console or cmder - the latter is quite nice.

HOWEVER had, I also read about Terminal, and after the blog post here:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/introducing-windows-terminal/

and looking at screenshots (very important by the way!), I decided to skip console and cmder for now
and give Terminal a try. Actually my primary use case is to make unicode symbols work; for some
reason I really began to use LOTS of unicode symbols. So my commandline scripts are a tiny bit
GUI-like, since I use unicode symbols for additional information. :)

Anyway ... before I write too much, I was looking at the main README.md of Terminal here:

https://github.com/Microsoft/Terminal

Right now I am most interested in how to install it. The readme encourages the windows store; I am
using it, but the store actually annoys me (also asking me to "go login ... but I don't want to login,
I just want to download+install ... "). It is also a bit slow to start, a few seconds ...

So my second choice was oldschool release page - this one is MUCH faster and so much more
convenient for linux folks ;)

https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases

And here I typically see four Assets:

Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.2.2381.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle
Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.2.2381.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle_Windows10_PreinstallKit.zip
Source code (zip)
Source code (tar.gz)

I can skip Source code for the time being. However had, I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what a
".msixbundle" is ... I am used to .exe and .msi but what is .msixbundle? Will that work? Right now
I don't know; I may try at a later time.

But here is my request: Would it be possible that the main README also very BRIEFLY mentions
what a msixbundle is or how to install it? I assume double-click may suffice ... but, as said, right
now I don't know, so perhaps a sentence there could be helpful. Another reason I try to avoid the
story is that I actually keep track of what I am installing/downloading in text-files, which I can then
use for ruby to batch-install stuff (on linux typically, but I am adjusting to win10 as well right now,
although I have not yet reached the fully-automated batch-installation there). Hopefully extending
the main README with a brief mention or explanation what is .msixbundle, and also what the
difference is to the "PreinstallKit", would be helpful. Thanks! Please feel free to close this issue
at any moment in time, to keep the issue tracker smaller. :)

Originally created by @rubyFeedback on GitHub (Aug 26, 2020). Hello developers who maintain/program on the Terminal project. Before I explain my issue, allow me to briefly (I try to be succint) the situation. On my main machine (oldschool desktop) I use slackware linux, compiling almost everything from source via ruby. On my laptop, I actually use win10 (for various reasons). On that win10 machine I have WSL1 too, ubuntu, and it works fine. Oddly enough, I was also using oldschool cmd.exe quite a lot on that win10 machine, and while that works (I can run my ruby code just fine), I actually grew tired of cmd.exe in general. This has many reasons, but one big one is unicode-related problems aka the unicode symbols are not displayed properly. There are some ways how to work around, so this is more my own lack of investing time here; I can use other terminal clients too such as Console or cmder - the latter is quite nice. HOWEVER had, I also read about Terminal, and after the blog post here: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/introducing-windows-terminal/ and looking at screenshots (very important by the way!), I decided to skip console and cmder for now and give Terminal a try. Actually my primary use case is to make unicode symbols work; for some reason I really began to use LOTS of unicode symbols. So my commandline scripts are a tiny bit GUI-like, since I use unicode symbols for additional information. :) Anyway ... before I write too much, I was looking at the main README.md of Terminal here: https://github.com/Microsoft/Terminal Right now I am most interested in how to install it. The readme encourages the windows store; I am using it, but the store actually annoys me (also asking me to "go login ... but I don't want to login, I just want to download+install ... "). It is also a bit slow to start, a few seconds ... So my second choice was oldschool release page - this one is MUCH faster and so much more convenient for linux folks ;) https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases And here I typically see four Assets: Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.2.2381.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.2.2381.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle_Windows10_PreinstallKit.zip Source code (zip) Source code (tar.gz) I can skip Source code for the time being. However had, I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what a ".msixbundle" is ... I am used to .exe and .msi but what is .msixbundle? Will that work? Right now I don't know; I may try at a later time. But here is my request: Would it be possible that the main README also very BRIEFLY mentions what a msixbundle is or how to install it? I assume double-click may suffice ... but, as said, right now I don't know, so perhaps a sentence there could be helpful. Another reason I try to avoid the story is that I actually keep track of what I am installing/downloading in text-files, which I can then use for ruby to batch-install stuff (on linux typically, but I am adjusting to win10 as well right now, although I have not yet reached the fully-automated batch-installation there). Hopefully extending the main README with a brief mention or explanation what is .msixbundle, and also what the difference is to the "PreinstallKit", would be helpful. Thanks! Please feel free to close this issue at any moment in time, to keep the issue tracker smaller. :)
claunia added the Help WantedNeeds-Tag-FixIssue-DocsProduct-Metagood first issue labels 2026-01-31 02:17:51 +00:00
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Reference: starred/terminal#10303