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Feature Request - A real settings menu or form wrapper for profiles.json #2027

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opened 2026-01-30 22:44:53 +00:00 by claunia · 0 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-30 22:44:53 +00:00
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Originally created by @CosmicCatnap on GitHub (Jun 23, 2019).

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

If the intention of the Windows Terminal is to conform to modern standards and appease terminal users who are disappointed by the Command Prompt and Powershell offerings it can start by adhering to some basic standards of terminals. With the exception of a few terminals (termite, urxvt, xterm) the overwelming majority of terminals (terminator, gnome terminal, xfce terminal, kde terminal, iTerm2,) and even CMD and Powershell have a menu of some kind that obfuscates the settings file to the user and provides them with an easy to use settings menu or form implementation.

Proposed technical implementation details

When a user clicks the settings button in the Windows Terminal dropdown it should present the user with a settings form similar to how other Terminals, CMD, and Powershell do in that they allow the user to modify the Font, Font Size, Key Bindings, and provides a menu to edit, clone, import, export, create, and delete profiles. It should allow the user to modify most if not all of the values supported by the profiles.json schema.

A secondary issue is the location of the profiles.json file. The profiles.json file is similar to the .Xresources in linux for xterm and urxvt. This is fine if the intention is to provide this to power users who can edit much faster with json than a form for what they want to accomplish but its current location makes that more or less a moot point. To explain the problem better, if I want to edit this file without going to the settings button currently my real path to my profiles.json is

C:\Users\cosmiccatnap\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState\profiles.json

The location of this file should be common and easy to find. It should be in the users directory either under C:\Users\example\profiles.json or in C:\Users\example\Documents\profiles.json. A global default should be installed with the terminal at an also easy to find location in case the user needs to override the file globally or copy it over to rebuild their own local profiles.json such as C:\Program Files\WindowsTerminal\profile.json but if the expectation is that the user will edit this file, it should not be in the AppData location at the least.

Originally created by @CosmicCatnap on GitHub (Jun 23, 2019). # Summary of the new feature/enhancement If the intention of the Windows Terminal is to conform to modern standards and appease terminal users who are disappointed by the Command Prompt and Powershell offerings it can start by adhering to some basic standards of terminals. With the exception of a few terminals (termite, urxvt, xterm) the overwelming majority of terminals (terminator, gnome terminal, xfce terminal, kde terminal, iTerm2,) and even CMD and Powershell have a menu of some kind that obfuscates the settings file to the user and provides them with an easy to use settings menu or form implementation. # Proposed technical implementation details When a user clicks the settings button in the Windows Terminal dropdown it should present the user with a settings form similar to how other Terminals, CMD, and Powershell do in that they allow the user to modify the Font, Font Size, Key Bindings, and provides a menu to edit, clone, import, export, create, and delete profiles. It should allow the user to modify most if not all of the values supported by the profiles.json schema. A secondary issue is the location of the profiles.json file. The profiles.json file is similar to the .Xresources in linux for xterm and urxvt. This is fine if the intention is to provide this to power users who can edit much faster with json than a form for what they want to accomplish but its current location makes that more or less a moot point. To explain the problem better, if I want to edit this file without going to the settings button currently my real path to my profiles.json is ### C:\Users\cosmiccatnap\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState\profiles.json The location of this file should be common and easy to find. It should be in the users directory either under C:\Users\example\profiles.json or in C:\Users\example\Documents\profiles.json. A global default should be installed with the terminal at an also easy to find location in case the user needs to override the file globally or copy it over to rebuild their own local profiles.json such as C:\Program Files\WindowsTerminal\profile.json but if the expectation is that the user will edit this file, it should not be in the AppData location at the least.
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Reference: starred/terminal#2027
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