How to Change New Instance Behavior of Windows Terminal in Windows 10


The Windows Terminal is a modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL. Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and custom themes, styles, and configurations.

Starting with Windows 10 build 21337, Windows Terminal is now an inbox app.

The New instance behavior setting in Windows Terminal controls how new terminal instances attach to existing terminal windows.

See also:

This tutorial will show you how to change the new instance behavior of the Windows Terminal app for your account in Windows 10.



Here's How:

1 Open the Windows Terminal app.

2 Click/tap on the down arrow button on the top bar, and click/tap on Settings Ctrl + , (comma). (see screenshot below)

How to Change New Instance Behavior of Windows Terminal in Windows 10-xwindows_terminal_settings.png

3 Click/tap on Startup in the left pane. (see screenshot below)

4 Select (dot) the New instance behavior you want in the right pane.

  • Create a new window = Create a new terminal window, always. This is the default setting.
  • Attach to the most recently used window = Create new tabs in the most recently used terminal window, regardless of which virtual desktop the terminal window is on.
  • Attach to the most recently used window on this desktop = Create new tabs in the most recently used terminal window on this desktop. If there's not an existing terminal window on this virtual desktop, then create a new terminal window.

5 Click/tap on Save at the bottom right.

6 You can now close the Settings tab if you like.

How to Change New Instance Behavior of Windows Terminal in Windows 10-windows_terminal_new_instance_behavior.jpg


That's it,
Shawn Brink


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