What’s New in Windows Terminal 1.17 Preview? Custom Menus, Mica Background, and More

Windows Terminal is a terminal application that offers multiple tabs, panes, Unicode support, and customizable themes.

The stable release is now at version 1.16, while the preview channel has moved to version 1.17.

Version 1.16 added features such as editor‑based themes for customizing the terminal’s appearance, new default colors, and a new text‑rendering engine.

In the 1.17 preview, one of the highlighted features is the ability to customize the dropdown menu: users can add folders, separators, and profiles, and arrange them in any order they prefer.

New keyboard shortcuts also allow users to restart a process after termination or close the terminal window: press Ctrl+D to close the window and Enter to restart it.

Windows 11 users can now use Mica as the background for the terminal, blending the desktop wallpaper and theme for an extra layer of personalization.

Microsoft has updated the color‑scheme page to make the experience more intuitive; when adding a new scheme or clicking a scheme in the list view, users are taken directly to the edit‑scheme page.

Additional optimizations have been made to improve the usability and accessibility of Windows Terminal.

For full details, see the official blog post at https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/windows-terminal-preview-1-16-release/ .