Files: Open Terminal/CommandPrompt/PowerShell from current folder

[calloncampbell]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
It would be great if you could easily open up one of the supported console apps (Command Prompt, PowerShell and Windows Terminal) from any given folder. You can currently do this in Windows Explorer by typing "cmd" in the address bar.

Describe the solution you'd like
It would be great if you could easily open up one of the supported console apps (Command Prompt, PowerShell and Windows Terminal) from any given folder. This can be explicit button/menu command or support to parse the address bar for new input + enter key.

Describe alternatives you've considered
No alternatives exist for this app.

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here. Ex: What device type/UI layout and app version?

[duke7553]

This is easy to implement since the last changes that I made. Work on is in progress for opening a folder in cmd until arguments are supported in Windows terminal.

[duke7553]

The "Open in Terminal" option will now work when using a build from the master branch, but I still plan on giving users a setting to choose between CMD and Powershell by default.

[watermarkhu]

How about the new Windows Terminal? Since we're all going UWP here....

[xmha97]

Now I can open Command Prompt on the current folder.
Please add Windows Terminal support.

[duke7553]

@amirrammari I'm pretty sure we're still waiting on Windows Terminal to support arguments for the wt.exe command. Also, new changes coming soon will allow users to register custom terminals!

[yaichenbaum]

@lampenlampen Can you comment on this?

[lampenlampen]

So https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/pull/4023 adds support for Windows Terminal.

With this profile you should be able to open Windows Terminal.

{
      "id": 3,
      "name": "Windows Terminal",
      "path": "wt.exe",
      "arguments": "-d \"{0}\"",
      "icon": ""
    }

PS: As far as i can tell, does the latest version of Windows Terminal not include this feature. You will need to build and install Windows Terminal from the master branch.

We should wait until a release version of Windows Terminal is available, until we support it out of the box.

[yaichenbaum]

@lampenlampen https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/windows-terminal-preview-v0-9-release/

[lampenlampen]

1. Users with old terminal.json-files don't get the updated version automatically, because we don't override existing ones.

2. Powershell and Windows Terminal profiles are deactivated by default.

[lampenlampen]

We should consider creating a wiki page, where we collect the different terminal profiles.

[yaichenbaum]

@lampenlampen What profiles do we support?

[lampenlampen]

cmd:

{
      "id": 1,
      "name": "CMD",
      "path": "cmd.exe",
      "arguments": "/k \"cd /d {0} && title Command Prompt\"",
      "icon": ""
}

Powershell:

{
      "id": 4,
      "name": "PowerShell",
      "path": "powershell.exe",
      "arguments": "-noexit -command \"cd '{0}'\"",
      "icon": ""
}

Powershell Core:

{
      "id": 2,
      "name": "PowerShell Core 6",
      "path": "pwsh.exe",
      "arguments": "-WorkingDirectory \"{0}\"",
      "icon": ""
}

Windows Terminal:

{
      "id": 3,
      "name": "Windows Terminal",
      "path": "wt.exe",
      "arguments": "-d \"{0}\"",
      "icon": ""
}

Of course the PowerShell 6 and the Windows Terminal profile only function, if the corresponding terminals are installed.

The profile with the id 1 is the default one.

[yaichenbaum]

@lampenlampen Don't we automatically add them to the drop-down?

[lampenlampen]

If the profiles are in the terminals.json file, but only the cmd is enabled by default, because we don't know if powershell or Windows Terminal is installed.

I thought it will be easier for the non technical user, who can simply copy and paste the profile into the terminals.json file.

In #424 we have for example a request for the legacy powershell which is not included in the terminals-file.

We support basically every terminal, you only have to write a profile for it. I thought it would be a good idea to collect all those profiles at a single location.

[yaichenbaum]

Why don't we add logic for that? We already have something similar in place for detecting if QuickLook is installed so I imagine we can do the same here.

[lampenlampen]

QuickLook is a lot simpler to detect, because it creates a named pipe, which we can check for existence.

I spontaneously do not know of a way to detect, if a certain program is installed.

[szaimen]

I guess this is not possible (because you cannot run powershell and access the registry and UWP apps aren't creating registy entries)?
https://keestalkstech.com/2017/10/powershell-snippet-check-if-software-is-installed/

Maybe this (last answer)?
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/debfb69a-7a35-4a20-9ee3-bf471137d276/uwphow-to-detect-if-application-is-installed-on-the-device

Or this?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54369640/c-sharp-check-if-a-uwp-app-is-installed-on-windows10

[lampenlampen]

Technically we can run powershell and access the registry, because we have the runFullTrustProcess-permission.

The thing is, is it worth?
We surely can detect some or many cases, where pw or wt are installed, but i think not all.
For example what about a portable installation?

So I think especially pre version 1, it's not worth, because you simply have to copy and paste a profile into terminals.json.

[szaimen]

Okay, and then why not checking if the app is installed and if it wasn't found for whatever reason, ask the user to copy and paste the profile into terminals.json, if the user wants to use that feature?

[lampenlampen]

But we don't know in advance which profile a user wants to use.

So we end up asking every user, where we don't find for example Windows Terminal (due to not found or not installed) to select the exectuable. Even if the users wants to have nothing to do with Windows Terminal.

The problem: We can not differentiate between "not found" and "not installed".

[szaimen]

That's why I would suggest asking and checking for the installation only if the user interacts with the "open in powershell/commandPrompt". As long as he doesn't use that feature I wouldn't ask him for the installation.

[duke7553]

If we know the package id of a msix-packaged app, can't we query it? I feel like there was a way that should work (at least for detecting Terminal)

[yaichenbaum]

@lampenlampen You can actually get read access to the registry without a FullTrustProcess.

[lampenlampen]

@yaichenbaum Are you sure? I thought every UWP app has it's own registry.
@duke7553 But PowerShell or Windows Terminal are not uwp apps.

I thought about it a little more:
We don't need the path at all, because the install location must be on the "Path"-variable.
So we can launch powershell and only have to recognize if it succeeded or not.

[yaichenbaum]

@lampenlampen Absolutely, we already do that to detect the path for the user folders.

[duke7553]

For v0.8 we'll work on detecting terminal emulator apps, so users won't have to add the profile each time.

[yaichenbaum]

I am excited to report that #542 adds support for launching terminal applications from the navigation bar. This will let you enter the name of any terminal in your profile and it will launch the terminal with the current path you are working in.

543 includes a change that will automatically add a profile for Windows Terminal if it's installed. Detection for other popular terminal apps will be added in the future as well.

[yaichenbaum]

This issue should be fully addressed with the latest changes in the develop branch.