Terminal: Settings doesn't open reliably when there's no association for .json files

[Mustafa5040]

When I press the settings on the Windows Terminal, it asks me how I want to open the .json file. So the settings won't open. Please help me

[Shorotshishir]

easy solution, u need a text editor. as simple as that. notepad++ orvs code will be perfect for it. your plain old notepad can do the trick too, but it is easier to edit in smarter text editors as it shows the .json in a formated way.

[hosser]

Settings doesn't open for me either, but I don't get any kind of prompt. It just does nothing.

For what it's worth, I have Notepad++ installed.

Never mind, ignore me - I configured Notepad++ as the default file handler for JSON files (I didn't have one set) and now Settings opens that file correctly. So it's a simple filetype association issue.

[JushBJJ]

For settings, customise the terminal by editing the file "profiles.json" in
C:\Users\Your_Username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_<some random characters>\RoamingState\profiles.json

[drk-mtr]

I was having the same issue - thanks for providing the solution.

Might be worth adding a prompt the first time someone attempts to use the Settings menu to advise them to check their file associations if it doesn't work? Or maybe as part of the install process if people don't want to clutter the program with these additional checks.

[hosser]

I was having the same issue - thanks for providing the solution.

Might be worth adding a prompt the first time someone attempts to use the Settings menu to advise them to check their file associations if it doesn't work? Or maybe as part of the install process if people don't want to clutter the program with these additional checks.

Yeah - something needs to be done, as new users will have no idea the terminal is trying to open a .json file. I certainly didn't. So I had no reason to check the file handler for JSON files until I read others descriptions of what happens when they click Settings. Some kind of clue as to what the program is trying to do to enable basic troubleshooting would be nice.

[JushBJJ]

Agreed, I kinda suggest to automatically open notepad to edit profiles.json since its pre-installed in Windows systems and it would be uncommon for a normal user to uninstall it.

[mubeenpatel99]

You can Find the settings manually in the folder:

C:\Users\<YOUR_USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState

You can download these Icons and paste them in the same folder as profile.json for a better look:

icons and profile.zip

Snapshot:

[drk-mtr]

@mubeenpatel99 are you able to share the settings.json that you configured in order to get ubuntu to run as a shell please?

I've tried manually pointing at ubuntu, ubuntu.exe and C:\Users\MyProfileName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\ubuntu.exe instead of cmd.exe but no luck so far...

Edit: Please ignore - I've reinstalled and found it's "commandline" : "wsl.exe -d Ubuntu",

[Shorotshishir]

@drk-mtr please refer to this issue #1449
you will find the correct pattern for the WSL terminal command, for ubuntu it should look like this
commandline parameter : wsl.exe -d ubuntu-linux

[mubeenpatel99]

@mubeenpatel99 are you able to share the settings.json that you configured in order to get ubuntu to run as a shell please?

I've tried manually pointing at ubuntu, ubuntu.exe and C:\Users\MyProfileName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\ubuntu.exe instead of cmd.exe but no luck so far...

Edit: Please ignore - I've reinstalled and found it's "commandline" : "wsl.exe -d Ubuntu",

Yeah great it's working now

[DHowett-MSFT]

Re-titled to make this a little more robust.

[levicki]

If you change startingDirectory value you must use either forward slashes (/) or escaped backslashes (\\) in the filesystem path or the Terminal will refuse to reload settings due to invalid Json format.

To a front-end developer this might be obvious, but not for regular users.

[HAWK-Soft]

@mubeenpatel99 are you able to share the settings.json that you configured in order to get ubuntu to run as a shell please?
I've tried manually pointing at ubuntu, ubuntu.exe and C:\Users\MyProfileName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\ubuntu.exe instead of cmd.exe but no luck so far...
Edit: Please ignore - I've reinstalled and found it's "commandline" : "wsl.exe -d Ubuntu",

Yeah great it's working now

I think these links are useful before complete this config file (profiles.json). Thanks for your help guys! (:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/wsl/install-win10
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/wsl/about

[metathinker]

I believe https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/pull/1841 fixes this issue (no .json file editor registered prevents profiles.json from opening).

[DHowett-MSFT]

Hey, good catch! Thanks.