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Windows Terminal is supposed to replace the old environment for CLIs like cmd.exe or PowerShell. It offers, among other things, support for tabs, numerous options for configuring its appearance, or assigning keyboard shortcuts.
While the new terminal is already on board of Windows 11, you have to install it in Windows 10 or on the server. On a client, the preferred method is to download it from the Microsoft Store. However, the method described here also works on these Windows versions.
Download MSIX
If the Store app is not available on the system, the only option is to download the package from GitHub and install it using PowerShell. This does not require elevated privileges because the MSIX package is set up separately for each user.
There are always multiple versions of Windows Terminal available on GitHub. As a rule, you will opt for Latest, i.e., the current GA release. There, you select the file
Microsoft.WindowsTerminal Win10 <Version> 8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle.
The packages with "PreinstallKit.zip" in their names are intended for offline integration into a Windows image.
Adding VCLibs
Before you start the installation, you have to create one more prerequisite; otherwise, you will receive error message 0x80073D19.
Windows Terminal installation fails if VCLibs is not present
The reason for this is the missing library VCLibs. This can be downloaded for the respective processor architecture from this page.
Then, run this PowerShell command:
Add-AppxPackage -Path .\Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx
If you want to install Windows Terminal on Server Core, you will fail at this point. Even if the server OS is managed mostly remotely, a modern terminal would be particularly useful in a pure command line environment.
Installing Windows Terminal
Now, you can proceed to the actual installation of the terminal. The Add-AppxPackage cmdlet is also used for this purpose:
Add-AppxPackage -Path .\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_Win10_<Version>_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle
Successful installation of Windows Terminal
The process should now run without further problems, but only on version 2022. The installation on Windows Server 2019 fails showing the message:
0x80073CFD, A Prerequisite for an install could not be satisfied … The package requires OS version 10.0.22000.0 or higher on the Windows.Mobile device family.
Once successfully installed, the terminal can be found and launched via a desktop search.
Windows Terminal on Windows Server 2022 with desktop experience Server Core is not supported
Conclusion
Since Microsoft provides Windows Terminal only as a store app, you have to install it manually if your systems do not have access to the store. This can be done via PowerShell, but you must set up the VCLibs library first.
However, this is not possible on Windows Server Core. Therefore, Windows Terminal is not available on this system, which is limited to the command line and might benefit the most from a modern CLI. Apparently, there are no plans to change this state. The situation is similar for Windows Server 2019, where VCLibs can be installed, but the terminal is not supported.
Thanks for this helpful information. Why not title the article Install Windows Terminal without the Store (on Windows Server 2022) since that is only Server OS this can be installed on…
If only someone could tell me how to deploy this to offline systems.
It installs alright, but never starts (no error message) unless you connect these systems to the internet while starting Terminal. After that, you may disconnect and start Terminal offline.
That’s typical for Microsoft. Obviously, there is no technical reason for requiring an internet connection. It is all about harvesting your personal data.
I agree.
No difference, PS still fails it : “…because the volume is
offline.”
Makes no sense to me; package file is in current directory of LOCAL volume.
These instructions work for Windows 10 Enterprise 21H2 also. Much appreciated!
Another problem is that if an application is installed this way, it is installed in user scope, not for all users like other applications. At first glance this is not a issue, but soon you will run into the problem that applications installed this way prevent you from making a sysprep. So if you want to create a master image, you can’t do that and according to the available information, there is currently no solution for this – see: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/discussions/1983
Very useful tips for installing Windows Terminal on Windows Server 2022.
Specially the “VCLibs” tip. As this is the only prerequisite once installed if you have chocolatey installed then:
choco install -y microsoft-windows-terminal
Will install it without any problem with the added benefit of upgrades tracking.
J.
Just installed this on: LTSC 2021 21H2 19044.2728
No installation problems. Have yet to use it except to do a version check on Powershell without issue.
Versions I used for future reference in case anyone is having problems:
Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx
Windows Terminal v1.16.1026
Very handy!
Windows is like a time machine, get on it and you’ll find yourself with the same problems of 30 years ago! Fresh paint coats don’t make it better, after the millennium hang over of the 90’s on windows, everything was modernized, even Microsoft Azure runs on Linux… but I just got a customer who did not FIX his code 30 years ago and is still stocked to the same windows primitive ways and above all, the licensing nightmares!
Yeah, they have a 30 GB windows monolith monstrosity and the words like microservices or containers are just alien stuff for them. I have resigned and moving back to the 21st century!
JFTR: in the releases section on Github (https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases) you now also find a ZIP-Archive with everything needed to run the terminal including the Visual C libraries. Just extract that to a local folder and start “WindowsTerminal.exe”