spawn new tab in quake window with `wt -w 0`

[NicTanghe]

Windows Terminal version (or Windows build number)

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.22000.0 (Windows 11 dev preview)

Steps to reproduce

open quake window with windows + `

Run wt -w 0 nt

Expected Behavior

Opens new tab in same window.

Actual Behavior

Opens a new tab in a separate window → follow-up commands use that same window.

PS.

(if this is a dupe, I swear I searched)

[DHowett]

So, this one was designed like that on purpose. The quake window isn't terribly discoverable unless you're using it, and we wanted to make it a distinct zone that would never be automatically selected by the shell extension, the windowing behavior setting "use existing window", or -w 0. I wanted to avoid blackholing folks' tabs into an instance they may not want them in at least until we get tab tear-out.

For now, you have to target that window specifically with -w _quake.

Happy to revisit that decision. What do you think we should do?

[zadjii-msft]

I might re-purpose this to "Actually use the current window for wt -w 0". Right now we're using the heuristic of "the MRU window" for "the current window", which technically isn't always right. I had a mind to try and use the WT_SESSION variable to reverse engineer this. See the spec.

That could be used to do this right, even for _quake

[NicTanghe]

using _quake is a great solution

[matefriedl]

Hi, after struggling for a while with WT's quake mode I've finally found this thread. First of all I would like to say that my goal is only to replicate the setup I had with conemu. For me quake mode means the following:

1. application always runs in single instance mode
2. customizable global hotkey is available to summon the application
3. any new launches of the application get attached to old one (create tabs) and the application gets focus (meaning it drops down)
4. the summon/focus happens from the top of the screen in a drop down fashion

Thanks for the workaround suggestion with wt -w _quake. It allowed me to modify my integrations (open wt from vs code for example) to use quake mode the way like it. In my opinion quake mode would be usable with this as a selectable option.

[zadjii-msft]

1. "windowingBehavior": "useExisting"
2. { "keys": "", "command": { "action": "globalSummon" } }
3. Two parts to this one:
   • "any new launches of the application get attached to old one": That's useExisting, as above.
   • "meaning it drops down" -> { "keys": "", "command": { "action": "globalSummon", "dropdownDuration": 200 } }
4. "happens from the top of the screen in a drop down fashion" - Again, that's dropdownDuration

You don't need to use the _quake window to get a hotkey to dropdown-summon the Terminal.

[matefriedl]

I already have "windowingBehavior": "useExisting" set, but it ignores the already existing quake style window. It just opens up a normal window. Any further launches get attached to this one. I can only attach to the quake windows if i run with -w _quake.

What I'm trying to say is that useExisting does not care about already open quake instances, and according to Dustin L. Howett (@DHowett), this is intentional. I believe there should be an option to have useExisting respect quake windows.

[zadjii-msft]

I believe there should be an option to have useExisting respect quake windows.

Our more long term goal is to just allow non-_quake windows to get some of the special treatments that _quake does, namely, the "snapped to the top half" treatment.