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Group Policy for Windows Terminal

Starting with Windows Terminal Preview 1.22, we release Windows Terminal on GitHub with Administrative Templates that help you configure Windows Terminal by using Group Policy.

Group Policy is a feature in Microsoft Windows that allows administrators in a business environment to manage and configure operating system settings, applications, and user environments centrally, including access available via Windows Terminal. Learn more in Group Policy overview for Windows Server.

How to set up Windows Terminal Group Policy

Download

Find the latest administrative templates (ADMX and ADML files) in the assets section of our newest Windows Terminal release on GitHub. The file is named GroupPolicyTemplates-<Version>.zip.

Add the administrative template to an individual computer

  1. Unzip the GroupPolicyTemplates-<Version>.zip file to your Policy Definition template folder (C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions).

Note

The Group Policy is available in English (United States region), or en-US, as the fallback language. If you don't add a language-location specific context, the en-US default is used.

Add the administrative template to Active Directory

  1. On a domain controller (a server that responds to security authentication requests within a Windows Server domain) or a workstation with RSAT, go to the PolicyDefinition folder (also known as the Central Store) on any domain controller for your domain. For older versions of Windows Server, you might need to create the PolicyDefinition folder. For more information, see How to create and manage the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows
  2. Copy the WindowsTerminal.admx file to the PolicyDefinition folder. (%systemroot%\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions)
  3. Copy the WindowsTerminal.adml file to the matching language folder in your language folder in your Policy Definition folder. Create the folder if it doesn't already exist. (%systemroot%\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions\EN-US)
  4. If your domain has more than one domain controller, the new ADMX files replicate to them at the next domain replication interval.

Import the administrative template in Intune

For instructions on how to import the administrative template in Intune, see Import custom ADMX and ADML administrative templates into Microsoft Intune.

Important

You need to import Windows.admx because the Windows Terminal ADMX files contain references to that file.

Policies

Disabled source profiles

Supported on Windows Terminal 1.21 or later, this policy disables source profiles from being generated. Source names can be arbitrary strings. You can find potential candidates as the "source" property on profile definitions in Windows Terminal's settings.json file.

Common sources are:

  • Windows.Terminal.Azure
  • Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore
  • Windows.Terminal.Wsl

For instance, if you set this policy to Windows.Terminal.Wsl, you disable the built-in WSL integration of Windows Terminal. Existing profiles disappear from Windows Terminal after you add their source to this policy.

Group Policy (ADMX) information

  • GP unique name: DisabledProfileSources
  • GP name: Disabled Profile Sources
  • GP path: Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Terminal/
  • GP scope: Computer and user
  • ADMX file name: WindowsTerminal.admx

Registry information

  • Path: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Terminal
  • Name: DisabledProfileSources
  • Type: MULTI_SZ
  • Example value: Windows.Terminal.Azure

Enabled language models and AI providers

Supported on Windows Terminal Canary 1.23 or later, this policy allows the listed language models and AI providers to be used with Terminal Chat.

Common providers are:

  • OpenAI
  • AzureOpenAI
  • GitHubCopilot

For example, setting this policy to OpenAI grants permission to use OpenAI in Terminal Chat.

Disabling Terminal Chat

If you enable this policy but leave the list empty, you disallow all providers and disable the Terminal Chat feature.

Group Policy (ADMX) information

  • GP unique name: EnabledLMProviders
  • GP name: Enabled Language Models/AI Providers
  • GP path: Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Terminal/
  • GP scope: Computer and user
  • ADMX file name: WindowsTerminal.admx

Registry information

  • Path: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Terminal
  • Name: EnabledLMProviders
  • Type: MULTI_SZ
  • Example value: AzureOpenAI

Default terminal application

Supported on Windows 11 22H2 or Windows 10 22H2 (Build 19045.3031, KB5026435) with Windows Terminal 1.17 or later, this policy lets you select the default terminal application used in Windows.

The possible selections are:

  • Automatic selection (Windows Terminal, if available)
  • Windows Console Host (legacy)
  • Windows Terminal
  • Windows Terminal Preview (if available)

Note

If you select Windows Terminal Preview and it's not installed, the system falls back to the legacy Windows Console Host. (The settings interfaces show "Let windows decide" in this case as configuration.)

Important

This policy is implemented as and acts like a preference. This means its value isn't deleted when you change it from configured to not configured.

For more details on how to configure the default terminal application, see Command Prompt and Windows Powershell on Microsoft Support.

Group Policy (ADMX) information

  • GP unique name: DefaultTerminalApplication
  • GP name: Default terminal application
  • GP path: Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Terminal/
  • GP scope: User only
  • ADMX file name: WindowsTerminal.admx

Registry information

  • Path: Console\%%Startup
  • Name: DelegationTerminal, DelegationConsole
  • Type: REG_SZ
  • Example value: {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}

Values for "automatic"

  • DelegationTerminal: {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
  • DelegationConsole: {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}

Values for "Windows Console Host"

  • DelegationTerminal: {B23D10C0-E52E-411E-9D5B-C09FDF709C7D}
  • DelegationConsole: {B23D10C0-E52E-411E-9D5B-C09FDF709C7D}

Values for "Windows Terminal"

  • DelegationTerminal: {E12CFF52-A866-4C77-9A90-F570A7AA2C6B}
  • DelegationConsole: {2EACA947-7F5F-4CFA-BA87-8F7FBEEFBE69}

Values for "Windows Terminal Preview"

  • DelegationTerminal: {86633F1F-6454-40EC-89CE-DA4EBA977EE2}
  • DelegationConsole: {06EC847C-C0A5-46B8-92CB-7C92F6E35CD5}
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