How to launch Windows Terminal with Multiple Tabs? - windows

Question

I am attempting to use startupActions to launch a second tab when Windows Terminal launches with no luck.
My default shell is WSL, so I have the following in my settings.json:
"startupActions": "; new-tab -p PowerShell",
I've tried it without the semi-colon and without the -p flag as well.
Here is the settings.json minus the color schemes:
{
"$help": "https://aka.ms/terminal-documentation",
"$schema": "https://aka.ms/terminal-profiles-schema",
"actions":
[
{
"command":
{
"action": "copy",
"singleLine": false
},
"keys": "ctrl+c"
},
{
"command": "paste",
"keys": "ctrl+v"
},
{
"command": "find",
"keys": "ctrl+shift+f"
},
{
"command":
{
"action": "splitPane",
"split": "auto",
"splitMode": "duplicate"
},
"keys": "alt+shift+d"
}
],
"centerOnLaunch": true,
"copyFormatting": "none",
"copyOnSelect": false,
"defaultProfile": "{2c4de342-38b7-51cf-b940-2309a097f518}",
"initialCols": 98,
"initialRows": 24,
"showTerminalTitleInTitlebar": false,
"startupActions": "; new-tab -p PowerShell",
"useAcrylicInTabRow": true,
"profiles":
{
"defaults":
{
"colorScheme": "Dracula",
"cursorShape": "filledBox",
"elevate": true,
"font":
{
"face": "MesloLGS NF",
"size": 12
},
"startingDirectory": null
},
"list":
[
{
"antialiasingMode": "cleartype",
"experimental.retroTerminalEffect": false,
"guid": "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Command Prompt",
"opacity": 75,
"useAcrylic": true
},
{
"guid": "{b453ae62-4e3d-5e58-b989-0a998ec441b8}",
"hidden": true,
"name": "Azure Cloud Shell",
"opacity": 75,
"source": "Windows.Terminal.Azure",
"useAcrylic": true
},
{
"antialiasingMode": "cleartype",
"experimental.retroTerminalEffect": false,
"font":
{
"size": 12
},
"guid": "{2c4de342-38b7-51cf-b940-2309a097f518}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Ubuntu",
"opacity": 75,
"scrollbarState": "visible",
"source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
"startingDirectory": "\\\\wsl$\\Ubuntu\\home\\steve",
"suppressApplicationTitle": true,
"tabColor": "#BD93F9",
"tabTitle": "Ubuntu 20.04",
"useAcrylic": true
},
{
"antialiasingMode": "cleartype",
"experimental.retroTerminalEffect": false,
"font":
{
"face": "Fira Code Retina"
},
"guid": "{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "PowerShell",
"opacity": 75,
"source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore",
"tabColor": "#6272A4",
"useAcrylic": true
}
]
}
}

Answer 1

"elevate": true is your culprit here. You can't have mixed-elevation of tabs in the same window. Admin and non-admin windows need to stay separate. So when you launch those startupActions, the Terminal automatically creates a new admin window to host the powershell tab (which you've set to always run as admin).
Removing that setting from your powershell profile should work.