Microsoft released three Windows Terminal versions in a single day. Version 1.25 (1.25.2733.0) finally went stable after six Preview builds, adding settings search, a new Actions editor, Kitty Keyboard Protocol support, and window persistence. Simultaneously, Microsoft patched the 1.24 stable line with backported fixes so older users aren't left behind, while 1.26.2734.0 opened the Preview channel with redesigned Settings, workspaces, and desktop notifications. The rollout underscores Microsoft's multi-channel model, with reliability fixes flowing downward across all three releases.
Microsoft ships Windows Terminal 1.25, patches 1.24, and opens 1.26 Preview in one day
After a six-build preview run, Terminal 1.25 hits stable, the old 1.24 line still gets fixes, and the 1.26 channel kicks off with workspaces and desktop notifications.
Three Windows Terminal releases in a single afternoon. Microsoft pulled the stunt on October 2, 2026, when lead maintainer Daniel "DHowett" Howett pushed version 1.25 to stable, patched the previous 1.24 stable line, and quietly opened the 1.26 Preview channel. All three dropped in about the same ~20:27 UTC window.
That's not a typo. These are three separate entries in the Microsoft/terminal repository, released back to back. Most projects are thrilled to land one build in a quarter.
For the uninitiated: Windows Terminal is Microsoft's open-source, GPU-accelerated command-line host. It's the thing that finally replaced the decades-old conhost.exe experience, and it's where you run PowerShell, WSL distros, and Azure Cloud Shell. Tabs, panes, background images, and enough customization to eat an afternoon.
What just shipped
Headline-wise, 1.25 (version 1.25.2733.0) is the one most people will actually install. It ran six Preview builds before going GA, starting with v1.25.622.0 in March. The four features everyone's been waiting for are now live. There's a search box that actually crosses the whole settings surface, a rewritten Actions editor, Kitty Keyboard Protocol support, and window persistence that can save your layout alone or the layout plus scrollback.
There's more to it. Community translations for Ukrainian and Serbian (Cyrillic) landed for the first time. An ambiguous-character width setting improves CJK support, and the "new tab" animation got cut because it made the app appear slower. Closing a tab now snaps to the most-recently-used pane instead of doing whatever it felt like before.
The fixes are the boring-but-useful part: a memory leak on some GPUs after waking from sleep, font-face selector crashes, and a restored Azure Cloud Shell access path via a newer API.
The "no one left behind" story
Here's the part worth paying attention to. Microsoft deliberately kept the 1.24 line alive. Version 1.24.12741.0 isn't a feature release. It's a maintenance patch, and its bug-fix set is basically a subset of 1.25's, meaning the reliability fixes minus the shiny new stuff.
Why bother? Because people move at their own pace. Some sysadmins still run 1.24 on production boxes. Microsoft chose to backport the good fixes downward, so 1.24 users get the same stability wins without being dragged into a major upgrade. Several 1.26 fixes got backported into both, and fixes flowed from Preview to stable to the older stable channel.
In other words, you don't have to upgrade to stop bleeding.
The 1.26 Preview
Keep in mind that this is a Preview, so it's the bleeding edge and nothing here should be running on anything you can afford to break. Version 1.26.2734.0 is the opening build of the next major line after a quiet summer.
The biggest visible change is a redesigned Settings UI. Profiles, color schemes, and Defaults got consolidated into a single top-level Profiles area spanning nine separate pull requests. There's also early workspaces support, named windows that remember what was open when you closed them, plus desktop notifications via OSC 777 or a terminal bell. Both are off by default and opt-in.
Under the hood, Microsoft laid groundwork for per-window settings and merged some Terminal control codebases. One thing worth flagging: an OSC 7 support feature that had been announced and then pulled was removed again from this line.
Build requirements also jumped. The project now needs Visual Studio 2026 and Windows SDK 10.0.26100 to compile. For what it's worth, that matters mostly if you contribute code, but it's a signal that the project has outgrown whatever toolchain it used last year. Windows Terminal, at roughly 105k stars on GitHub, is no longer a side project for anyone taking it seriously.
A security note
For those tracking clipboard safety, OSC 52 clipboard writes are now permitted only when the terminal is actively focused. The goal is to stop unfocused windows from hijacking your clipboard, and that landed back in the 1.25 cycle, so it's worth repeating since not everyone upgraded on day one.
Where to get it
All three builds are live in the GitHub repository right now, MIT-licensed and free. The 1.25 stable and 1.24 patch sit on the Stable channel; 1.26 is on Preview. If you grab the unpackaged binaries, don't panic at the version number. Unpackaged builds carry a separate internal version like 1.25.260930003, which is normal and not a mismatch.
Release Windows Terminal v1.24.12741.0 · microsoft/terminal
While Terminal 1.25 is slowly rolling out (as we get new reliability info, prove it doesn't super-explode, etc.), we've decided to update 1.24 with a couple quick fixes as well to make sure you're ...
Release Windows Terminal v1.25.2733.0 · microsoft/terminal
Terminal 1.25 is finally stable! Here are the highlights: A new settings search experience! We have a lot of settings; hopefully this helps you find them. A rich "actions" editor that will let you...
Release Windows Terminal Preview v1.26.2734.0 · microsoft/terminal
We're coming out of our long Summer (northern hemisphere) hibernation to bring you a new Preview release of Windows Terminal: 1.26! We've been hard at work on the Settings page, workspaces, notific...
Release Windows Terminal Preview v1.26.2734.0 · microsoft/terminal
It's a quietly well-executed rollout. Three channels in one day, fixes flowing in every direction. Not the flashiest news around, but for the people who live inside a terminal, that's the kind of thing that makes their day a little smoother.
