Starting directory as legacy cmd

[SainoNamkho]

When the command prompt is opened by the Win+X shortcut without administrator privilege, the working directory is %USERPROFILE%. If opened with administrator privilege, the working directory is %WINDIR%\system32.

But when the terminal is set to be the default terminal for the system and opened by the Win+X menu, if starting directory is set to ., it is always %WINDIR%\system32.

Is it possible to set the starting directory in windows terminal to make it behave like cmd?

[zadjii-msft]

Huh, good catch.

Just for sanity - are you on Windows 10 or 11?

It looks like the old "C:\Users\migrie\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group3\02 - Command Prompt.lnk" shortcut MANUALLY specified the CWD as %USERPROFILE%.

But it looks like there's special magic code that redirects the pwsh / cmd links to Terminal, and we're not sure if they're doing it right 😨

We're gonna go file this internally. Thanks!

[SainoNamkho]

Huh, good catch.

Just for sanity - are you on Windows 10 or 11?

It looks like the old "C:\Users\migrie\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group3\02 - Command Prompt.lnk" shortcut MANUALLY specified the CWD as %USERPROFILE%.

But it looks like there's special magic code that redirects the pwsh / cmd links to Terminal, and we're not sure if they're doing it right 😨

We're gonna go file this internally. Thanks!

It's Windows 11 that I'm using, in fact I don't remember if Windows 10 allows user to configure system default terminal 😂.

I guess there can be some user side imitation of that behavior (such as changing the shortcut to some batch script) and wanted help to get normal and explicit solutions initially. But I'm really gladder to hear that this might be fixed internally.

[zadjii-msft]

Internally: MSFT:49685255