All terminal windows can crash in one go, which wasn't possible in earlier Windows cmd.exe

[juj]

Windows Terminal version

1.22.12111.0

Windows build number

10.0.26100.4351

Other Software

No response

Steps to reproduce

Something that I see occassionally (maybe twice a month) with Windows 11 terminal.. that I have never seen in any earlier Windowses dating back to Windows 95 days with cmd.exe, is that if a crash occurs, sometimes all of your Terminal windows die out, rather than just the single cmd.exe that crashed.

With cmd.exe, I don't remember ever observing a situation where some kind of crash would take out all cmd.exes at a time.

But with new Windows 11 terminal, I see this happening every couple of weeks.

Expected Behavior

Crash in one terminal window should not propagate into all open terminal windows crashing.

Actual Behavior

All terminal windows can crash, rather being separated/siloed/sandboxed into crashing just one at a time.

[srijitac1]

can i get to solve this issue? would be willing to help. i am very interested in solving this.

[lhecker]

Sandboxing/Siloing requires extra effort for development and maintainance since you can't just chug some data directly within or between windows anymore. (Ideally it also needs a clean architecture so you don't have hundreds of paths that need "chugging".)

Because of this we currently use 1 process for all tabs and windows.

[juj]

Just to note that this is a major reliability regression with the new terminal. Is there a way to run the old cmd.exe terminal on Windows 11 along with its multiprocess architecture?

[juj]

1 process for all tabs and windows

@lhecker could you clarify? You mention "tabs and windows".. When experimenting, I notice that if I open a new tab with the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-T, I get a new instance of OpenConsole.exe in the process list.

That is:

Same if I open a new window with Ctrl-Shift-N, I get a new instance of OpenConsole.exe in the process list. (Task Manager -> Details window).

But.. this is actually not how I am using the command prompt.

I always open a new command prompt by typing Win+R followed by typing cmd and Enter. I.e. with:

I see that launches a new copy of cmd.exe but also a conhost.exe:

.. but, I am still experiencing the issue that occassionally all my command prompts get wiped at once.

So I should have multiple instances of cmd.exe running (and not "just" Openconsole.exes), but still a mass decimation of the command prompts.

You mention "1 process for all tabs and windows." . I wonder which process this is referring to? Was that conhost.exe, or is there maybe a more higher overseer process involved that might be dying here?

[lhecker]

Is there a way to run the old cmd.exe terminal on Windows 11 along with its multiprocess architecture?

Yes, this setting:

You mention "1 process for all tabs and windows." . I wonder which process this is referring to? Was that conhost.exe, or is there maybe a more higher overseer process involved that might be dying here?

I'm referring to the UI process. When it dies, it destroys the console (PTY) handles, which is an orderly exit signal for any console/terminal process. It'll trigger all the cmd processes to exit.

[juj]

Thanks, this is super informative, and gives me a way to work around. Much appreciated!

[juj]

On my Windows 11, the setting was in System -> For Developers -> Terminal

Set it back to Windows Console Host now.

It does result in a bit quirky visual appearance of the command prompt:

though for my purposes will work well as a workaround. I wish I knew what is causing the crashing, though maybe this will help troubleshoot to find a clue of the root cause. In my case, I am running a C++ compilation CI build server, which occassionally suffers from these mass prompt shutdowns.