Sometimes the Terminal launches behind all other windows / without foreground / isn't activated

[marbaa]

Windows Terminal version

1.18.1421.0

Windows build number

10.0.22621.1702

Other Software

No response

Steps to reproduce

Just leave the default value in Settings -> Launch parameters -> Launch Mode -> Default.

Terminal window is launched but has no focus. Doesn't matter which profile is set to default, if Powershell, or WSL, or whatever else. Often happens that if I'm in other application and I run Terminal, from pinned taskbar icon for example, it is not visible at all. Doesn't matter if I run it with keyboard shortcut Win + 1-9 or with middle mouse button. It starts behind the current application which I'm in.

Expected Behavior

Terminal window in foreground with focus.

Actual Behavior

Terminal window in foreground without focus, and sometimes even hidden behind other application.

[carlos-zamora]

@DHowett had a pretty simple repro with:
wt -w -1
Run that from the Run dialog

[marbaa]

Found situation when this nofocus issue occurs. It is because of Quake mode.

Steps to repro:
1. Lanuch WT by whatever way it is possible (from Start menu, from taskbar, .exe, ...)
2. Open Quake-mode with WIN + ~~ ~~3. Launch some ssh session there (I have always running ```az network tunnel``` session in Quake-mode window)~~ ~~4. Hide Quake-mode with WIN +
5. Launch new WT instance from step 1.

This way, new lanuched WT doesn't have focus. If you disconnect the sessions in Quake-mode, and hide Quake-mode, then the newly WT instances will have focus correctly.

edit 20.6.
Above is not true. Next day, it happened without using Quake-mode.

[zadjii-msft]

Uhg guys I can't get this to repro. Certainly not consistently. I had it happen like, once by

• shift clicking on the taskbar (with a window already open),
• waiting what seemed like a minute
• activating other windows. Minimizing one.
• then eventually the new window appeared, beneath everything.

I reckon that this regressed in the #5000 changes. Especially somewhere around the way that a new window gets summoned in the existing process.

I just can't for the life of me get a consistent repro. It probably depends on

• If there's a terminal window already running
• How you spawn the new terminal window
• what you do before the new terminal window launches

[zadjii-msft]

Something blind we could try:

diff --git a/src/cascadia/WindowsTerminal/AppHost.cpp b/src/cascadia/WindowsTerminal/AppHost.cpp
index 81218dbf4..af5d8d7ff 100644
--- a/src/cascadia/WindowsTerminal/AppHost.cpp
+++ b/src/cascadia/WindowsTerminal/AppHost.cpp
@@ -1406,6 +1406,8 @@ winrt::fire_and_forget AppHost::_WindowInitializedHandler(const winrt::Windows::
                               nCmdShow == SW_FORCEMINIMIZE;
     if (!noForeground)
     {
+        LOG_IF_WIN32_BOOL_FALSE(BringWindowToTop(_window->GetHandle()));
+
         SetForegroundWindow(_window->GetHandle());
         _peasantNotifyActivateWindow();
     }

around:

terminal/src/cascadia/WindowsTerminal/AppHost.cpp

Lines 1396 to 1412 in 059f770

	ShowWindow(_window->GetHandle(), nCmdShow);
	// If we didn't start the window hidden (in one way or another), then try to
	// pull ourselves to the foreground. Don't necessarily do a whole "summon",
	// we don't really want to STEAL foreground if someone rightfully took it
	const bool noForeground = nCmdShow == SW_SHOWMINIMIZED ||
	nCmdShow == SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE ||
	nCmdShow == SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE ||
	nCmdShow == SW_SHOWNA ||
	nCmdShow == SW_FORCEMINIMIZE;
	if (!noForeground)
	{
	SetForegroundWindow(_window->GetHandle());
	_peasantNotifyActivateWindow();
	}

That's what I'd bet the culprit is, if there is one.

[w3lld0ne]

Uhg guys I can't get this to repro. Certainly not consistently. I had it happen like, once by

• shift clicking on the taskbar (with a window already open),
• waiting what seemed like a minute
• activating other windows. Minimizing one.
• then eventually the new window appeared, beneath everything.

I reckon that this regressed in the #5000 changes. Especially somewhere around the way that a new window gets summoned in the existing process.

I just can't for the life of me get a consistent repro. It probably depends on

• If there's a terminal window already running
• How you spawn the new terminal window
• what you do before the new terminal window launches

Not sure it's actually related to this issue but anyways, regarding a non-focused window on startup, you can also take a look at this thread from Directory Opus user.

I can confirm the same behaviour: invoking default "Open in Terminal" context menu entry in DOpus is misbehaving (it's not happening with Explorer or when launching the Terminal from Start Menu, though).

[zadjii-msft]

Welp. I can't repro that with Directory Opus myself. Just launches straight to the foreground, from both a cold launch and a warm launch.

Are you doing anything weird with elevate: true in your profiles? From the GIF in the linked thread, that looks like they're running with UAC disabled entirely, but that might be another variable here.

[w3lld0ne]

Welp. I can't repro that with Directory Opus myself. Just launches straight to the foreground, from both a cold launch and a warm launch.

Are you doing anything weird with elevate: true in your profiles? From the GIF in the linked thread, that looks like they're running with UAC disabled entirely, but that might be another variable here.

Indeed, I had UAC disabled as well, but after re-enabling it, Terminal no longer launches as admin, but still launches behind DOpus window. Also note that the problem is only with 'Open in Terminal' entry, if for example I launch PowerShell or Cmd directly - everything works fine, they're opened in Terminal which is correctly brought to foreground.

Update1: It happens for me regardless of LaunchMode mentioned in this issue (I've tried 'Default', 'Maximized', 'Fullscreen', 'Focus', 'Maximized Focus' and they all appear behind DOpus).

Update2: If I now set the default profile to launch elevated, the system correctly shows me UAC prompt and then brings the window to foreground.

Update3: If I launch DOpus itself elevated, then there is no 'Open in Terminal' entry anymore and when I try to launch PowerShell/Cmd directly they no longer spawn inside WT, but instead in their own consoles.

[marbaa]

I can repro my previous steps like 99% all the time. Doesn't matter if it is fresh boot with nothing running, or launching over 30 apps.

Next thing is if I click drop arrow in terminal, and Shift + Click on any profile, new window is shown behind Terminal window from which I executed new profile, not in foreground. But now, not always, steps to reproduce:

1. Don't have any Terminal running.
2. Start Terminal with whatever way.
3. Shift + Click on any new profile in down arrow menu - new Terminal window is shown in background.
4. Shift + Click again on any new profile to open another session - new Terminal winndow is now shown in foreground.

But this is not 100% always. If I do it continuously, it spawns new windows randomly in foreground/background.

[lhecker]

Relatedly to this issue, WT sometimes opens in the background, behind all other applications. I can fairly readily reproduce that by holding shift while clicking it in the start menu. Holding shift should simply make the launched application unfocused and this works correctly for e.g. conhost, but WT doesn't even launch in the foreground.

[marbaa]

Now, with v1.19, WT is launched in background 100% times, behind all apps. Looks like new instance is put on the last place of Z-order.
If no apps are running, WT is launched with no focus.

[zadjii-msft]

I can fairly readily reproduce that by holding shift while clicking it in the start menu.

You wanna know something crazy? I can 100% repro that, UNLESS I have a debugger attached. With either VS or WinDBG attached, the window always opens in the front, with foreground. That's just amazingly annoying for the sake of attempting to debug.

Interestingly enough, I get the same behavior with Notepad that I'm seeing here. Curious.

[w3lld0ne]

Interestingly enough, I get the same behavior with Notepad that I'm seeing here. Curious.

For me, it sometimes also happens with ShareX, when double-clicking their tray icon. May be not a Terminal, but a Windows issue?

Also, found out that the second & further Terminal windows always open behind any other apps & even behind previous Terminal windows. This happens regardless of how the first window was launched.

This is the latest v1.18, and the following param:

[MolotovCherry]

This seems to happen to me when I enable open a quake window / run in headless

It stops happening once I kill all wt processes and there's no quake mode enabled

For me, 100% reproducibility

[wreiske]

This is incredibly annoying on windows 11 since there is no way to ungroup taskbar items (or at least there wasn't, I haven't researched lately)... I feel like recently something has changed with how this works.

I'll hit windows key, type term and hit enter to open a new terminal fast. It's in my muscle memory. Now I have to go searching for the new window every time!

[M322458]

I have the same issue. Just started after a fresh install of windows and all apps.

[M322458]

I went to settings, changed the launch parameters and tested a few options and saved. Changed them back to defaults and now it's not happening. We'll see if it re-occurs.

[M322458]

I went to settings, changed the launch parameters and tested a few options and saved. Changed them back to defaults and now it's not happening. We'll see if it re-occurs.

It didn't fix it for long.

[lucasreddinger]

@AshleyScirra thank you for your replication steps. they also replicate for me.

--

@jakenybo do the steps provided in #15479 (comment) replicate your issue reliably (and compared to beginning with no terminal windows open and minimized)?

many people here report being frustrated with this problem, so i would assume these people do not have a fix. i suspect we simply have to use workarounds

[jakenybo]

@lucasreddinger, yes those steps replicate the same behavior on my machine. i'm learning that i think the issue has more to do with whether or not you already have an instance of Windows Terminal running. if no prior Windows Terminal instance is running, the "Open in Terminal" option in a folder will open the Windows Terminal window on top of Windows Explorer (as it should). if you already have another instance of Windows Terminal running (even minimized to system tray, as is the case with me), then all subsequent "Open in Terminal" options will open the Windows Terminal window behind the WIndows Explorer window (which is erroneous behavior given its default behavior). i don't know why anyone would ever want it to open in the background if you just selected "Open in Terminal". that should always result in Window Terminal opening on top of all other windows

a fix for this would be great!

[barthofu]

Also having the problem here!

I came to the same conclusion as @jakenybo.

Versions

• Windows Terminal: 1.19.10573.0
• Windows version: Windows 11 Family - 23H2 - 22631.3155

[alex-campulungeanu]

in my case, the win+r + wt combination openes a terminal in foreground if i have another terminal opened which was moved on the screen using winkey+alt

[eonward]

I experience this behavior consistently when:

• Launching from from system-generated start menu shortcut, search result, or 'all apps' list
  • Except when launching in admin mode
• Launching from pinned taskbar element (or by left clicking taskbar element > l-click Terminal > Open)
  • Except when launching in admin mode

This behavior does not occur when:

• Launching from Win + X menu
• Launching by double clicking executable
• Launching from user-created shortcut

In my case, the behavior described above is consistent across profiles, launching directories, and seems independent of running instances and in-app settings.

Build 22631.3296
WT 1.19.10573.0

PD: Here's the icon in case anyone is trying to make new shortcuts:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/terminal/master/res/terminal.ico

[marbaa]

New observation. I'm getting 100% no-focus when launching Terminal with WSL2 default profile for the first time. Doesn't matter how/from where.

As for fist time it took like 2-3 seconds to start WSL2. Probably it is launhch Hyper-V services or whatever else, I don't know. During startup it has focus, WSL2 distro shows shell and Terminal loses focus. Funny thing is that while it is starting, it affect VMware Player window, because it flashes.

Often ctrl + click from dropdown menu opens new Terminal without focus, or even behind current Terminal window.
Mess..

Terminal Version: 1.20.10572.0
Windows 11 22H2 (22621.3155)
Dell 7560 + NVIDIA T1200 (driver 551.61)

I think it never happened with WSL1 as it starts instantly.

[tusharsnx]

@marbaa That sounds like the WSL issue here: microsoft/wslg#1212.

This also means that specific issue is not related to WT, and could be repro on other terminals (Eg. VS, VSCode)

[snip3rnick]

I have been facing the same issue consistently when opening the WT through the Windows 11 start menu or PowerToys Run.
By my observation this occurs after one Window of WT is already open somewhere, which I do have at all times.
The new terminal window seemingly is placed in the Window stack on top of the topmost existing WT Window.

• WT Version: 1.19.10573.0
• WinVer: Win11 23H2 (22631.3296)

I could see this being resolved by forcibly ordering the new window on top of the Window stack with the HWND_TOPMOST flag in a SetWindowPos call right after the window creation.
I acknowledge that I have not looked at the implementation which may already include this or similar.

[Youngerkind]

For the version (1.19.11213.0, released on May 4th, 2024), the problem seemed solved. New window can be created on the top of the old window. But that is not the case if new windows are created on a different desktop:

If I open one window at one virtual desktop, switch to another virtual desktop, open a new window and close it. From now on, the new created window will lose the focus, thought the cursor blinking.

I find this from about one year ago and use the preview one downloaded here, instead of that installed in the Microsoft store.
I need this feature for that, I always open several terminal windows on several desktops, some for remote ssh, some for local wsl and so on.

[MolotovCherry]

I tried the new prelease. Problem still happens to me. Any subsequent launches after the first have their windows go behind everything else, regardless whether the launch was from context menu or app shortcut in the taskbar search

Edit: just realized my comment sounds a bit snarky. That was not intended. I read the above comment wrong thinking it was solved in the new version, and wanted to make it clear it still happens for me

[snip3rnick]

I can confirm that the behavior does persist with ne new version on my system as well.
When startet using PowerToys Run or the explorer context menu the new terminal will open as the second topmost window.
Interestingly though when opened with the Windows start menu it opened behind every other window (even other terminals).

I hope hope this can be resolved, I am happy with the terminal application regardless. It would just add convenience if the opened terminal was visible and had keyboard focus.

If I can find the time I will try to help in finding a workaround.

[tusharsnx]

If I can find the time I will try to help in finding a workaround.

You know what, if you just ensure that any window of the terminal is focused when the new window is starting up, the new window always starts in the foreground.

And same goes for when no window of the terminal has focus, the new window starts behind all other windows on the screen😕

It doesn't work as a workaround though, because only the foreground window (or its process) can request to change the foreground window to a different one.

[whitestrake]

I have some different behaviours depending on launch method, but for me, it seems to only be failing with the Quake console active.

Launch method	Quake console exited	Quake console running
Win+X, I	✅ Foreground, active	⛔ Foreground, inactive
Win+R, "wt", Enter	✅ Foreground, active	⛔ Background
Win, "wt", Enter	✅ Foreground, active	✅ Foreground, active
Win, "terminal", Enter	✅ Foreground, active	⛔ Background

[AldieNightStar]

Started to open on background always. Only win + "wt" is working on active. But i want to open in current directory. So i have to hide all windows to find terminal. Strange update

[n00mkrad]

Same issue. Also happens when run through "Send To" shortcut or when started through Flow Launcher.

[zadjii-msft]

This may have been fixed by #17368 in 1.22 Preview - can anyone confirm/?

[AshleyScirra]

The steps I described in this comment no longer reproduce for me with Windows Terminal v1.20.11781.0 on Windows 11 23H2 (build 22631.4037). Glad it's working as this had been bugging me for ages!

[pTinosq]

This may have been fixed by #17368 in 1.22 Preview - can anyone confirm/?

@zadjii-msft Can confirm that this is working for me! Thanks so much

Windows information:
Edition Windows 11 Business
Version 23H2
Installed on ‎22/‎09/‎2023
OS build 22631.4037
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22700.1027.0

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 4 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 3 days of this comment.