As you might know, I am a huge fan of the Windows Terminal, and since Windows Server 2022 by default does not include the Windows Terminal, I wanted to quickly show you how you can install the Windows Terminal on Windows Server 2022.
How to install Windows Terminal on Windows Server 2022
Luckily, we can simply download the MSIX bundle from the Windows Terminal GitHub release page. You can also run the following PowerShell command to download the file (Make sure you change the Uri to the latest version).
# Install Prerequisites
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx -outfile Microsoft.VCLibs.x86.14.00.Desktop.appx
Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.VCLibs.x86.14.00.Desktop.appx
# Download Terminal (Change version)
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/download/v1.7.1091.0/Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.7.1091.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle -outfile Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.7.1091.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundleNow you can run the following PowerShell command to add the msixbudle and install the Windows Terminal on Windows Server 2022.
Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_<versionNumber>.msixbundleIn my example this would be:
Add-AppxPackage -Path .\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.7.1091.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundleKeep in mind, when you install the Windows Terminal manual like this, it will not automatically update itself.
Conclusion
I hope this blog post is helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. Also if you want to make out more of your Windows Terminal, check out my blogs:
- My Customized Windows Terminal Settings.json
- My Windows Terminal Color Schemes
- Install the new Windows Terminal for Windows 10
- How to open Windows Terminal from Command Prompt or Run
- How to Change the Windows Terminal Background Image
- How to SSH into an Azure VM from Windows Terminal Menu
- Add a PowerShell Remote Session in Windows Terminal
If you want to provide feedback for Windows and Windows Server, the team wants to hear from you!
The most important part of a frequent release cycle is to hear what’s working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. For Windows Server, use your registered Windows 10 Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Windows Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. In the title of the Feedback, please indicate the build number you are providing feedback on as shown below:
[Server #####] Title of my feedback
Have fun!
Tags: install, Microsoft, MSIX, Terminal, Windows Server, Windows Server 2022, Windows Terminal Last modified: February 8, 2023
you can use winget to install this on the server
i’m sorry but you can’t install winget on windows server 2019 LTSC or SAC and 2022 as far as i know.
so the only way is the appxbundle from github.
I downloaded the evaluation version, and bought a product key from keyingo.com, they help me to convert the evaluation version to standard version , then I use the key to activate , the server 2022 is running now
This does not work on Windows Server 2022 that has no Internet access. After install, clicking the Windows Terminal app in the Start menu does nothing, it doesn’t even show an error message.
Do you know if there’s a way (maybe via the json file) to change the default terminal app for Windows Server 2022 from the classic cmd prompt to Windows Terminal?
For uninstall do:
1.) Get-AppxPackage —> List all packages installed.
2.) Search in that list for the package to uninstall.
3.) Copy the “PackageFullName” value (e.g. “Microsoft.WindowsTerminalPreview_1.13.10395.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe”)
4.) Call Remove-AppxPackage, (e.g. Remove-AppxPackage -Package “Microsoft.WindowsTerminalPreview_1.13.10395.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe”)
Looking at the GitHub page there are downloads for the latest versions with win_10 and win_11 in the name.
Which one to choose for Windows Server 2022?
The win_10 is the package you want to use for Server 2022.
No, Windows 10 package does not install on Windows Server 2022.
Neither does the Win11 one
Does this work on Server 2019? I just keep getting the following error after running
“Add-AppxPackage -Path .\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.7.1091.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle”.
“Add-AppxPackage: The ‘Add-AppxPackage’ command was found in the module ‘Appx’, but the module could not be loaded due to the following error: [Operation is not supported on this platform. (0x80131539)]
For more information, run ‘Import-Module Appx’.”
Works flawlessly! Thanks
great! thank you for the feedback :)
Worked fine for me. Those having problems, I used powershell.exe (run “import-module Appx” first), the new pwsh.exe gave me the error mentioned in the comments. And you need to install windows 10 version of terminal.
Beside those two Add-AppxPackage commands I needed also
Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.7.x64.appx
My machine only had Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.4 installed.
For regular people that aren’t developers… as this will take a fair amount of head scratching for you as written, but you need 3 items:
****NOTE: Powershell commands are marked with “*” at the beginning of the line, the * is not actually part of the command!
#1: “C++ Runtime framework packages for Desktop Bridge”, reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/developer/visualstudio/cpp/libraries/c-runtime-packages-desktop-bridge
You may want to check that link for updates and substitute the URL for the latest one. This version is current as of 11/2/2023.
* Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx -outfile Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx # downloads the file
* Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx # installs it
#2: Microsoft.UI.Xaml
Go to https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.UI.Xaml/
Look for a link that says “Download Package (##.## MB)”, download it.
Rename the file to .zip
Extract the .appx file from tools\AppX\x64\Release (in this case it’s “Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.8.appx”).
Step to install the version downloaded above after extraction, modify for updates:
* Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.8.appx
#3: The terminal package from https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases?WT.mc_id=modinfra-26926-thmaure
Find the version you want there, I went with “latest”. Go into that (clicking the green box that says “latest” next to the version takes you there). Scroll down to the downloads section and right-click copy the link to the msixbundle. Doing this will eliminate reliance on hard-links to specific versions.
* Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/download/v1.18.2822.0/Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.18.2822.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle -outfile Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.18.2822.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle
# Note: -outfile parameter is the downloaded file’s name, just remove the part from the URL up to last “/”, so only the filename is left.
* Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.18.2822.0_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle
This should work like a champ with little-to-no head scratching.
Thanks for making this guide. And also thanks to Robert Alexander for adding the extra detail about Microsoft.UI.Xaml, as I got stuck when trying to install the latest version and this solved it for me!
Thank you, your guidance is very clear and has been helpful to me. Perhaps you know if there is an official way to install Windows Terminal on Windows Server 2019/2022, or are there any limitations? Why is it so complicated with framework dependencies and extracting missing components?
I’m a little late to this party but one can also use Chocolatey to install it. It will install all the dependencies:
choco install microsoft-windows-terminal