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Windows Terminal Portable Mode
Learn how to use Portable mode on Windows Terminal.
nguyen-dows
chrnguyen
04/10/2023
how-to

Windows Terminal Portable

As of version 1.17, Windows Terminal supports being deployed in "Portable mode". Portable mode ensures that all data created and maintained by Windows Terminal is saved next to the application so that it can be more easily moved across different environments.

Portable mode is supported by the unpackaged "ZIP" distribution. This is an officially-supported mode of execution where Windows Terminal stores its settings in a settings folder next to WindowsTerminal.exe.

Portable mode is not supported in the packaged ("MSIX bundle") distribution of Windows Terminal.

Why use Portable mode?

The unpackaged and portable mode distribution of Windows Terminal allows you to use Terminal without installing it globally, e.g. on systems where you may not have permission to install MSIX packages or download software from the Microsoft Store.

Portable mode allows you to carry around (and archive!) a preconfigured installation of Windows Terminal and run it from a network share, cloud drive or USB flash drive. Any such installation is self-contained and will not interfere with other installed distributions of Windows Terminal.

Enabling Portable mode

Portable mode needs to be enabled manually. After unzipping the Windows Terminal download, create a file named .portable next to WindowsTerminal.exe.

Note

Windows Terminal will not automatically reload its settings when you create the portable mode marker file. This change will only apply after you relaunch Terminal.

Windows Terminal will automatically create a directory named settings in which it will store both settings and runtime state such as window layouts.

Windows Terminal portable mode

Disabling Portable mode

You can restore Portable mode unpackaged installation to its original configuration, where settings are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Terminal, by removing the .portable marker file from the directory containing WindowsTerminal.exe.

If you wish to reenable portable mode, you can create a new .portable marker file next to WindowsTerminal.exe.

Upgrading a Portable mode Install

You can upgrade a portable mode installation of Windows Terminal by moving the .portable marker file and the settings directory to a newly-extracted unpackaged version of Windows Terminal.