Can't reopen Windows Terminal

[SpecterShell]

Windows Terminal version

1.20.11381.0

Windows build number

10.0.22631.0

Other Software

No response

Steps to reproduce

In Windows Terminal 1.20.11381.0 (delivered by Microsoft Store), when a window is being closed, it appears not to be properly "unregistered", so the process still thinks it is alive, and it is still present in the context menu like this:

This would bring issues when the "New instance behavior" is set to "Attach to most recently used window on this desktop". No window will pop up when you try to open a new console or run console applications after a window is closed, even if I'm in a different desktop.

1. Set "New instance behavior" to "Attach to most recently used window on this desktop" and close the window.
2. Open a new window in either way.

Expected Behavior

No response

Actual Behavior

The process didn't crash, but it just rejects to open a new window for me.

When opening a console application, the Windows Terminal window doesn't pop up either, and about 1 minute later the conhost window pop up.

Quake mode still works, and I can open a new window by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N there, but it doesn't fix the issue.

[zadjii-msft]

Could you share your settings.json file/?

[SpecterShell]

{
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    "actions": 
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        {
            "command": "find",
            "keys": "f3"
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            "keys": "ctrl+alt+q"
        },
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            "command": "unbound",
            "keys": "win+sc(41)"
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    "trimBlockSelection": true,
    "useAcrylicInTabRow": true,
    "windowingBehavior": "useExisting"
}

[SpecterShell]

1.20.11271.0 has the same issue. Downgrading to 1.19.11213.0 (and delete the states files) fixes the issues.

[carlos-zamora]

Thanks. Could you take a trace of the issue? It'll help us debug it better.

Here's a guide on how to capture a trace: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/wiki/Troubleshooting-Tips#capturing-a-debug-etl-trace

Could you also try out v1.21 and see if it repros there /?

[SpecterShell]

terminal-trace.zip

Can also reproduce in v1.21

[michaelarnauts]

I think I see the same issue, but Quake Mode doesn't work here after closing.

When I close the last tab in Quake Mode, I can't use the shortcut to open it again, and I have to kill Windows Terminal to be able to use it again.

[SpecterShell]

I think I find the reason. Today I cleared all the contents of the settings file (so WT would generate a new one on the next startup) and set the "New instance behavior" to "Attach to most recently used window on this desktop". This time everything works like a charm.

So there might be something wrong with the config, then I found it was

"compatibility.allowHeadless": true,

that caused the issue.

[michaelarnauts]

I think I find the reason. Today I cleared all the contents of the settings file (so WT would generate a new one on the next startup) and set the "New instance behavior" to "Attach to most recently used window on this desktop". This time everything works like a charm.

So there might be something wrong with the config, then I found it was

"compatibility.allowHeadless": true,

that caused the issue.

Awesome. I've removed this option, and now I can indeed re-open Terminal after closing the last tab in a quake window.

Looking at the description of that option (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/customize-settings/startup#continue-running-in-the-background-preview):

When set to true, this enables the terminal to continue running in the background after the last window is closed. This allows globalSummon and quake mode to work even when no windows are open. This setting is only available in Preview builds of the Terminal.

It seems that this simply doesn't work correctly. since the global-summon and quake mode doesn't work, but it indeed stays running.