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Group Policy for Windows Terminal

Since Windows Terminal Preview 1.22, Windows Terminal is released on GitHub with Administrative Templates that help you to configure Windows Terminal using Group Policy.

Group Policy is a feature in Microsoft Windows that allows administrators in a business environment to manage and configure operating system settings, applications, and user environments centrally, including access available via Windows Terminal. Learn more in Group Policy overview for Windows Server.

How to set up Windows Terminal Group Policy

Download

You can find the latest administrative templates (ADMX and ADML files) in the assets section of our newest Windows Terminal release on GitHub. The file is named GroupPolicyTemplates-<Version>.zip

Add the administrative template to an individual computer

  1. Unzip the GroupPolicyTemplates-<Version>.zip file to your Policy Definition template folder (C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions).

Note

The Group Policy is available in English (United States region), or en-US, as the fallback language. If no language-location specific context is added, the en-US default will be used.

Add the administrative template to Active Directory

  1. On a domain controller (a server that responds to security authentication requests within a Windows Server domain) or a workstation with RSAT, go to the PolicyDefinition folder (also known as the Central Store) on any domain controller for your domain. For older versions of Windows Server, you might need to create the PolicyDefinition folder. For more information, see How to create an manage the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows
  2. Copy the WindowsTerminal.admx file to the PolicyDefinition folder. (%systemroot%\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions)
  3. Copy the WindowsTerminal.adml file to the matching language folder in your language folder in your Policy Definition folder. Create the folder if it does not already exist. (%systemroot%\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions\EN-US)
  4. If your domain has more than one domain controller, the new ADMX files will be replicated to them at the next domain replication interval.

Import the administrative template in Intune

You can find all instructions on how to import the administrative template in Intune on Import custom ADMX and ADML administrative templates into Microsoft Intune.

Important

You will need to import Windows.admx since the Windows Terminal ADMX files contains references to that file.

Policies

Disabled Source Profiles

Supported on Windows Terminal 1.21 or later, this policy disables source profiles from being generated. Source names can be arbitrary strings. Potential candidates can be found as the "source" property on profile definitions in Windows Terminal's settings.json file.

Common sources are:

  • Windows.Terminal.Azure
  • Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore
  • Windows.Terminal.Wsl

For instance, setting this policy to Windows.Terminal.Wsl will disable the built-in WSL integration of Windows Terminal. Existing profiles will disappear from Windows Terminal after adding their source to this policy.

Group Policy (ADMX) information

  • GP unique name: DisabledProfileSources
  • GP name: Disabled Profile Sources
  • GP path: Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Terminal/
  • GP scope: Computer and user
  • ADMX file name: WindowsTerminal.admx

Registry information

  • Path: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Terminal
  • Name: DisabledProfileSources
  • Type: MULTI_SZ
  • Example value: Windows.Terminal.Azure

Enabled Language Models/AI Providers

Supported on Windows Terminal Canary 1.23 or later, this policy allows the listed Language Models / AI providers to be used with Terminal Chat.

Common providers are:

  • OpenAI
  • AzureOpenAI
  • GitHubCopilot

For instance, setting this policy to OpenAI will allow the use of OpenAI in Terminal Chat.

Disabling Terminal Chat

Enabling this policy but leaving the list empty disallows all providers and disables the Terminal Chat feature.

Group Policy (ADMX) information

  • GP unique name: EnabledLMProviders
  • GP name: Enabled Language Models/AI Providers
  • GP path: Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Terminal/
  • GP scope: Computer and user
  • ADMX file name: WindowsTerminal.admx

Registry information

  • Path: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Terminal
  • Name: EnabledLMProviders
  • Type: MULTI_SZ
  • Example value: AzureOpenAI