Windows Terminal 0.9 and Azure Data Studio 1.15: What Changed in These Microsoft Updates

Originally reported by The Register (theregister.co.uk). This article summarises the key changes from both releases.

Overview

In February 2020, Microsoft shipped simultaneous updates to two of its most actively developed open-source tools: Azure Data Studio 1.15 and Windows Terminal 0.9. Both releases are available on GitHub and ship as cross-platform (or Windows-first) open-source projects. The updates also coincided with a hint from a Microsoft program manager that the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2) might eventually be decoupled from the core Windows 10 release schedule.

Azure Data Studio 1.15: Improved Azure Authentication and Notebook Search

Browser-Based Azure Sign-In

Earlier versions of Azure Data Studio required users to authenticate Azure connections via a device code flow — copying a code, navigating to a URL, and pasting it in. While secure, this was cumbersome in day-to-day use. Version 1.15 replaces that flow with a browser-based login: Azure Data Studio opens a browser window, the user signs into their Azure account normally, closes the window, and the connection is established inside the tool.

This is meaningfully more convenient, though it still requires a browser round-trip in a way that connecting to an on-premises SQL Server instance does not. Users who regularly switch Azure tenants or accounts will notice the improvement most.

Find-in-Notebook Support

The release adds support for the standard find-text pattern (Ctrl+F) within notebooks, bringing notebook search behaviour into line with the editor experience. This is a small quality-of-life change that removes an inconsistency that had existed since notebooks were introduced.

VS Code 1.42 Upstream Merge

Because Azure Data Studio is built on the VS Code codebase, it periodically picks up upstream VS Code releases. Version 1.15 includes the changes from VS Code 1.42, which brings editor improvements, bug fixes, and API updates from that release cycle.

Platform Availability

Azure Data Studio 1.15 is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports auto-update when installed from the official installer, so most users will receive the update automatically. The tool remains a capable alternative to SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for many scenarios, particularly when working with Azure SQL services, though SSMS retains more complete coverage of on-premises SQL Server administration tasks.

Windows Terminal 0.9: The Last Feature Release Before v1.0

Position in the Roadmap

Windows Terminal 0.9 was positioned as the final release to introduce new features before a planned v1.0 launch, which the team indicated would align roughly with Microsoft Build (the developer conference at which the project was first unveiled). As a result, the scope of 0.9 is deliberately narrow: polish and automation rather than major new capabilities.

PowerShell Auto-Detection

Windows Terminal 0.9 introduces automatic detection of installed PowerShell versions. The version that the Terminal team judges to look best is placed at the top of the shell drop-down and labelled simply PowerShell. Profiles for detected shells are created automatically, removing the need to manually configure them in settings.json. This is a welcome improvement for users who install multiple PowerShell versions side-by-side (for example, Windows PowerShell 5.1 alongside PowerShell 7.x).

Command-Line Switches

A set of command-line arguments was added, allowing Windows Terminal to be launched with specific profiles or configurations from scripts and shortcuts — useful for DevOps workflows that open Terminal as part of a broader toolchain.

UX Refinements

• Close-all confirmation removed (optional): Earlier builds prompted the user every time they attempted to close a window with multiple tabs open. This confirmation dialog can now be suppressed, reducing friction for users who open and close Terminal frequently.
• Rounded buttons on popup dialogs: A visual consistency fix aligning dialogs with the broader Windows UI style.

Development Velocity

Windows Terminal moved from a proof-of-concept demo at Build 2019 to a near-v1 release in under a year — a notably fast cadence for a Microsoft project of this visibility. The team acknowledged a slight slip against their published roadmap, but a v1.0 release in April 2020 was considered achievable at the time of this update.

WSL 2: Hints at Decoupling from Windows 10 Release Cadence

Separately, Craig Loewen, the Windows Subsystem for Linux program manager at Microsoft, signalled publicly that WSL 2 might eventually be distributed independently of the Windows 10 release train. At the time of writing, WSL 2 shipped as part of Windows 10 20H1 (build 2004), which was still moving through the Windows Insider Slow Ring and had caused intermittent issues for WSL 2 users.

Microsoft had already demonstrated willingness to break components out of core Windows — both the Edge browser and Windows Terminal ship on their own release schedules, separate from the OS. Applying the same model to WSL 2 would allow developers on stable Windows builds to receive WSL improvements without waiting for a full Windows feature update.

Loewen’s statement at the time was a hint rather than a commitment. Microsoft later did begin distributing WSL via the Microsoft Store in subsequent years, which effectively decoupled its release schedule from Windows — validating the direction being discussed in early 2020.

Summary of Changes

Source: The Register (theregister.co.uk), February 2020.