Cmder 2.0 RC Brings Windows Terminal Support After 17-Month Silence
The split release gives Windows developers a stable path forward with 1.3.26 while letting early adopters test the new Windows Terminal backend in 2.0 RC. Production environments should stick with the stable line until 2.0 reaches a final release, because RC builds and package renames carry breaking-change risk.
After 17 months without a release, Cmder shipped both a 2.0.0-rc.1 preview and v1.3.26 stable on November 10, 2026. The 2.0 RC consolidates a long-accumulated development branch and introduces a packaging change: `cmder_full` now uses Windows Terminal, `cmder_conemu_full` keeps ConEmu, and `cmder_launcher` lets you pick your own terminal. The package naming also changes, with `nogit` replacing `mini` for builds lacking Git for Windows.
The low-level fixes cover launcher stability under malformed arguments and long configuration paths, clear errors for missing executables, and preventing the first `/C` initialization of Windows Terminal settings from clobbering existing user config. The `init.bat` compatibility layer remains, and several TCC/TCCLE defaults are restored. For users who prefer ConEmu, v1.3.26 backports a subset of those fixes, restores four TCC/TCCLE defaults, adds validation for build arguments and vendor names, supports both `ucrt64` and older `mingw64`/`mingw32` layouts, and bumps the bundled Git for Windows to 2.56.0.windows.4. Before upgrading, maintainers recommend reading `docs/UPGRADING-2.0.md` and backing up any manually edited `config/` directory.
The 17-month gap between stable releases, despite continuous commits, points to a major rework cycle that produced a single large RC rather than incremental releases.
Releasing a patch-only stable alongside the new-architecture RC lets the maintainer serve both users who need stability and those who want Windows Terminal support, without forcing either group to adopt the other's trade-offs.