rconn
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I have posted the public beta for Take Command / TCC / CMDebug / TCC-RT to the website:
Take Command
TCC
CMDebug
TCC-RT
This version has (by far) the most new features we've ever done. Most of the updates are in Take Command -- our goal in v37 is to make it the most powerful terminal app available (including any of the linux terminals).
There are still a few things that need some final cleanup / tweaking (like the MCP server for AI agents), and the SSH and serial terminal support need more hands-on in real environments.
Posting the full new-feature list would exceed the maximum forum message size; see "What's New in Version 37" in the help for full details. A few examples:
Visual Studio 2026 theme support added with 13 light, dark and accent color variants.
Office 2019 and 2024 theme support added with Colorful, White, Dark Gray and Black styles.
Take Command now only supports ConPTY tab windows; the older hidden console tabs are gone. This means a few things like attaching and detaching tabs is no longer supported.
Take Command includes special versions of conpty.dll and openconsole.exe, to allow Take Command to display ANSI sequences that the conhost.exe included in Windows doesn't support. (For example, superscripts and subscripts, OSC notifications, SIXEL and Kitty and ReGIS graphics, etc.)
Take Command tab and pane windows now support accessibility via NVDA. Take Command exposes a native Windows UI Automation (UIA) provider through
The Take Command configuration dialogs have been completely rewritten. They now include all of the INI options, including a number that were previously only available by manually editing TCMD.INI.
Take Command can use a WSL, Docker, or Podman profile to open a terminal in an installed WSL distribution or an already-running local container. These profiles use ordinary Take Command ConPTY tabs, not a separate terminal window.
Workspaces let you save a named arrangement of profile-backed tab windows and open it again later. Previous-session recovery is a separate, optional feature: it offers to reopen eligible tabs after you restart Take Command, but never relaunches them without your approval. The saved workspace records the selected tabs' display order, horizontal or vertical tab-group arrangement and relative sizes, the selected tab in each group, the active group, tab tints, and any explicit directory or title overrides supplied when the tabs were opened. It does not track subsequent changes to a shell's working directory or automatically changing tab title. It does not save terminal output, input, passwords, vault contents, environment variables, or a copy of the command used to start a tab. Only tabs opened directly from saved local, SSH, or serial profiles with stable profile IDs can be included. Ad-hoc commands, replay tabs, and terminal-pane splits are not workspace tabs. Tab groups are groups of document tabs, not split terminal panes.
The Take Command Secrets vault stores passwords and passphrases for local use. It keeps secret values in a separate, per-user Windows DPAPI-protected file instead of storing new values directly in TCMD.INI. Each entry has a name, a type (Password or Passphrase), and an internal ID. Profiles and startup tabs can store that ID rather than the secret value. Existing encrypted and plaintext startup-tab credentials migrate only after a successful vault write; otherwise their original INI values are retained. Vault failures are displayed at launch rather than silently using an unprotected fallback. The Settings dialog now includes a Secrets page for creating, updating, and deleting password or passphrase entries. It prevents deletion while a current or unapplied/revertible profile or startup tab references the secret.The vault file is %LOCALAPPDATA%\JP Software\Take Command\secrets.vault. Windows protects it for the current user account. It is not a portable credential store: copying the file to another Windows account or computer does not make the secrets usable there.
Split panes let one Take Command tab contain two or more independent terminal sessions. They are useful for keeping related local, SSH, serial, or recording-replay work together without giving up separate input and scrollback for each session. Split panes are different from the Window menu's horizontal and vertical tab groups. Tab groups arrange whole document tabs; split panes arrange terminal sessions inside one tab.
The Tab Switcher is a non-modal overlay for finding and activating an open Take Command tab window without manually cycling through tabs. It displays thumbnails of Local, Serial, and SSH terminal sessions, including separate sessions in terminal split panes. The switcher keeps Take Command visible behind it so you can identify the active application while searching.
Take Command can open a serial terminal directly on a Windows COM port. Serial tabs use the regular terminal buffer and support search, recording, annotations, terminal triggers, and accessibility features. They do not run a shell, so shell-integration prompt marks and command folding are unavailable.
Take Command lets you assign an existing command to a one-key shortcut or a two-key sequence, also called a multi-chord hotkey.
Command Result Cards show a command result header on the command row. The header displays the command line, when available from the displayed terminal row, and a running, successful, failed, or completed status. A duration is shown when both start and finish timestamps are available. A colored stripe distinguishes running, successful, failed, and unknown results. Scroll through a long command result and the header stays at the top of the terminal until you reach the next command. The header does not change the terminal's stored text. Cards require shell-integration command markers and the Shell Integration Folding option; output without command markers continues to display normally. Command Result Cards are normally disabled; you can enable them in Settings / Tabs.
The Take Command semantic scrollback overview is an optional compact navigation strip immediately to the left of a terminal tab's vertical scrollbar. It summarizes important locations in retained terminal history, making long-running sessions easier to navigate without rendering a second copy of the terminal.
Take Command lets you reuse output from an earlier shell-integrated command without rerunning that command. You can browse results from open terminal tabs and panes, including sessions started through an SSH profile. Copy the output to the clipboard, save it as a text file, or insert a safe single line at a shell prompt. This feature does not run captured output as a command.
Take Command can attach free-form notes called annotations to ranges of scrollback text in the tab window scrollback buffer. Annotations
let you mark interesting output — an error you want to return to, the command that produced a bad result, or a section worth explaining to
someone else, without altering the tab window contents. Annotations do not modify the tab window's scrollback buffer, and they do not affect selection, command-block rendering, folding, or copied text.
Bookmarks mark important retained rows in a Take Command tab window. They are useful for returning to an error, a deployment step, a device message, or any other line in long-running output. Bookmarks are available in local ConPTY, SSH, Serial, and read-only replay tabs. They are local Take Command metadata: creating or editing one never sends text or control sequences to the terminal, remote host, or serial device.
QuickText command snippets are profile-owned shortcuts for text that you use repeatedly in a session. A snippet belongs to one Local, Serial, or SSH profile, so only tabs opened from that profile offer it. QuickText entries are ordinary, non-secret profile settings in TCMD.INI. They are not stored in the DPAPI secrets vault and are retained when the profile is reopened.
Take Command can evaluate user-defined regular expressions whenever terminal output completes a row. Configure triggers from the tab command Triggers.... The triggers only match command output that is displayed in the terminal window, not the command input. Each trigger has a name, regular-expression pattern, enabled state, and optional case-sensitive matching. Triggers can color matching ranges, send text, show notifications, ring the bell, or run a command.
Output Highlight Rules change how matching terminal text looks without changing the text itself. Use them to make errors, warnings, or other output easier to spot. Unlike regular expression triggers, these rules cannot run commands, send input, ring the bell, or show notifications.
The regular expression analyzer had a major rewrite. It now accepts multiple lines for the test string, and will highlight all the matches. It also has a new "Build a Regular Expression" group in the dialog that allows you to enter a natural language description of the regular expression you want to create. Then click on the "Generate" button and the expression will be copied to the "Expression:" edit control. If you have an AI account enabled (OPTION dialog in TCC), the analyzer will use that to generate the regex. If not, the analyzer uses its own (currently very simple minded) natural language parser (English only) to generate the regex. You can also choose from a dropdown list of common regex patterns.
Take Command tab windows can display ReGIS ("REmote Graphics Instruction Set") vector graphics sent by a shell or remote host, in addition to the existing SIXEL and iTerm2 inline-image protocols. ReGIS is a text-based vector-graphics command language introduced on DEC VT3xx-series terminals. Instead of transmitting raw pixel data (as SIXEL does), a ReGIS payload describes a sequence of drawing operations -- move to a point, draw a line, draw a circle, set the current color, etc. See ReGIS Vector Graphics for more information.
Take Command can display a Windows desktop toast notification when a shell command sends an OSC 9 or OSC 777 notification escape sequence to a ConPTY terminal tab. This lets long-running commands (builds, downloads, backups, and similar tasks) alert you when they finish, even if the tab isn't currently in the foreground. See Desktop Notifications for more information.
Take Command supports Kitty graphics images sent through the direct-transfer subset of the Kitty graphics protocol. Graphics can be drawn at precise pixel positions, both above and below text, and it supports alpha blending for overlaying images with text. Graphics automatically scroll with the terminal content.
Take Command supports the application-negotiated Kitty keyboard protocol in ConPTY and serial terminal tabs. The protocol lets terminal applications distinguish modified keys, function and keypad keys, key repeats, key releases, alternate keyboard layouts, and associated text. This is an application feature, not a Take Command keyboard preference. A tab uses normal terminal keyboard encoding until the program running in that tab enables Kitty keyboard enhancements.
Added extended underline styles. Take Command stores and draws
Progress and completion notifications use Shell-integration command markers (OSC 133 and OSC 633) to show indeterminate activity while a command is running. Take Command uses its configured tab, status-bar, and taskbar progress surfaces.
Take Command
TCC
CMDebug
TCC-RT
This version has (by far) the most new features we've ever done. Most of the updates are in Take Command -- our goal in v37 is to make it the most powerful terminal app available (including any of the linux terminals).
There are still a few things that need some final cleanup / tweaking (like the MCP server for AI agents), and the SSH and serial terminal support need more hands-on in real environments.
Posting the full new-feature list would exceed the maximum forum message size; see "What's New in Version 37" in the help for full details. A few examples:
Visual Studio 2026 theme support added with 13 light, dark and accent color variants.
Office 2019 and 2024 theme support added with Colorful, White, Dark Gray and Black styles.
Take Command now only supports ConPTY tab windows; the older hidden console tabs are gone. This means a few things like attaching and detaching tabs is no longer supported.
Take Command includes special versions of conpty.dll and openconsole.exe, to allow Take Command to display ANSI sequences that the conhost.exe included in Windows doesn't support. (For example, superscripts and subscripts, OSC notifications, SIXEL and Kitty and ReGIS graphics, etc.)
Take Command tab and pane windows now support accessibility via NVDA. Take Command exposes a native Windows UI Automation (UIA) provider through
WM_GETOBJECT, including TextPattern and TextPattern2. The provider is discoverable even when NVDA starts after the tab has been created.The Take Command configuration dialogs have been completely rewritten. They now include all of the INI options, including a number that were previously only available by manually editing TCMD.INI.
Take Command can use a WSL, Docker, or Podman profile to open a terminal in an installed WSL distribution or an already-running local container. These profiles use ordinary Take Command ConPTY tabs, not a separate terminal window.
Workspaces let you save a named arrangement of profile-backed tab windows and open it again later. Previous-session recovery is a separate, optional feature: it offers to reopen eligible tabs after you restart Take Command, but never relaunches them without your approval. The saved workspace records the selected tabs' display order, horizontal or vertical tab-group arrangement and relative sizes, the selected tab in each group, the active group, tab tints, and any explicit directory or title overrides supplied when the tabs were opened. It does not track subsequent changes to a shell's working directory or automatically changing tab title. It does not save terminal output, input, passwords, vault contents, environment variables, or a copy of the command used to start a tab. Only tabs opened directly from saved local, SSH, or serial profiles with stable profile IDs can be included. Ad-hoc commands, replay tabs, and terminal-pane splits are not workspace tabs. Tab groups are groups of document tabs, not split terminal panes.
The Take Command Secrets vault stores passwords and passphrases for local use. It keeps secret values in a separate, per-user Windows DPAPI-protected file instead of storing new values directly in TCMD.INI. Each entry has a name, a type (Password or Passphrase), and an internal ID. Profiles and startup tabs can store that ID rather than the secret value. Existing encrypted and plaintext startup-tab credentials migrate only after a successful vault write; otherwise their original INI values are retained. Vault failures are displayed at launch rather than silently using an unprotected fallback. The Settings dialog now includes a Secrets page for creating, updating, and deleting password or passphrase entries. It prevents deletion while a current or unapplied/revertible profile or startup tab references the secret.The vault file is %LOCALAPPDATA%\JP Software\Take Command\secrets.vault. Windows protects it for the current user account. It is not a portable credential store: copying the file to another Windows account or computer does not make the secrets usable there.
Split panes let one Take Command tab contain two or more independent terminal sessions. They are useful for keeping related local, SSH, serial, or recording-replay work together without giving up separate input and scrollback for each session. Split panes are different from the Window menu's horizontal and vertical tab groups. Tab groups arrange whole document tabs; split panes arrange terminal sessions inside one tab.
The Tab Switcher is a non-modal overlay for finding and activating an open Take Command tab window without manually cycling through tabs. It displays thumbnails of Local, Serial, and SSH terminal sessions, including separate sessions in terminal split panes. The switcher keeps Take Command visible behind it so you can identify the active application while searching.
Take Command can open a serial terminal directly on a Windows COM port. Serial tabs use the regular terminal buffer and support search, recording, annotations, terminal triggers, and accessibility features. They do not run a shell, so shell-integration prompt marks and command folding are unavailable.
Take Command lets you assign an existing command to a one-key shortcut or a two-key sequence, also called a multi-chord hotkey.
Command Result Cards show a command result header on the command row. The header displays the command line, when available from the displayed terminal row, and a running, successful, failed, or completed status. A duration is shown when both start and finish timestamps are available. A colored stripe distinguishes running, successful, failed, and unknown results. Scroll through a long command result and the header stays at the top of the terminal until you reach the next command. The header does not change the terminal's stored text. Cards require shell-integration command markers and the Shell Integration Folding option; output without command markers continues to display normally. Command Result Cards are normally disabled; you can enable them in Settings / Tabs.
The Take Command semantic scrollback overview is an optional compact navigation strip immediately to the left of a terminal tab's vertical scrollbar. It summarizes important locations in retained terminal history, making long-running sessions easier to navigate without rendering a second copy of the terminal.
Take Command lets you reuse output from an earlier shell-integrated command without rerunning that command. You can browse results from open terminal tabs and panes, including sessions started through an SSH profile. Copy the output to the clipboard, save it as a text file, or insert a safe single line at a shell prompt. This feature does not run captured output as a command.
Take Command can attach free-form notes called annotations to ranges of scrollback text in the tab window scrollback buffer. Annotations
let you mark interesting output — an error you want to return to, the command that produced a bad result, or a section worth explaining to
someone else, without altering the tab window contents. Annotations do not modify the tab window's scrollback buffer, and they do not affect selection, command-block rendering, folding, or copied text.
Bookmarks mark important retained rows in a Take Command tab window. They are useful for returning to an error, a deployment step, a device message, or any other line in long-running output. Bookmarks are available in local ConPTY, SSH, Serial, and read-only replay tabs. They are local Take Command metadata: creating or editing one never sends text or control sequences to the terminal, remote host, or serial device.
QuickText command snippets are profile-owned shortcuts for text that you use repeatedly in a session. A snippet belongs to one Local, Serial, or SSH profile, so only tabs opened from that profile offer it. QuickText entries are ordinary, non-secret profile settings in TCMD.INI. They are not stored in the DPAPI secrets vault and are retained when the profile is reopened.
Take Command can evaluate user-defined regular expressions whenever terminal output completes a row. Configure triggers from the tab command Triggers.... The triggers only match command output that is displayed in the terminal window, not the command input. Each trigger has a name, regular-expression pattern, enabled state, and optional case-sensitive matching. Triggers can color matching ranges, send text, show notifications, ring the bell, or run a command.
Output Highlight Rules change how matching terminal text looks without changing the text itself. Use them to make errors, warnings, or other output easier to spot. Unlike regular expression triggers, these rules cannot run commands, send input, ring the bell, or show notifications.
The regular expression analyzer had a major rewrite. It now accepts multiple lines for the test string, and will highlight all the matches. It also has a new "Build a Regular Expression" group in the dialog that allows you to enter a natural language description of the regular expression you want to create. Then click on the "Generate" button and the expression will be copied to the "Expression:" edit control. If you have an AI account enabled (OPTION dialog in TCC), the analyzer will use that to generate the regex. If not, the analyzer uses its own (currently very simple minded) natural language parser (English only) to generate the regex. You can also choose from a dropdown list of common regex patterns.
Take Command tab windows can display ReGIS ("REmote Graphics Instruction Set") vector graphics sent by a shell or remote host, in addition to the existing SIXEL and iTerm2 inline-image protocols. ReGIS is a text-based vector-graphics command language introduced on DEC VT3xx-series terminals. Instead of transmitting raw pixel data (as SIXEL does), a ReGIS payload describes a sequence of drawing operations -- move to a point, draw a line, draw a circle, set the current color, etc. See ReGIS Vector Graphics for more information.
Take Command can display a Windows desktop toast notification when a shell command sends an OSC 9 or OSC 777 notification escape sequence to a ConPTY terminal tab. This lets long-running commands (builds, downloads, backups, and similar tasks) alert you when they finish, even if the tab isn't currently in the foreground. See Desktop Notifications for more information.
Take Command supports Kitty graphics images sent through the direct-transfer subset of the Kitty graphics protocol. Graphics can be drawn at precise pixel positions, both above and below text, and it supports alpha blending for overlaying images with text. Graphics automatically scroll with the terminal content.
Take Command supports the application-negotiated Kitty keyboard protocol in ConPTY and serial terminal tabs. The protocol lets terminal applications distinguish modified keys, function and keypad keys, key repeats, key releases, alternate keyboard layouts, and associated text. This is an application feature, not a Take Command keyboard preference. A tab uses normal terminal keyboard encoding until the program running in that tab enables Kitty keyboard enhancements.
Added extended underline styles. Take Command stores and draws
CSI 4:3 m (curly), CSI 4:4 m (dotted), and CSI 4:5 m (dashed) per cell. 4:0 and 24 remove underlines; 4, 4:1, 4:2, and 21 retain normal and double underline behavior. SGR 58/59 continues to select or reset the underline color.Progress and completion notifications use Shell-integration command markers (OSC 133 and OSC 633) to show indeterminate activity while a command is running. Take Command uses its configured tab, status-bar, and taskbar progress surfaces.