Microsoft announced at its Build developer conference that it will be launching a new command-line terminal.

The new Windows Terminal aims to deliver a big improvement on the current Command Prompt and PowerShell programmes, and is likely to be used instead of these programmes in the future.

New features in this terminal include support for multiple tabs, multiple profiles, and even GPU accelerated text rendering – which allows the use of emojis.

Microsoft said it has more features which it plans on adding to the new Windows Terminal, and also expects the Microsoft community to add their own features to the open source software.

The reason for creating a new terminal, said Microsoft, is that they were unable to implement further “meaningful improvements” to the old console’s UI without “breaking the world.”

The open source software can be accessed on GitHub for those interested in testing it out, and Microsoft will release the official 1.0 version towards the end of this year.