microsoft/Terminal

Let Terminal auto-detect a busted `AutoRun` value for CMD

Open

#15,658 opened on Jul 5, 2023

View on GitHub
 (2 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)C++ (3,212 forks)batch import
Area-TerminalConnectionArea-UserInterfaceHelp WantedIssue-TaskProduct-Terminal

Repository metrics

Stars
 (35,764 stars)
PR merge metrics
 (Avg merge 27d 19h) (24 merged PRs in 30d)

Description

CMD has this magic AutoRun reg key that's a gigantic footgun.

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

Basically, if someone writes a bad value to that, it can mess up CMD.exe real bad. As a real life example: https://github.com/conda/constructor/pull/521

We attempted to patch this in Windows 11. But we'll surely be unable to backport that. While we're maintaining Windows 10 support, it might be nice to return a specific warning for this in Terminal. Something like:

if (profileGuid == {cmd} && error == 1 && reg query ....) { write("Hey your AutoRun value might be busted. Go check these reg keys:"); }

(for discussion. We can always just say meh, since we did fix this for cmd.exe)

Contributor guide

Research direction
Inspect the Terminal startup code to find where CMD.exe is launched as a profile. Add a check for the AutoRun registry keys (HKCU and HKLM) and display a warning message if a bad value is detected. Ensure the check only applies to the CMD profile.
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
C++Windows RegistryGit
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75