[bug]: default terminal shell selection opens wrong shell on Windows

[Drakaniia]

Bug Description

On Windows 11, the default terminal shell setting does not behave as expected.

In Settings → Interface → Default terminal shell, I selected bash. When I open a project and click the + button to create a new terminal, Emdash opens a WSL shell instead of Git Bash.

There are also two related issues in the same dropdown:

• Closing the last terminal does not leave the terminal drawer empty. It immediately creates a new fresh terminal.
• The dropdown shows both powershell and pwsh, which is confusing because they appear to represent the same PowerShell option in the UI.
• WSL should be supported as its own explicit default terminal option instead of being mixed into bash.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use Emdash on Windows 11.
2. Open Settings.
3. Go to Interface.
4. Set Default terminal shell to bash.
5. Open a project.
6. Open the terminal drawer.
7. Click the + button to create a new terminal.
8. Observe which shell opens.
9. Close the last terminal tab.
10. Observe that a new terminal is created instead of the terminal drawer becoming empty.

Video_260605082729.mp4

Actual vs Expected Behavior

Actual:

• Selecting bash opens WSL instead of Git Bash.
• Closing the last terminal creates a new fresh terminal automatically.
• The terminal shell dropdown shows both powershell and pwsh, which is unclear.
• WSL is not available as a separate explicit default terminal option.

Expected:

• Selecting bash should open Git Bash if that is what the option represents.
• WSL should be a separate selectable terminal shell option.
• Closing the last terminal should close/remove the terminal tab without automatically creating a new one.
• PowerShell options should be clearly labeled, for example Windows PowerShell and PowerShell 7, or duplicate/unavailable entries should be hidden.

emdash Version

1.1.27

Operating System

Windows 11

Additional Context

Video shows the Default terminal shell dropdown with cmd, powershell, bash, and pwsh, with bash selected.

The current behavior is confusing because bash appears to mean Git Bash in the UI, but the created terminal opens WSL instead.

[arnestrickmann]

Thanks for flagging this, @Drakaniia, and for the detailed writeup + video.

The default shell setting is something we added recently, so this is very helpful.

We’ll take a closer look on this.