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Copilot AI commented Dec 18, 2025

Users were confused about what WARP means in the "Use software rendering" setting and whether it relates to warp.dev.

Changes:

  • Clarified WARP terminology: Added explanation that WARP (Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) is a Microsoft DirectX software rasterizer that uses CPU instead of GPU, and is unrelated to warp.dev

  • Added usage guidance: New "When to enable software rendering" section covering:

    • Graphics driver issues (glitches, artifacts, crashes)
    • Remote desktop/VM scenarios where GPU acceleration is unavailable
    • Hardware compatibility issues
    • Systems without dedicated/integrated graphics
    • Troubleshooting hardware/driver problems
  • Added performance context: New "Performance considerations" section explaining CPU vs GPU trade-offs:

    • Higher CPU usage
    • Potential rendering performance impact
    • More consistent cross-hardware behavior
    • Recommendation to keep hardware rendering (default) unless issues occur
  • Updated ms.date to reflect documentation revision

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Please Explain this section in detail - Use software rendering</issue_title>
<issue_description>Please explain in a little detail on what this means and what is warp, it is the same as this. Please give a little more context on the topic at least in the documentation.

Use software rendering
When this is set to true, the terminal will use the software renderer (a.k.a. WARP) instead of the hardware one.

Property name: experimental.rendering.software

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: true, false

Default value: false

Document Details

Do not edit this section. It is required for learn.microsoft.com ➟ GitHub issue linking.

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

@zadjii-msft I'm gonna put this on @lhecker, since he actually entirely changed this setting in 1.21 (see https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/pull/16939)

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Learn Build status updates of commit 6bd4ed2:

✅ Validation status: passed

For more details, please refer to the build report.

Co-authored-by: mattwojo <7566797+mattwojo@users.noreply.github.com>
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PoliCheck Scan Report

The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

✅ No issues found

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Learn Build status updates of commit 2943816:

✅ Validation status: passed

File Status Preview URL Details
TerminalDocs/customize-settings/rendering.md ✅Succeeded View

For more details, please refer to the build report.

Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Clarify software rendering settings documentation Expand software rendering documentation with detailed WARP explanation Dec 18, 2025
Copilot AI requested a review from mattwojo December 18, 2025 20:21
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Please Explain this section in detail - Use software rendering

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