Launching Windows Terminal by Typing "terminal" on Japanese Windows 11

Introduction

When you use Windows 11 with Japanese as the display language, typing Windows key → terminal doesn’t bring up Windows Terminal. You have to type ターミナル (the Japanese word for “terminal”) instead. That’s because the display names of Microsoft Store apps are localized to follow the system language. In a Japanese environment the app is registered as “Windows ターミナル”, so the English “terminal” doesn’t match it. Switching to Japanese input every time just to type “ターミナル” was a small but constant annoyance, so I set things up so I can search in English.

Solutions

Option 1: Add a Shortcut to the Start Menu (Recommended)

Windows Search indexes the names of shortcuts under %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\. Just put a shortcut with an English name there, and “terminal” will find it.

1. Open the Start Menu Programs Folder

Press Win + R to open the Run dialog, enter the following, and click OK:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

2. Check the Path to the Windows Terminal Executable

The executable for Windows Terminal (the Store app version) is usually here:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wt.exe

Press Win + R, enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wt.exe, and press Enter. If Windows Terminal starts, you’re good.

3. Create the Shortcut

In the Programs folder you opened earlier, right-click → New → Shortcut. In the location field, enter:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wt.exe

In the name field, enter Windows Terminal and finish.

As long as the shortcut name contains “terminal”, a partial match will find it. Any name you like, such as terminal or wt, works too.

4. Check That It Works

Press the Windows key and type terminal. If Windows Terminal shows up in the results, it worked.

Option 1b: Create It with a Single PowerShell Command

If clicking through the GUI is a hassle, you can create the same shortcut by running the following commands in PowerShell.

Open PowerShell (no administrator rights needed) and run:

$ws = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
$sc = $ws.CreateShortcut("$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Terminal.lnk")
$sc.TargetPath = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wt.exe"
$sc.Save()

This uses the WScript.Shell COM object to generate the .lnk file. The result is the same as a shortcut created by hand in File Explorer.

To delete the shortcut:

Remove-Item "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Terminal.lnk"

---

Option 2: Use wt from Win + R (Quick Workaround)

If adding a shortcut is too much trouble, Win + R → type wt → Enter also starts Windows Terminal. No need to switch the IME either.

If you use it all the time, pinning it to the taskbar is fastest, but if you want to launch it from search, Option 1 is best.

---

Summary

• On Windows 11 in Japanese, Store app names are localized to “ターミナル”, so searching for “terminal” finds nothing
• Adding a shortcut with an English name to the Start Menu Programs folder is the simplest fix
• Win + R → wt also works as a quick workaround

Since setting this up, I can launch Windows Terminal by typing terminal in English, and it’s been much more comfortable. If you’re running into the same problem in a Japanese environment, give it a try!