diff --git a/code/src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminal/common/terminalConfiguration.ts b/code/src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminal/common/terminalConfiguration.ts
index b677e5799db..5644ec8306e 100644
--- a/code/src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminal/common/terminalConfiguration.ts
+++ b/code/src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminal/common/terminalConfiguration.ts
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ const terminalConfiguration: IConfigurationNode = {
 				localize('terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration.off', "Disable GPU acceleration within the terminal. The terminal will render much slower when GPU acceleration is off but it should reliably work on all systems."),
 				localize('terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration.canvas', "Use the terminal's fallback canvas renderer which uses a 2d context instead of webgl which may perform better on some systems. Note that some features are limited in the canvas renderer like opaque selection.")
 			],
-			default: 'auto',
+			default: 'canvas', // to fix the invisible characters issue
 			description: localize('terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration', "Controls whether the terminal will leverage the GPU to do its rendering.")
 		},
 		[TerminalSettingId.TerminalTitleSeparator]: {