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I don't like CMD.EXE, the built-in Windows terminal. Among its problems:

  1. Hard to copy and paste.

  2. Hard to resize the window.

  3. Hard to open another window (no menu options do this).

  4. Seems to always start in C:\Windows\System32, which is super useless.

  5. Weird scrolling. Sometimes it scrolls down really far into blank space, and you have to scroll up to where the window is actually populated.

I love Cygwin, but the problem with Cygwin is that it runs different executables. The Cygwin Python is different than the Windows Python, they are linked against different libraries and stuff.

double-beep
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SerMetAla
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    possible duplicate of [Is there a better Windows Console Window?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/60950/is-there-a-better-windows-console-window) – Mark Jun 27 '13 at 17:06
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    Lefteris E: Windows Powershell is not much better than CMD.EXE. It also has copy/paste problems, for instance. Unlike CMD.EXE, Powershell always seems to start in H:\. – SerMetAla Jun 27 '13 at 17:38
  • I like the PowerShell ISE because copy/paste works and it has (infinite?) scrollback. You can also open multiple tabs in one window and can name the window and the tabs. – mojo Jun 27 '13 at 19:32
  • #4: You can change the working directory in the shortcut to cmd.exe. Otherwise, it always starts in `%HOMEPATH%` for me. – mojo Jun 27 '13 at 19:34
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    #1: Piping output to clip.exe will copy. Paste is still (nearly) impossible using only the keyboard. – mojo Jun 27 '13 at 19:34
  • 4dos/4nt which is now TCC/LE at http://jpsoft.com is an enhanced cmd shell. Can I ask with your erratic scrolling - do you use a logitech mouse? – foxidrive Jun 28 '13 at 13:34
  • FWIW - with a logitech mouse I loaded the setpoint logitech software and set the scroll to 6 lines and the scolling now behaves. – foxidrive Jun 29 '13 at 07:15
  • all of the problems have been fixed in Windows 10 – phuclv Jul 19 '18 at 03:09
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    There's a mis-understanding of what cmd.exe is. cmd.exe is a shell. It will run in any console it's asked to run in. cmd.exe is the program that interprets batch files and command you type. It is *NOT* the program that actually lets you type, displays text, let's you copy and paste, scroll, etc... As one example an alternative to cmd.exe is powershell. Both, by default run in the default windows console. Console alternatives include most of the answers here but they still run cmd.exe. – gman Apr 07 '20 at 03:45
  • What I miss the most with `cmd.exe` is `Ctrl + R` to get the command history. This is easily fixed by installing CLink. At the very bottom of [https://superuser.com/questions/1248999#1581575](https://superuser.com/questions/1248999#1581575) there is a direct link to the installer of CLink. – Henke Aug 30 '20 at 10:49

4 Answers4

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I am a fan of Cmder, a package including clink, conemu, msysgit, and some cosmetic enhancements.

http://cmder.app/

https://github.com/cmderdev/cmder

https://chocolatey.org/packages/Cmder

enter image description here

Eric Hartford
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  1. Hard to copy and paste.

    Not true. Enable QuickEdit, either in the properties of the shortcut, or in the properties of the CMD window (right-click on the title bar), and you can mark text directly. Right-click copies marked text into the clipboard. When no text is marked, a right-click pastes text from the clipboard.

    enter image description here

  2. Hard to resize the window.

    True. Console2 (see below) does not have this limitation.

  3. Hard to open another window (no menu options do this).

    Not true. Use start cmd or define an alias if that's too much hassle:

    doskey nw=start cmd /k $*

  4. Seems to always start in C:\Windows\System32, which is super useless.

    Not true. Or rather, not true if you define a start directory in the properties of the shortcut

    enter image description here

    or by modifying the AutoRun registry value. Shift-right-click on a folder allows you to launch a command prompt in that folder.

  5. Weird scrolling. Sometimes it scrolls down really far into blank space, and you have to scroll up to where the window is actually populated

    Never happened to me.

An alternative to plain CMD is Console2, which uses CMD under the hood, but provides a lot more configuration options.

Ansgar Wiechers
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  • Weird scrolling happens with nonstandard window sizes here too. 120x50 and it goes wacky. – foxidrive Jun 28 '13 at 11:38
  • Like I said, never happend to me, and I usually have my CMD windows resized to 100x50 with 3000 lines scrollback buffer. – Ansgar Wiechers Jun 28 '13 at 11:39
  • Wow, the Quick Edit mode should have been enabled by default by the Windows system... – Edwin Yip May 17 '16 at 10:42
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    Hard to copy and paste not true? Try to select and copy more than one line of text... that rectangular selection thing is the most shamefully useless "feature" ever! – Siro Mateos Jun 28 '16 at 14:05
  • A downvote because you dislike rectangular selection? You gotta be kidding me. *\*shakes head\** – Ansgar Wiechers Jun 28 '16 at 14:41
  • I am a keyboard user, I want to do standard cut-paste keyboard combinations (i.e. ctrl-Insert/shift-Insert) and that is not supported. Besides which, as standard you still have to go into a menu and set 'Quick Edit'. Even in Windows 10 this is the case, MS have had decades to make this better. Difficult may not be the word, but it is non-standard and convoluted, – Dave Richardson Sep 05 '16 at 07:42
  • CMD (and COMMAND.COM before it) have had this behavior for more than a quarter of a century now, so I'd say it's pretty much *the* established standard for Windows systems. Get used to it. – Ansgar Wiechers Sep 05 '16 at 08:24
  • Is there any way to use the _Start in_ and _Quick edit mode_ (among other) settings on the original cmd.exe, instead of the shortcut? `start cmd` bypasses the two shortcut settings you provided as solution (very useful, anyway, thank you) – Berbare Oct 18 '17 at 11:57
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    @Berbare As mentioned in my answer you can also right-click on the title bar of a CMD window you started (e.g. via `start cmd`) and change the settings there. That should update the default configuration. Or you could [change the setting in the registry](http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/enable-quick-edit-command-prompt-by-default/). – Ansgar Wiechers Oct 18 '17 at 16:25
  • @SiroMateos Only five years late, but if you hold 'alt' while selecting text it uses the other selection mode. – Yay295 Feb 16 '21 at 06:02
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At the moment there are four realy powerfull cmd.exe alternatives:

cmder is an enhancement off ConEmu and Clink

All have features like Copy & Paste, Window Resize per Mouse, Splitscreen, Tabs and a lot of other usefull features.

arana
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Frank
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  • https://www.slant.co/topics/1552/~terminal-emulators-for-windows – Smart Manoj Aug 06 '19 at 04:43
  • Me too ! Cmder awesome one. – Mayur Patil Mar 11 '20 at 07:23
  • Win10 Terminal is so easy, simple, and smooth. Love it, thanks. – Mikhail May 21 '21 at 13:31
  • Avoid conEmu, it's quite annoying. Example, multiline commands don't work when pasting. https://paste.pics/GM774 Don't have close button on tabs, have to right click, then close, yet after another cofirmation. Asks for more unnecessary confirmations other than while closing, e.g. when pasting multiple lines. – Mustafa R Apr 06 '22 at 19:31
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Try Clink. It's awesome, especially if you are used to bash keybindings and features.

(As already pointed out - there is a similar question: Is there a better Windows Console Window?)

Community
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siddhadev
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