How To Setup Your Windows CMD Window To Be Usable

Posted July 2, 2009 * Comments(3)

I hear complaining about the Windows/DOS command line window and how unusable it is, which is surprising considering how easy it is to make it usable. Here we go:

  • Start a new cmd session. On Vista, click on the round windows icon at the bottom left of the screen and type “cmd” into the “Start Search” box. On XP, click Start->Run and type in cmd.
  • Right click on the top cmd window area and select “Properties”
  • Options: Enable “Quick Edit Mode” and “Insert Mode”
  • Font: Size: 10 , Font: Lucida Console
  • Layout: Window Size: Width: 100, Height: 50
  • Click ok
  • Select “Set properties for future windows”, click Ok.
There you have it. Your cmd window will now be of reasonable size, use a readable font, and allow easy copy/paste. To copy text from the cmd window highlight it with your mouse and hit enter. To paste into the cmd window simply right click.

3 Comments so far

  1. Jon Miller on July 7th, 2009

    I do those same things with my windows CMD settings, but I still end up concluding that it’s unusable and look for alternatives. I don’t think I’ll be happy until they integrate readline capabilities.

  2. Parand on July 7th, 2009

    Jon, any particular parts of readline you find missing in cmd? There are plenty, but I still find the most important ones are there: previous/next command and tab completion.

  3. Jon Miller on July 7th, 2009

    I honestly was thinking of tab completion when posting my remark about readline support. After reading your reply, I’ve re-opened the CMD window and discovered that the tab completion was added at some point. They say you learn something every day, right?

    If I wanted to continue to complain, I’d say something about the tab completion performing completion on files vs. with commands as well or perhaps my favorite readline convention of ^R to perform a reverse search, but instead I’ll concede and agree with you that the CMD shell really is more usable than many people realize.

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