Are you a Windows command-prompt power user? Console is nice tool that sits on top of the windows command-prompt and adds some funky features and eye-candy; for starters, I love to see the wallpaper in the background rather than a plain colour. Then, there are tabs and transparency options!
And couple it with Cygwin to get all the *nix commands you’ve got used to. Btw, if you have already toyed around with the new Microsoft PowerShell, do let us know what you thought of it! Original recommendation for Console based on this LifeHacker post. It also has an interesting introduction to Cygwin.
6 replies on “A better console for Windows”
Yes – this is a great program.. I use it exclusively now. It doesn’t quite resize correctly, so you can’t have the window exactly the size you want but that’s a price worth paying I think.
Matthew, I’m using version 2.00.127 and seem to get the exact size I’m looking for. Maybe you’re referring to something else or using a different version?
Sysinternals (now taken over by Microsoft) have a new tool that shows what programs are run at startup.
Very illuminating to show how much is running. Win3.1 used to have feature that if you held down shift whilst windows was starting it didn’t load any extras. Pity that has gone away!
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx
I discovered Console thanks to you monkeys and I love it! A few tips to get the most out of it:
1. Keep up to date – check sourceforge for the latest beta builds.
2. Add Console to the Explorer “Send to…” list to open prompts in directories via the context menu. To do so, create a shortcut to console.exe in C:Documents and Settings\SendTo, and append ” -d” to the shortcut target.
3. Don’t hesitate to explore the setting and re-configure the keys & mouse actions, which are very flexible. For example, it’s not hard to get Putty-like quick copy/paste.
Version 2.00.127 seems to the best! (newer beta versions come free with some new bugs!)
But surely if you *really* want a better console…move to linux! 😉 (coudn’t resist)