Help me make my windows cmd.exe console work more like a Linux terminal

Question

The windows terminal (the user-interface around text-applications like cmd.exe) really sucks.

There is so much that the Unix-style terminals do that the windows terminal apparently cannot do, for example what if you want to re-size the window in both dimensions by dragging the border. The Windows terminal only allows you to change it's length.

Cut & Paste, on Linux or Unix, no problem - the selection box wraps around nicely so you can cut multi-line expressions. The Windows terminal (even in Quick-Edit mode) forces a bizarre rectangular selection box which is of no practical use - you have to re-format everything you copy in notepad!

What about the fact that any time I go into 'edit' mode it blocks the application - I'm sure there are people who want to be able to cut & paste without stopping the business-critical server.

I'm sure we can think of more faults if we put our minds to it - but lets not grumble.. what can we do to make this better?

Update: Just to clarify, I'm not looking to replace cmd.exe - Powershell & CygWin both provide better alternatives. I'm trying to replace the console application, the GUI that surrounds all text-applications in Windows.

Answer 1

The only 'solution' that I have found to this problem is to install Cygwin/X and use XTerm instead. I use that every day at work.

Answer 2

I personally use Console2 with the Cygwin shell (actual bash) included with MYSYS-Git. You can also use PuTTY and SSH to a real linux box ;-)

Answer 3

One of the first things I do to all my Windows machines is install Cygwin

There are some extensions for Cygwin too , like ssh and such.

Answer 4

Use Console 2, perhaps? It's really quite stable now, and allows you to switch between cmd/PowerShell/cygwin/any other shell very easily. If we're honest about it, it's not likely Microsoft are going to improve the native Win32 console any time soon.

Answer 5

Instead of trying to force the Unix behaviour on Windows - which would be a bit unnatural - why don't you check out PowerShell, Microsoft's next generation shell for Windows?

Answer 6

I found iPython in its -s mode to be as close as I can get. It also doubles as a python interactive shell.

Answer 7

I think your looking for Powershell which I can argue is stronger then the linux bash or atleast has the same amount of power.

Answer 8

A bit easier than all of these other answers is to use UnxUtils - ports of Unix apps to Win32. I used these back when I had a PC.

http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/

Answer 9

I have not tried KDE on WIndows, but it is allegedly now available in the latest release at writing.

Answer 10

To change the size of the cmd prompt, you can either change the window size from the properties box, which will only resize the window itself, or/and you can change the buffer size, which will resize the ... how to describe it, the number of remembered lines. To access the properties toolbox, right click on the title bar and properties.

Also, if you want to quickly copy stuff from the cmd prompt, enable the "quick edit" box in the properties window - it will enable you to select stuff, and "copy" it with a right click.

Answer 11

There is a native windows version of rxvt that is available in Cygwin. It seems to work quite well and can be resized with ease, e.g. full screen.