How to enable the new Command Prompt features on Windows 10
Windows 10 is packed with lots of new and old features such as the beloved Start menu. One of my personal favorites is the new Command Prompt and its new features. For years, a lot of us have suffered the limitations of the command prompt such as not able to resize the window or simply paste data using Ctrl+V. These annoyances are now part of the past, and if you want to enjoy these new features too, you’ll need to follow the steps below.
Enable New Command Prompt
If you have upgraded to Windows 10 and you use the Command Prompt, make sure you follow these steps to enable the new Command Prompt features:
- Open the Command Prompt window. You can just click on the Windows key and type “cmd”, then just hit Enter.
- Right-click on the Title bar and select Properties. Go to the Options tab and uncheck this option “Use legacy console (requires relaunch)”, also make sure you enable other useful features as shown below.
- Close the Command Prompt window, and open it again. This time you’ll notice that the window is resizable, that you can use Ctrl key shortcuts and many other features.
List of Windows 10 Command Prompt Features
Resizable window
Once you uncheck the “Use Legacy Console” option, the Command Prompt window works like any other window in Windows 10. Click in the Maximize button, and the Command Prompt window fills the entire screen. To put it back, click the Restore button.
You’ll be able to manually resize the Command Prompt window by simply position the cursor on one of the corners dragging to the desired size. You can also specify the window size in the properties menu.
Word wrap
Text in the new Command Prompt window responds according to its size. The text wraps at the end of each line and it will adjust when you resize the window.
Text selection
You can now select text or individual letters. As simple as this might sound, it wasn’t possible with previous versions of the Command Prompt window.
Copy and paste
Once you’ve highlighted some text in a Command Prompt window, you can use Ctrl+C to copy the text to the clipboard. Need to paste text, you can use Ctrl+V, yes really! Other Ctrl key shortcuts are now supported as well (e.g. Ctrl+A).
High resolution support
If you select one of the Command Prompt’s TrueType fonts Windows 10 will now automatically scale the font to an appropriate size, based on the size of the monitor. This will make the text in the Command Prompt much easier to read at high resolutions.
Transparency
Transparency is now fully supported in the Command Prompt. You can set the transparency by setting an opacity value between 30-100% under the Colors tab in Properties. See example of Command Prompt with an opacity set to 75%.
PowerShell
Do you use PowerShell? all of the above is also available for the PowerShell command window. Consistency between the Command Prompt and PowerShell is a nice feature and much appreciated feature.
More details
For more details about these new features, make sure you read “Console Improvements in the Windows 10 Technical Preview” on the Microsoft Building Apps for Windows blog.
