<p>I find working on the command line in Windows frustrating, primarily because the console window is wretched to use compared to terminal applications on linux and OS X such as "rxvt", "xterm", or "Terminal".  Major complaints:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>No standard copy/paste.  You have to turn on "mark" mode and it's only available from a multi-level popup triggered by the (small) left hand corner button.  Then copy and paste need to be invoked from the same menu</p></li>
<li><p>You can't arbitrarily resize the window by dragging, you need to set a preference (back to the multi-level popup) each time you want to resize a window</p></li>
<li><p>You can only make the window so big before horizontal scroll bars enter the picture. Horizontal scroll bars suck.</p></li>
<li><p>With the cmd.exe shell, you can't navigate to folders with \\netpath notation (UNC?), you need to map a network drive.  This sucks when working on multiple machines that are going to have different drives mapped</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Are there any tricks or applications, (paid or otherwise), that address these issue?</p>

[{'answer_id': 60952, 'author': 'Greg Hewgill', 'author_id': 893, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/893', 'pm_score': 7, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Try <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/" rel="noreferrer">Console 2</a>.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p><em>Console is a Windows console window enhancement.</em> Console features include: multiple tabs, text editor-like text selection, different background types, alpha and color-key transparency, configurable font, different window styles </p>\n</blockquote>\n'}, {'answer_id': 60954, 'author': 'Lasse V. Karlsen', 'author_id': 267, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/267', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Take a look at <a href="http://www.jpsoft.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Take Command</a>.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Take Command is a comprehensive interactive GUI and command line environment that makes using the Windows command prompt and creating batch files easy and far more powerful.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>(Take Command is, however, "not free".)</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 60956, 'author': 'Apocalisp', 'author_id': 3434, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3434', 'pm_score': 5, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><a href="http://www.jpsoft.com/" rel="noreferrer">Take Command</a>. This one has been around for a long time (formerly 4DOS). I used this on Windows NT 3.5 (!) and loved it.</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://www.cygwin.com/" rel="noreferrer">Cygwin</a> lets you run X on Windows, so you can fire up <code>xterm</code> or whatever terminal app you prefer, and also get the benefit of using a UNIX shell.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 60959, 'author': 'ckarras', 'author_id': 5688, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/5688', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I\'ve had these issues too for years on Windows, but I recently found this project: \n<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/" rel="noreferrer" title="Console">Console</a></p>\n\n<p>It still requires "mark mode" for copy/paste, but at least it\'s available from a right-click contextual menu (so you don\'t need to move the mouse to the top left and then move it again to the text you want to select)</p>\n\n<p>UNC paths are not supported by cmd.exe but they are supported by PowerShell.\n(Console can be configured to use any shell, including cmd.exe and PowerShell)</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 60960, 'author': 'jfs', 'author_id': 4279, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/4279', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/console" rel="noreferrer" title="Windows Console Enchancement">Console</a></p>\n\n<p>From documentation:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>NOTE: Console is NOT a shell.\n  Therefore, it does not implement shell\n  features like command-line completion,\n  syntax coloring, command history, etc.</p>\n  \n  <p>Console is simply a nice-looking front\n  end for a shell of your choice\n  (cmd.exe, 4NT, bash, etc.) Other\n  command-line utilities can also be\n  used as \'shells\' by Console.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As a programming shell one can use <a href="http://ipython.scipy.org/" rel="noreferrer">ipython</a>.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 60978, 'author': 'Anheledir', 'author_id': 5703, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/5703', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I\'m using Terminals for remote connection via Telnet, RDC, SSH, ...\nCombines most used protocolls in one program.</p>\n\n<p>URL: <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/Terminals" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.codeplex.com/Terminals</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 60987, 'author': 'Dan Dyer', 'author_id': 5171, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/5171', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I use <a href="http://www.cygwin.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Cygwin</a> inside the <a href="http://poderosa.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Poderosa</a> terminal emulator.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 61042, 'author': 'Adam Mitz', 'author_id': 2574, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2574', 'pm_score': 4, 'selected': False, 'text': '<ol>\n<li>Turn on quickedit mode (but selection is still rectangular instead of line-wrapped)</li>\n<li>Resizing by dragging works for me</li>\n<li>You can change the buffer size which will impact when scrollbars appear</li>\n<li>pushd \\\\server\\share</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Even with those, cmd.exe isn\'t a great console.  See all the other replies and the earlier stackoverflow questions on the same subject.  The "Console" project from sourceforge looks pretty good.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 189781, 'author': 'Community', 'author_id': -1, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Why not use Putty?</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 3558987, 'author': 'Tim', 'author_id': 429827, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/429827', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I use rxvt from cygwin.  It behaves very much like an xterm.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 4992202, 'author': 'Oğuz Çelikdemir', 'author_id': 147437, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/147437', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I think you will love PowerCMD which you can work 4 command windows at the same time. Also, you can use many extra commands inside the PowerCMD.\n<a href="http://www.powercmd.com/" rel="nofollow">PowerCMD</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 6149949, 'author': 'Priya', 'author_id': 465560, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/465560', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Use <strong>Gow.exe</strong>  ..\nThis will make your <strong>DOS-Prompt</strong> as <strong>Linux terminal</strong>...</p>\n\n<p>else </p>\n\n<p>Use <strong>ZOC.exe</strong>...its Trial-period terminal...</p>\n\n<p>else</p>\n\n<p>Install <strong>Git</strong> .. it gives a bash-console from where u can use unix commands, partially</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 7799596, 'author': 'mhthomas42', 'author_id': 330584, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/330584', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>There is a small program <strong>mo.exe</strong> on github that solves the first three issues:\n<a href="https://github.com/boolship/Mo" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/boolship/Mo</a></p>\n<p>It runs in normal DOS console window, Git Bash on Windows, etc.</p>\n<h3>update:</h3>\n<p>That link is now deprecated, use: <a href="https://github.com/boolship/MoDi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/boolship/MoDi</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 8492948, 'author': 'Anish Gupta', 'author_id': 986276, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/986276', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I personally use Mintty. Therefore I use Cygwin (because thats the only shell it supports, as far as I know).</p>\n\n<p>BTW There is another question: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10083/better-command-for-windows">better command for Windows?</a> I found.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 10904494, 'author': 'Maximus', 'author_id': 1405560, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1405560', 'pm_score': 9, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>Sorry for the self-promotion, I\'m the author of another Console Emulator, not mentioned here.</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://www.fosshub.com/ConEmu.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ConEmu</a> is opensource console emulator with tabs, which represents multiple consoles and simple GUI applications as one customizable GUI window.</p>\n\n<p>Initially, the program was designed to work with <a href="http://www.farmanager.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Far Manager</a> (my favorite shell replacement - file and archive management, command history and completion, powerful editor). But ConEmu can be used with any other console application or simple GUI tools (like PuTTY for example). ConEmu is a live project, open to suggestions.</p>\n\n<p>A brief excerpt from the long list of options:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Latest versions of ConEmu may set up itself as <a href="https://superuser.com/a/509710/139371">default terminal for Windows</a></li>\n<li>Use any font installed in the system, or copied to a folder of the program (ttf, otf, fon, bdf)</li>\n<li>Run selected tabs as Administrator (Vista+) or as selected user</li>\n<li>Windows 7 Jump lists and Progress on taskbar</li>\n<li>Integration with <a href="http://www.dosbox.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DosBox</a> (useful in 64bit systems to run DOS applications)</li>\n<li>Smooth resize, maximized and fullscreen window modes</li>\n<li>Scrollbar initially hidden, may be revealed by mouseover or checkbox in settings</li>\n<li>Optional settings (e.g. pallette) for selected applications</li>\n<li>User friendly text and block selection (from keyboard or mouse), copy, paste, text search in console</li>\n<li>ANSI X3.64 and Xterm 256 color</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Far Manager users will acquire shell style drag-n-drop, thumbnails and tiles in panles, tabs for editors and viewers, true colors and font styles (italic/bold/underline).</p>\n\n<p>PS. Far Manager supports UNC paths (\\\\server\\share\\...)</p>\n'}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/60950', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/4668/']