Customize And Control Command Prompt In Windows

The Windows control prompt has long been a convenient way to run certain commands or command strings that you can’t hands or necessarily run within Windows itself. That tradition is yet alive and well in both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

In improver to running commands at the prompt, you’re able to control and customize the command window itself. Yous tin can resize the window horizontally as wide every bit you lot want. You can set the text to wrap around to the next line precisely to more easily read the entire command. And you can use the old standby Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V keyboard strokes to copy and paste text to and from a command prompt.

Windows besides offers the more than robust and powerful (hence, the name) PowerShell tool, which provides the same features every bit Command Prompt but adds a scripting language so you can write complex scripts. In Windows 10, the traditional command prompt window and the PowerShell control prompt window both take the same customizable settings and properties. In Windows eleven, nevertheless, Microsoft renamed the PowerShell app to Windows Terminal and inverse the way y’all access and tweak its settings.

Some commands and strings that you type at the command prompt require elevated administrative privileges. Depending on how y’all access the Command Prompt or PowerShell, y’all should see an additional option to run either ane as an ambassador. Whatever instructions y’all receive that require you to run a sure control this way will tell you if you need to run information technology as an administrator. At present, allow’s expect at all your options.

Control Prompt in Windows 10

In Windows 10, click in the search field and blazon
cmd. Among the results are options for
Open
and
Run as administrator. From here, you lot can also pin the cmd app to the Starting time card or taskbar, a handy capability if you oft use information technology.

Alternatively, click the Start push, scroll down the All Apps screen, and open the binder for Windows System. Click the shortcut for Command Prompt to open up a regular prompt. Right-click the shortcut, move your mouse to More than, and and then select
Run as administrator
to open the prompt with administrative privileges.

To open a PowerShell window in Windows 10, right-click the Commencement push button. From the context menu, select either Windows PowerShell or Windows PowerShell (admin).

Whether yous select command prompt or PowerShell, with or without administrative privileges, the properties and the way y’all change them are the same in Windows ten. Select any selection to open up a command prompt window.

At the prompt, type the command
help, which displays a list of all bachelor commands. But if your command prompt window is too narrow, you can’t easily read all the text.

But drag and drop the right border of the window to increase the width every bit needed to more easily read each string of text.

You can also prepare the text to wrap around to the side by side line. This pick is turned on by default, but you lot tin however make certain information technology’s enabled and see what happens if you lot plow information technology off. Click the C:\ icon in the upper-left corner of the command prompt window. From the drop-downward menu, click the setting for Backdrop.

From the Backdrop window, click the Layout tab. The pick for
Wrap text output on resize
should be checked. Uncheck it and and so click OK.

Resize the window horizontally and y’all’ll see that the text no longer wraps.

Go back to the Layout carte du jour, recheck the option to wrap text, and click OK. Resize the command prompt window, and the text once again wraps to the next line.

To copy and paste text in prior versions of Windows, you’d have to select your text, click the C:\ icon for the drop-down menu, cull the Edit command, movement to your destination window, so click the Paste command. In Windows 10 and 11, y’all can simply copy and paste text using the standard Windows keystrokes. Afterwards yous select text in the command prompt window, printing Ctrl + C to copy information technology.

Move to your destination window and and then printing Ctrl + Five to paste information technology.

The Backdrop window offers a variety of other settings to control and customize the command prompt and window. Select the Options menu to vary the size of the cursor, control how many commands can hang out in the memory buffer at in one case, and plow a diverseness of settings on and off.

From the Font menu, you can change the size and type of the font.

From the Layout menu, you can arrange the size of the command prompt window.

And from the Colors carte du jour, yous can splash some color onto the text and background of the command prompt window.

Command Prompt in Windows xi

In Windows eleven, you can still open up a traditional command prompt. Click the Search icon, type
cmd, and so press Enter. To open a regular PowerShell window, type
powershell
at the search field and printing Enter. In both cases, the properties and settings are the same as in their Windows 10 counterparts.

Only Microsoft has added a contraction to the command prompt through Windows Terminal, which is built into Windows 11. To open Windows Terminal, correct-click the Commencement push button and select Windows Terminal or Windows Last (Admin).

Beyond supporting PowerShell and PowerShell commands, Windows Concluding offers a few helpful features. You lot can open additional tabs to juggle multiple windows. Click the plus (+) icon for each new tab you wish to open. Yous tin can likewise movement the order of the tabs by dragging and dropping 1 to the left or right. Click the X to close a specific tab.

From the final, you lot’re able to specify the type of window you lot wish to open. Click the downwards arrow next to the last plus (+) icon. From the card, you can open a PowerShell window, a traditional command prompt, or an Azure Cloud Shell(Opens in a new window), the latter of which lets you manage a cloud-based Microsoft Azure environment.

To assist you enter the correct commands, Windows Concluding offers a Command Palette tool. Click the down arrow and select Command Palette. Roll down the window and select the command you want to run.

The way you lot customize the Windows Terminal differs from the way yous customize the control line apps in Windows 10. Click the downward arrow and select Settings. That opens another tab with dissimilar categories of settings. Here, y’all can select a specific category, make the changes yous wish, and then click Save to save the changes or Discard changes to reject them.

Select Startup to control how a terminal window looks and acts when yous open information technology.

Select Interaction to decide the formats for copying and pasting.

Select Appearance to set the theme and layout for the terminal window.

Select Color schemes to cull the colors for a terminal window.

Select Rendering to determine if and when the screen redraws if you’re trying to troubleshoot a problem.

Select Actions to view and add whatever control line deportment you want to use.

Finally, select Defaults to determine the default settings for a terminal window. Yous can too set the defaults for the iii unlike types of windows.