Better editing and copy paste abilities for cmd.exe/windows console

Question

Is there any interface that'll make cmd.exe (or for that matter any "console" application) more friendly ? I'm thinking easier copy/paste abilities and more powerful command editing , more like a typical unix shell.

Answer 1

Install "Services for Unix" (aka Interix) and use bash (or build your favorite Unix shell)?

Use cygwin and use bash (or build your favorite Unix shell)?

You are using "QuickEdit Mode" on your CMD shell, aren't you? If not, be sure to turn that on in the "Properties" for your shell window on the "Options" page. That makes mouse-based copy/paste much nicer.

TAB filename completion for the shell is nice, too. Turn that on by adding the following to the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor
CompletionChar - REG_DWORD - 9

Answer 2

The Powershell 2 ISE is quite nice.

Answer 3

The poorly-named Console is a replacement terminal for cmd.exe (or powershell.exe or, really, any other cli shell).

It's still running cmd.exe on the inside, so there are still problems with things like its confusing command history, but window resizing, selection, etc. all work much better.

It also supports tabs, support for saving multiple configurations (so you can easily start different shells and different options, like startup directory and appearance settings), PageUp does something useful (I reconfigured mine to Shift-PgUp), etc.