Better command window in WinXP?

[CoolDragon]

For programmer's like me, I like a better looking command window in WinXP. Comparing the command window of WinXP with Mac OS or Linux, the command window of WinXP is ugly.

Is there any better terminal programs for WinXP?

[CChoi83]

Well, what don't you like about it? You can change the C prompt style meaning if you want it to echo C:\> or C> or C:time> etc etc etc. I just change the font color to green so it looks like the Matrix. lol.

[jdhurst]

Putty is better than what Windows offers and is free. NetTerm is better again (it is what I use exclusively) but it costs a bit (small bit). ... JD Hurst

[Gee]

I use to use NetTerm, but I have since switched to SecureCRT. But these are terminal emulators.

If you are looking for a DOS Shell, then I suggest the old stand by, Norton Commander or a variant called FAR.

You can get an evaluation copy at www.rarlabs.com

[CoolDragon]

Well, I use Cygwin, and it uses the default Windows console window (Command Prompt) as its terminal, but it is really lame.

The best I found is called PuTTYCyg, which is a patch to Putty but communicate locally to your Cygwin. I tried, but it doesn't work on my machine, I don't know why.

[Bob Collins]

In what way exactly is the command window "ugly"?

You can change the font, the scroll back, the prompt, the colors, the editing/highlight modes through the "Properties" for the command shell and then save them.

You could use JPSoftware's 4dos type tools:
http://www.jpsoft.com/

Or you can look for Win32 executables of typical *NIX tools like cat, ls, grep, more, cp, rm, etc. These can install into your windows environment and let you work with the tools you are more familiar with.

[jdhurst]

I interpreted the original post as two questions: (1) command shell and (2) terminal tool (where I use NetTerm).

I don't think there is anything to do in the command shell. It works fine, and while I could imagine a different colour scheme, I don't really care for the little I need it.

I do use a shell session a fair bit, and I like NetTerm for that and work black on white in a font that works well for me.
... JD Hurst

[CoolDragon]

Sorry for the unclearness in my original post, I just think the "command prompt" or "command shell" which comes with Windows and on which the default Cygwin terminal is based, should have some improvements, such as:
1. You can resize it to any size
2. You can select all the mono fonts in system
3. For some reason, this cmd.exe is quite special since some interface improvement software cannot change its interface such as StyleXP or Actual transparent window or YZShadow ....

Anyway, it is enough for all the work if you don't need a GUI, but for geeks or nuts like me, I prefer to have a *NIX terminal like thing.

My finding is that:
1. You can install Cygwin if you want some *NIX tool under Windows, also it comes with gcc and other libraries and headers, so you don't need Visual Studio to do some programming. Of course, it is not targeted for GUI programming.

2. If you can, use PuTTYCyg as the terminal frontend for Cygwin, it is better than the default Windows "command shell".

3. If you cannot use PuTTYCyg like me, there is another way around: make sure you installed rxvt when installing Cygwin, and replace the cygwin.bat's content with this:

@echo off
C:\cygwin\bin\rxvt.exe -fn "Courier New-14" -bg black -fg grey -sr -sl 1000 -g 80x40 -e /usr/bin/bash --login -i

You can tweak the options, but this is also better than the default "command shell".