How to smarten up a dumb Windows command prompt?

Question

To put it simple and short - I start my Windows command prompt from Win-R, then cmd, from several shortcuts with different enviromental variables, and from inside some editors (don't know how they start it).

Now, I need to set set term= in every of them cmds, without doing it down manually every time. Is there a way?

Are there some global options of cmd somewhere in the registry?

Answer 1

You are probably referring to environment variables.

The environment is inherited by each process from its parent. In Windows, the first environment is established by the logon process. So, if you launch any editor or other program, it will inherit from Windows its environment, add to it its own variables, and will pass them all to any cmd child that it launches on its own account.

If you want term to be always present in any cmd process that is ever launched on your login, go to Control Panel / System / Advanced / Environment variables. There you have the choice of setting term for you own logon or for the system (meaning every process launched with or without login).

If you are looking for a better GUI than that offered by Windows, the freeware Rapid Environment Editor is an excellent option.

Answer 2

I'm not familiar with set term, but you can always set environment variables in the System control panel.

You were probably looking for the autorun value in the registry located here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor

And/or:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor

This should be a REG_SZ or a REG_EXPAND_SZ containing a command executable in Command Prompt. You may want to set this to, say %USERPROFILE%\autorun.bat to run a series of commands.

Note that the HKLM value will be run before the HKCU value if both are set.

Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779439%28WS.10%29.aspx

Beware of http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/11/21/6447771.aspx though.

Answer 3

Install ConEmu. Native shell, nicer features, and a possibility to do a cool hack over FAR

Answer 4

I would strongly recommend switching to Cygwin. Take the power of the Unix terminal and plug it into Windows.