up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

Anyone know why doesn't the Windows command prompt window maximize to the full screen size?

To the best of my knowledge, even in the new Windows 7 the command prompt window(cmd.exe) doesn't maximize to the full screen size like all other windows. This behavior is quite annoying for me, and I'm sure to many others as well.

Note: The size of the command prompt window can be changed, but the size remains fixed regardless of the screen size.

link|improve this question
feedback

migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 7 '09 at 21:54

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

5 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

By default, each line of the command prompt's buffer is only 80 characters wide. If a program produces an output line of more than 80 characters, it is split into multiple lines of the buffer, so there's no point to having a command prompt window more than 80 characters wide.

You can change the size of the buffer on XP by going to the system menu > Properties > Layout tab > Screen Buffer Size. I usually leave mine set at 500x999 because I hate the default line wrapping (I prefer scrolling). A side effect of this is that you can now maximize the window to the full screen size.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

The reason is that the command prompt is owned by a specific subsystem (csrss.exe) in the windows architecture which is different from the normal Windows subsystem (win32k.sys). Because of this, command prompt windows behave differently then normal windows. You'll note that amongst other annoying behavior, that setting properties for a prompt will only apply to prompts launched via whatever method that particular prompt was launched with.

Why this is, I have no earthly idea.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

It doesn't maximize to the full width of the screen because the terminal window is a fixed number of characters wide.

link|improve this answer
True, although there's no real reason for this is there. After all an X-Term on Unix will just vary the size of the terminal. Also an X-Term running in Cygwin/X running a dos prompt can be resized to any size and therefore maximised. – Benj Dec 7 '09 at 19:04
And why is that @Anon? – Antoni Dec 7 '09 at 19:05
You'll notice when you do change the width of the terminal in the properties page, it doesn't change the wrapping of previous lines. Evidently, Microsoft thought consistent line-wrapping across maximization would be preferable to the alternative. – Anon. Dec 7 '09 at 19:09
Some terminals (urxvt and the OS X terminal) will reflow the lines when you resize it, but others just mangle and erase them. – Josh Lee Dec 7 '09 at 21:57
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You can press Alt + Enter to toggle full screen.

link|improve this answer
2  
Not as of Vista. – Graeme Perrow Dec 7 '09 at 19:02
Good to know. I've not used any version of Windows more recent than XP. – recursive Dec 7 '09 at 20:06
1  
And it looks unnaturally ugly. Wide fonts, ugh ... – ldigas Dec 7 '09 at 23:50
My console windows are 120×45 ... have fun using that in fullscreen mode :-) – Joey Dec 8 '09 at 1:29
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You can try DOSBOX to make cmd.exe go full screen. Download here, http://space.dl.sourceforge.net/project/dosbox/dosbox/0.74/DOSBox0.74-win32-installer.exe

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard