How to modify the Command Prompt window settings?

(This article applies to Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 only.)

We all use the Windows Command Prompt window almost everyday. Did you know we can customize it to suit our own preferences? Here is a short overview on how to customize the Windows Command Prompt window:

To Open the Windows Command Prompt window, click on Start -> Select Run and then type CMD in the box and click OK or just hit the <Enter> key.

You can directly open the Run box by using the keyboard combination <Windows Key>+R

Having done that, this is how you can customize it -Click on the top left corner of the Command Prompt window to open the Properties dialogue box.

It will look like this:

Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Command Prompt Window

 

You can  also open the Command Prompt window’s Properties dialogue box by using the following keyboard combination: < ALT> + <SPACE-BAR> + <P>.

The size of the Command Prompt window, Background and Foreground Colors, Screen Buffer size, Number of Buffers and Quick Edit are some of the options you can customize.

If you enable the Quick Edit Mode – you can copy and paste to and from the Command Prompt window just like in any other application. If you want to copy something from here, just highlight the text using your mouse and then right-click. Similarly, to paste, click where you want to paste the copied text and right-click!

You can increase the Screen Buffer size if you wish to enable scrolling in your Command Prompt window.

If you increase the Number of Buffers to 5, then the number of lines in the Command Prompt window increases up to 5000.