Why is the Windows cmd.exe limited to 80 characters wide?

Question

I love stretching my terminal on unix. What is the history or reason behind windows lame command line?

Answer 1

I don't know the history behind it, but this wishlist item from the author of PuTTy is an interesting post that explains the technical hurdles involved with any type of cmd.exe replacement that isn't lame:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/win-command-prompt.html

You don't mention that you're looking for a replacement, but if so you might also check out some of the cmd.exe replacements like Console 2 or JP Software's Take Command etc. I've also had some good experiences with PuTTy-Cyg which lets you use PuTTy as a cygwin shell.

Answer 2

Since it will scroll left to right as well as up and down, the very first thing I do on a system is define my width as 180 and save it. That's generally enough so that stack traces don't have to wrap for the most part, but not so much that you are waisting a ton of space.

While you're at it, set the vertical size (scrollback buffer) to all 9's. You'll be glad you did some day.

Answer 3

This isn't closed. So it should be noted that Windows Terminal is now is changing all of this:

https://github.com/microsoft/terminal https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/9/21059316/microsoft-windows-terminal-crt-effects-retro-search-tabs-features https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/windows-command-line-backgrounder/ https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/blob/master/doc/terminal-v1-roadmap.md https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal-preview/9n0dx20hk701?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Answer 4

It's not limited.

1. Run cmd.exe
2. Click on the icon in the upper left hand of the screen.
3. Select Properties
4. Select the Layout tab.
5. Set the buffer and window widths to whatever you like.
6. Click OK
7. Select Save Properties for future...
8. Click OK.

You might want to check out Console. It's an open source app that lets you run multiple shells in a tabbed environment. You can also set the alpha-transparency of the shells.

Answer 5

A simple command to fix the window size that I use all the time:

wmic

It will open the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line and remove the size limits. Then just close it with Ctrl+C.

Answer 6

It IS limited. Check it out. (I mean window size NOT buffer)

You will find that the maximum width you can set is limited but varies according to your screen resolution. If your resolution is set to 1024 x 768 you will find that you can only get to 128 on the command prompt width. 128/1024=.125

you will find that ratio to be consistent across the board. I have an RDP session running at 2000x768 (across two of my three monitors) and get a max width of 250.

Now, that actaully turns out to be a little bigger than your actaul monitor size but I have three monitors all running individual desktops. (so in essence, 3 1024x768 resolutions) and if I want to do something SO SIMPLE as stretch a command prompt across 2 or more monitors, I CAN'T. (I want to when doing things with very long paths (diruse.exe/etc.)...

-c