Many of us started out in the DOS era, or even earlier, before the advent of graphical user interfaces. Since the early days of Mac and Windows computers, there has been a consistent way to hide the “ugly” and cryptic command line from the average user.
On a modern operating system like Windows 10, most people will never have to see or even know about this straight line leading to the heart of the OS.
Power users, on the other hand, live and die thanks to the command line to complete certain tasks. If you know what you are doing, the command line can be used to quickly diagnose problems or make radical and profound changes to the system.
A user who has mastered the command line will almost always be considered a computer genius.
While the Command Prompt in Windows 10 is still very popular on modern computers, it looks like it belongs to an old IBM PC from the 80s. The point is, it doesn’t have to be! You can customize the look and feel of the command line.
Perhaps this is something that most of us might not even think of because this black and white terminal is so iconic. If you’re tired of looking at this DOS-like void, here’s how to spice up your text-scripting adventures.
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Customize the command prompt
Before you can do anything with the command line, you need to open it! You can search for CMD in the Start Menu:
or press Win + R, type CMD and press Enter.
Either way, you call the command line from the underworld of the PC.
Now comes the hardest part. To navigate to the desired settings, right-click the title bar and select Properties.
The properties dialog will open. There are four tabs filled with settings that you can play with. The first has general options, although the only real setting here is the choice of cursor sizes.
The Font tab allows you to choose from several fonts and change the size of the text. This greatly influenced the appearance of the command line.
The Layout tab lets you fine tune the size and position of the Command Prompt window. This is a very handy feature for systems that require constant linking when performing tasks.
Finally, the fun begins on the Colors tab. Here you can change the different colors of the assets and change the transparency!
By tweaking these settings to our liking, we were able to make the command line more modern and attractive.
So now you have no excuse for that old terminal screen. Go ahead and do it your way! Enjoy!
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