Are there any better command prompts for Windows?

I don't know if this is what you want: Resizing the Powershell Console Window. If so, I got this awhile ago: Just type: resize and use the arrow keys to adjust width and height.

##
## Author   : Roman Kuzmin
## Synopsis : Resize console window/buffer using arrow keys
##

function Size($w, $h)
{
    New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.Size($w, $h)
}

function resize()
{
Write-Host '[Arrows] resize  [Esc] exit ...'
$ErrorActionPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
for($ui = $Host.UI.RawUI;;) {
    $b = $ui.BufferSize
    $w = $ui.WindowSize
    switch($ui.ReadKey(6).VirtualKeyCode) {
        37 {
            $w = Size ($w.width - 1) $w.height
            $ui.WindowSize = $w
            $ui.BufferSize = Size $w.width $b.height
            break
        }
        39 {
            $w = Size ($w.width + 1) $w.height
            $ui.BufferSize = Size $w.width $b.height
            $ui.WindowSize = $w
            break
        }
        38 {
            $ui.WindowSize = Size $w.width ($w.height - 1)
            break
        }
        40 {
            $w = Size $w.width ($w.height + 1)
            if ($w.height -gt $b.height) {
                $ui.BufferSize = Size $b.width $w.height
            }
            $ui.WindowSize = $w
            break
        }
        27 {
            return
        }
    }
  }
}

If you don't mind installing cygwin you can use it with xterm or rxvt. You'll also be able to use Bash as the shell instead of cmd.exe which is much nicer.


2019 Update:

  • Microsoft has released the terminal app on Github & the Windows Store, and it has tabs, panels, acrylic transparency, and other features.

2016 Update:

  • Windows 10's default conhost UI has more features, including free resize, transparency, etc (this includes cmd & powershell)
  • I now use ConEmu (walkthrough here) which has many features including tabs & split panes.
  • Other options include Cmder (which comes with additional tools built in), and ConsoleZ (a fork of Console2).
  • Console appears to no longer be updated