Take Command Console LE from JPSoft

[mwb1100]

For people who are command line junkies, you might want to look at a new offering from JPSoft (makers of Take Command, formerly known as 4NT or 4DOS).

Take Command is a replacement for cmd.exe with enhanced commands.  The LE version is a free version that excludes the GUI component (DOS box only) and excludes some of the more advanced commands (in particular the ability to access files over FTP or HTTP).  However, it's more or less what 4NT was prior to version 9 and has some very nice command line and batch file capabilities.

If you find yourself doing a lot at the Windows command line, it's worth checking out TCC LE:  http://www.jpsoft.com/tccledes.htm

[cranioscopical]

It's a great freebie!

[f0dder]

mwb1100: "dos box" -> "console window"... there's no DOS in NT

I used to use jpsoft's 4dos a lot back in the win9x days. Heck, on my 486 I didn't feel like running win95, so I used a manually stripped-down version (15-25meg install or so?) with "shell=4dos.com", just to get the better memory protection, multitasking and disk cache that win95 offered over plain MS DOS

It's a shame the windows console (not cmd.exe, the shell, but the actual console code) is so (relatively) limited on windows, and that fullscreen capabilities have been removed on Vista and XP64

Anyway, cool freebie!

[steeladept]

mwb1100: "dos box" -> "console window"... there's no DOS in NT

Misread, perhaps?  mwb1100 did mention "what 4NT was prior to version 9".  If that is what you are talking about, that is quite different then NT4.  Just a thought anyway.

[mwb1100]

No, I don't think misread.  "DOS box" is technically incorrect even if a common term for what is properly called a console window.

[steeladept]

Ack, miscommunication! 

Misread, perhaps?  mwb1100 did mention "what 4NT was prior to version 9".  If that is what you are talking about, that is quite different then NT4.  Just a thought anyway.

I meant that towards f0dder who appears to have misunderstood your post.  Either that or I misread this entire thread...

[f0dder]

steeladept: I'm quite aware of the difference between 4NT and NT4 - I was just nit-picking a bit, since there's no such thing as a "dos box" since the demise of Win9x. Even on Win9x, you really should be saying "console window" instead, since there's a lot of apps running console that aren't DOS apps...

[icekin]

Is this the same company that develops Editpad Lite and pro?

[Grorgy]

Nope thats jgsoft http://www.just-great-software.com/

[icekin]

How does this compare to tools like PowerCmd and Windows Powershell? I've used Powershell before and enjoyed it, but also found that it took longer to start up than regular Command Console by a few seconds.

[Josh]

Now this is something I would like to see a discount on! This would be huge!

[rjbull]

I just heard about another free console enhancer:  Console

Console is a Windows console window enhancement. Console features include: multiple tabs, text editor-like text selection, different background types, alpha and color-key transparency, configurable font, different window styles

[jgpaiva]

Just linking to an interesting thread here on DC about Console, mentioned in the previous post:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=7291.0

[f0dder]

I just heard about another free console enhancer:  Console

Pretty unstable, though - and it's relatively laggy as well, unless you bump down the update timeout and burn CPU cycles. And has problems with some "fullscreen console apps" (like hexit and hiew).

[myarmor]

How does this compare to tools like PowerCmd and Windows Powershell? I've used Powershell before and enjoyed it, but also found that it took longer to start up than regular Command Console by a few seconds.

I guess the nearest comparable item would be PowerShell in that Take Command replaces the commandprocessor
entirely, not just use the same old but adds more fluff.
TCC would most likely be easier to handle than PowerShell, at least for those that have created a batchfile before,
powershell seems to bee too much of a difference..
In addition it extends just about every internal/external function the normal command processor has, in addition to adding several new ones.

[DMcCunney]

I just heard about another free console enhancer:  Console

Pretty unstable, though - and it's relatively laggy as well, unless you bump down the update timeout and burn CPU cycles. And has problems with some "fullscreen console apps" (like hexit and hiew).

It's stable enough here.  I have tabs configured to run CMD.EXE, Windows Powershell, TCC LE, Cygwin bash, and MinGW zsh.  I can also run things like Eric Meyer's VDE editor and Necromancer's DOS Navigator.  I had problems with alpha-blending and transparency, and simply turned that off.  Transparency is eye-candy I don't need in daily use.

And I load Kris Sweger's ANSIPlus in CONFIG.NT for ANSI support in DOS apps, and Jason Hood's ANSICON in CMD.EXE/TCC LE sessions for ANSI support there.  It all works fine in Console 2 tabs.  I haven't found a need to diddle the update settings.

Console 2 doesn't do full screen, but I wouldn't want to.  I have a 19" monitor in 1600x1200 resolution, and prefer everything in a window.

[f0dder]

*shrug*, sometimes console2 crashes for me, and that sometimes takes out all the running console apps as well. And by "fullscreen" I didn't mean alt+enter fullscreen, but "GUI console apps" - at least a few of them work very poorly with console2.

If those problems were fixed, it would be a really great app, having tabs certainly beat several open cmd.exe windows

[DMcCunney]

*shrug*, sometimes console2 crashes for me, and that sometimes takes out all the running console apps as well.

Well, yeah, they would be considered child processes of Console, and when the parent croaks, so do the kids.

And by "fullscreen" I didn't mean alt+enter fullscreen, but "GUI console apps" - at least a few of them work very poorly with console2.

Oh, OK.  The main one I tried that had heartburn was SETEDIT.  The DOS version insisted on running full screen, and could not be resized into a window.  If you installed the DOS version, then copied over the EXE for the Win32 console build, it would resize, but Console didn't like it at all.  That author had no idea what was going on.  He wrote it using a Borland toolkit, and something in the Borland library code did things that mightily confused Console.

If those problems were fixed, it would be a really great app, having tabs certainly beat several open cmd.exe windows

It works well enough here for me to use it regularly.

[f0dder]

*shrug*, sometimes console2 crashes for me, and that sometimes takes out all the running console apps as well.

Well, yeah, they would be considered child processes of Console, and when the parent croaks, so do the kids.

Nope, Windows doesn't kill child processes when the parent dies. Most of the times when console2 has crashed on me, the child console programs tend to be "orphaned", still running but without any attached console. I guess it might be possible to revive them with some code injection, but meh. Once or twice, I'm pretty sure the children died as well though.

If those problems were fixed, it would be a really great app, having tabs certainly beat several open cmd.exe windows

It works well enough here for me to use it regularly.

It just sucks having a crash when you're in the middle of doing a software build - ugh >-<

[rjbull]

Here's another one: ColorConsole, freeware from the author of the Q-Dir file manager.  Won't automatically load Tame-DOS, but has tabbed windows.

[vixay]

I just heard about another free console enhancer:  Console

Pretty unstable, though - and it's relatively laggy as well, unless you bump down the update timeout and burn CPU cycles. And has problems with some "fullscreen console apps" (like hexit and hiew).

It's stable enough here.  I have tabs configured to run CMD.EXE, Windows Powershell, TCC LE, Cygwin bash, and MinGW zsh.  I can also run things like Eric Meyer's VDE editor and Necromancer's DOS Navigator.  I had problems with alpha-blending and transparency, and simply turned that off.  Transparency is eye-candy I don't need in daily use.

And I load Kris Sweger's ANSIPlus in CONFIG.NT for ANSI support in DOS apps, and Jason Hood's ANSICON in CMD.EXE/TCC LE sessions for ANSI support there.  It all works fine in Console 2 tabs.  I haven't found a need to diddle the update settings.

Console 2 doesn't do full screen, but I wouldn't want to.  I have a 19" monitor in 1600x1200 resolution, and prefer everything in a window.

That sounds awesome... I had just discovered TCC LE today and set it up in console 2 and while I was at it, i added powershell, and thought that I should probably add bash/cygwin or msys to it (though portable versions of it) and i soon got lost on researching those solutions rather than getting it done. So I would be very happy if you could tell me how you have set it up, and if your setup is portable.  (posting your console.xml would be cool as well)

And just FYI, TCC le wouldn't work with console 2 for me, until i updated it to the latest version 146 (had 144 earlier).

for console2 from me as well.