The default command prompt window in Windows XP appears similar to the following:
Fig. 1. Typical Windows XP Command Prompt Window
To customize your command prompt, click on the command prompt icon
with the right mouse button to activate
the system menu:
Fig. 2. Activating the System Menu to Select
"Properties"
From there, you can switch through the tabbed property sheets to make customizations. The first of these is to increase the Command History Buffer Size (circled in red), under the Options tab. Increasing the number will remember more commands, which you can scroll back and forth through by using the up arrow and down arrow keys.
Fig. 3. Customizing Command Prompt Options
Similarly, from the Layout tab, you can increase the Screen Buffer Size Height, to remember more lines of output in the window. You can use the vertical scroll bar to scroll back through previous commands and the output from those commands.
Fig. 4. Customizing Command Prompt Layout
Finally, from the Font and Colors tabs, you can change the appearance of the text in the window to suit your preferences. Using a TrueType, fixed-point, scalable font like Lucida Console is better than the default raster font. Similarly, the Screen Background and Screen Text can be made more easy on the eyes, than the default gray-on-black combination.
Fig. 5. Customizing Command Prompt Font
Fig. 6. Customizing Command Prompt Colours
When you click the OK button to activate the changes, make sure that you select Modify shortcut that started this window so that your customizations are remembered from now on.
Fig. 7. Finalizing Command Prompt Customizations
