Alternative command prompt for Windows

Question

I am looking for a free alternative to the default cmd in Windows 7. The features I'm looking for are (in order of importance/preference):

• keyboard shortcuts similar to standard ones (eg. ctrl + c/v/x/a), or at least configurable shortcuts
• ability to select and delete (ie. select some written text, and press backspace/delete to remove it)
• tabs (multiple windows in one window)
• search (for stuff previously written)

Answer 1

ConEmu + Clink

I've been using ConEmu for a while, and it has everything you'd want in a Windows command line emulator. Clink integrates well with ConEmu and also offers additional features. Regarding your requirements:

• Configurable keyboard shortcuts and macros. By default, it automatically copies text on selection (can be disabled), and pastes using Ctrl-v or right mouse button. You can also define your own keyboard shortcuts under Settings -> Keys & Macro
• Ability to open multiple tabs in a single Window. Using the +-shaped button, or a keyboard shortcut like Win-w
• Ability to search through command history using Ctrl-r in Clink. Note that this might take a few tries to get used to if you're not familiar with incremental search.

Note that your second point about selecting and deleting (or cutting) text is not possible through any terminal application simply because it's not supported by Windows command line utility (which is the underlying application being emulated). You can get around that using some shortcuts like Ctrl-Backspace to delete entire words at a time.

Answer 2

Windows 10's default cmd.exe supports those shortcuts. You need to go to properties and enable the needed features

_{(source: howtogeek.com)}

Not only ctrl+C/V/X/A works but shift+arrow keys to select also work. Note that the above image is from the experimental time and it did officially appear in recent Windows 10 TP versions so you won't see experimental tab anymore.

Search can be archieved with ctrl+F. I'm afraid command searching is still not available but you can press F7 like always to view the list of typed commands.

Some other useful features:

• Alt+Enter to enter fullscreen
• Resize the window freely
• Transparent window
• Line wrapping selection instead of rectangular selection like before

No support for tabs yet but still a lot of big improvements

For more information read Windows blog on Console Improvements in the Windows 10 Technical Preview

http://www.howtogeek.com/197749/how-to-power-up-the-windows-10-command-prompt-with-ctrlc-and-ctrlv/

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows10GetsAFreshCommandPromptAndLotsOfHotkeys.aspx

Answer 3

Penteract CMD GUI Creator lets you create GUIs for command line commands. Then you can

• not only cut/copy/paste, but also drag files in to get their paths,
  and click on buttons to get switches, and more.
• select and delete.

It does not, however, support multiple tabs, nor searching for previously entered text.