How can I widen the Windows 7 Command Prompt window?

Question

How can I widen the Windows 7 command prompt window?

It's fixed at 80 columns in width and dragging the window edges won't let me make it any bigger than that.

Thanks for asking... apparently this is a common problem. Any idea why MS decided to make this obscure behavior the default? — Fixee, Jul 16 '15 at 19:28

score 30 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

30

Yes. To change the screen buffer or window size:

Click the icon at the left of the title bar.
Click Properties (or Defaults for persistent properties) ^{Thanks @Scott}
Go to the Layout tab
Change the settings accordingly
Click OK to save.

edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

Community

answered Mar 16 '12 at 21:14

iglvzx

4

You can also click Defaults instead of Properties to make the changes stay when you close and re-open the command prompt. (you beat me to the answer, I was going to include pictures :) ) – Scott Chamberlain Mar 16 '12 at 21:16
A good solution to a problem that shouldn't even exist. Thanks to all. – user81430 Mar 19 '12 at 17:45
1

*> You can also click Defaults instead of Properties to make the changes stay when you close and re-open the command prompt.* Actually, in Windows 7, the *Properties* and *Default* options [are the same](http://superuser.com/questions/323059/temporarily-changing-console-properties-in-windows-7). `:-(` – Synetech Mar 19 '12 at 18:41

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 02 '12 at 14:41

13

You might want to try typing:

mode 120,100

Should widen it significantly.

edited Dec 02 '12 at 14:41

slhck

answered Mar 16 '12 at 21:09

Paperlantern

Awesome! I hope the setting is persistent, but this does what I wanted. – user81430 Mar 16 '12 at 21:18
Btw, I entered "help mode" on the command line to learn about the 'mode' command. The Help is rather cryptic but apparently the first number is the number of columns and the second is the number of lines. – user81430 Mar 16 '12 at 21:19

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 16 '12 at 21:24

10

Type this on command line:

mode con:cols=140 lines=70

Where 140 is the width in columns and 70 is the height in lines.

edited Mar 16 '12 at 21:24

iglvzx

answered Mar 16 '12 at 21:19

Hamed

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 17 '12 at 00:13

1

You can try Console2 on top of cmd.exe, which have (except other things) resizeable window

answered Mar 17 '12 at 00:13

Lazy Badger

4 Answers4