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Simple tricks to viewing the Windows command prompt in full-screen mode
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- Maximizing the Window
- Disabling Your Drivers
- Using DOSBox
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In Windows XP, you can quickly set the Command Prompt to full-screen mode with the press of a key. With Windows Vista, 7, and 8, the full-screen option has been removed. This is due to the changes Microsoft made to the display drivers in these newer versions of Windows. If you absolutely need the Command Prompt to run in full-screen, there are several workarounds you can use.
Things You Should Know
- Press Alt + Enter at the same time to expand the command prompt to fit the full screen.
- To run DOS programs in full-screen mode, you’ll need an emulator like DOSBox.
- If you’re using Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, run the «wmic» command and then maximize the window.
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Windows Vista introduced new graphics drivers that enable effects such as the Aero desktop and better hardware acceleration. One of the downsides of these new drivers is that full-screen is no longer supported for console (Command Prompt) applications. This means that you can no longer make the Command Prompt full-screen in Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1. You can use the following workaround to make the window take up the whole screen, but it won’t be true full-screen.
- Windows 10 allows you switch the Command Prompt to full-screen by pressing Alt+↵ Enter.
- You can disable your video card drivers, but you’ll lose the Aero theme in Windows and your screen resolution will max out at 800 x 600. See the next section for details.
- If you run a lot of DOS programs and want to use them in full-screen mode, you may want to try the DOSBox emulator. This program emulates the DOS environment and allows you to run programs full-screen. See the last section for details.
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You’ll need to start the Command Prompt as an administrator, which you can do from the Start menu.
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If you aren’t logged in with an administrator account, you’ll need to enter the administrator password.
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↵ Enter. This will load the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC). Don’t worry about using this tool, you’ll only be using it to trick the Command Prompt into maximizing the window. You’ll notice that the prompt will change.
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Click the Maximize button in the corner of the Command Prompt window. It should now take up the whole screen, but will still have borders and the title bar.
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↵ Enter. You will be taken back to the regular Command Prompt. The window will stay maximized. You can now start using the Command Prompt in a window that takes up the whole screen.
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Your changes will stay in effect even after you close the Command Prompt. The changes will even take effect in the regular version of Command Prompt.[1]
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Microsoft introduced a new display driver in Windows Vista, which enables the Aero effects. Because of this new driver, Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 do not support full-screen command prompt. If you absolutely need the Command Prompt to be full-screen, you can disable this new driver. This will limit your image options and restrict your display to 800 x 600, but it will allow you to use the Command Prompt in full-screen. If you need to return to your normal display, you just need to re-enable the drivers.
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You can find the Control Panel in the Start menu. In Windows 8.1, right-click the Start button and select «Control Panel» from the list.
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If you’re in Category view, select «Hardware and Sound» and then select «Device Manager».
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This will list all of the display adapters (video cards) that you have installed. Most users will have one or two adapters listed here.
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You’ll be asked to confirm that you want to turn it off. Your screen will likely shut off for a moment and restart in a lower resolution.
- If you have multiple adapters, you’ll need to disable your primary adapter. If you don’t know which one this is, just disable all of them.
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Open the Command Prompt and press Alt+↵ Enter to make it full-screen. Press the keys again to switch it back. You can continue to do this for as long as the drivers are disabled.
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If you need to use your display drivers again, you can quickly re-enable them from the Device Manager. Right-click on the disabled driver and select «Enable» to turn it back on. You may have to restart your computer.[2]
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DOSBox is a free MS-DOS emulator that can run your old DOS programs in Windows. If you run old DOS programs through the Command Prompt and want to display them full-screen, DOSBox is the easiest way to do that. This is especially useful for old games.
- Because DOSBox is focused on games, it has limited networking and printing support. In theory, however, it should be able to run any DOS program.
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You can download the DOSBox installer for free from dosbox.com/wiki/Releases. Run the installer after downloading, and follow the prompts to install DOSBox.
- During installation, choose a location at the root of your hard drive. For example, if your hard drive is «C:\», install DOSBox at C:\DOSBox.
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DOSBox will use this folder to act as its own «C:\» drive. Place this folder in the same location that your DOSBox folder is located. Name the folder something easy to access and remember, such as C:\DOSPrograms or C:\oldgames.
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Each program should be contained within a separate folder in your programs folder.
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You’ll be taken to the DOSBox command line, and will need to configure a few things before you can start using it.
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Type MOUNT C C:\DOSPrograms and press ↵ Enter. Replace C:\DOSPrograms with the folder you created for your DOS programs.
- If you’re running a program from a CD, type MOUNT D D:\ -t cdrom to mount the CD drive instead.
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Type cd folderName to open the program’s folder. Replace folderName with the name of the folder for the program you want to run.
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Type dir to see a list of files in the directory. Find the EXE file and type it into the command line. This will start the DOS program.
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Once you’ve got the program running, you can switch to full-screen mode by pressing Alt+↵ Enter.[3]
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About This Article
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 270,548 times.
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This is for those of you who want enlarge the Command Prompt box on a Windows 7 PC by default. If you’d like to learn this process, this article starting with Step 1 below will show you how.
Steps
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Start it from your Start menu. You can find it on your All programs list underneath Accessories and most of the time underneath that in the System Tools list, or you can go right to it from your Run command (type in «cmd.exe» into your Run window text box).
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Right click on the title bar of the Command Prompt and Select Properties.
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Look under the Layout tab for a Window Size: Width and Window Size: Height. Change the width from 80 to a higher value such as 170. This dimensions will be based on your screen’s resolution size, and sometimes just dividing the dimensions by 8 will be good enough. Don’t type a value into this box that’s bigger than 170, as the computer will turn them back to 170.
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Close the Command Prompt window and reopen it. You should now be able to maximize the cmd prompt window to full screen by double clicking on the menu bar or resize the window using you mouse.
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Video
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In Windows 7, there’s no such thing as a real full-screen cmd prompt. This trick just makes the window bigger so it fits the screen.
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Alternatively you may want to try this Console2. You can maximize it as you want to by dragging it in the sides. But double clicking on the title bar doesn’t maximize the program. But its a great alternative for cmd.exe program.
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If you want to reset the size back to normal defaults, right click the title bar and open Properties. In the Layout tab, set Screen Buffer Size Width to 80, Window Size Width to 80 and Window Size Height to 25. Click OK.
About this article
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 24,225 times.
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In previous versions of Windows, you had the ability to enter fullscreen mode for the command prompt. Windows XP was the last version where this worked. In Windows Vista, Microsoft removed the fullscreen mode leaving us with a small black window. Recently, I covered that in Windows 10, the command prompt has been improved significantly by adding lots of new features. Now, with build 9879 of Windows 10, Microsoft has restored the ability to go fullscreen for the command prompt. Let’s see how.
To try the full screen mode of the command prompt in Windows 10, do the following:
- Open a new Command prompt window by launching the appropriate shortcut from the Start menu or by typing cmd into the Start menu search box and pressing Enter.
- When command prompt starts, press Alt + Enter keys together on the keyboard
Voila, you will see that you have entered the fullscreen command prompt! Press Alt+Enter again to switch back to the windowed mode.
You can also try this trick with an elevated command prompt. Open a new elevated instance of cmd.exe and press Alt + Enter again.
That’s it. I find it cool that Microsoft is reviving some useful old features in Windows 10.
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