Microsoft has announced a significant upgrade to Windows Console Host, the core environment of Command Prompt (CMD) in Windows 11. This update integrates popular features from the Windows Terminal project, bringing a more powerful and modern experience to the traditional black screen CMD.
This update marks a major step forward by incorporating open-source developments from Windows Terminal directly into the operating system. As a result, even users without the Windows Terminal app installed, or those in Recovery Environment, can now access these new features immediately. This improvement to the internal engine has been highly anticipated by many.
Key Features:
- Sixel Graphics Support: CMD can now display Sixel graphics, making it capable of rendering more complex visual elements directly within the terminal.
- Bold Fonts: Users can now display text in bold font, which enhances readability, especially in scripts and commands.
- Improved Clipboard: CMD now features a more stable clipboard system, fixing issues where text could get lost when pasting in different languages or code.
- Enhanced Scrolling Performance: Microsoft claims that scrolling in CMD is up to 10 times faster in certain situations, making it smoother to navigate through long logs and outputs.
- Regular Expression Search: The Find function now supports Regular Expressions, making it easier and faster to search through large command outputs.
Enhancements for Accessibility:
Microsoft has also updated Pop-up Windows like the command history (accessed with F7) to better support accessibility technologies, ensuring a more inclusive user experience.
Performance Improvements:
In terms of speed, Microsoft has optimized scrolling, allowing for smoother transitions when viewing long command outputs. This performance boost also extends to the search functionality, which now includes regular expression support for quicker, more accurate searches through large volumes of data.
 Origin: Windowscentral
