The good old Windows Command Prompt hasn’t been the most aesthetic of command line tools, especially when compared to Linux and Mac terminals. Most of us think of Command Prompt as a digital chalkboard with a basic black-on-white aesthetic reminiscent of the MS-DOS days. However, it doesn’t have to be like that. This is because you can change and customize Windows 10 Command Prompt colors and fonts by adding a much needed color line.
Customize Command Prompt Color and Font in Windows 10
In this tutorial, you will learn how to change the colors and font in the Windows 10 Command Prompt, both temporarily (for the current session) and permanently. We’ll also show you how to undo these changes and revert to the default black-on-white look in case you don’t like what you see. Without further ado, let’s take a look at how we can customize the Command Prompt in Windows 10.
Customize Command Prompt Color
- First, open Command Prompt. For this, search for ‘cmd’ in the Windows Search Bar and click ‘Command Prompt’ from the results.
- Now right-click on the top bar of the Command Prompt window and select ‘Properties’.
- Select the ‘colors’ tab from the properties window [1] and then select the colors you want for the text and background using the pre-selected color options [2]. You can also enter your own RGB color combination. [3] if you want.
- In the first case, I used the old-fashioned green-on-black terminal view, selecting green text while keeping the background black. In the second screenshot you will see that we have reversed the default color scheme to achieve a very Notepad-like black and white look.
- Prior to the launch of the ‘Terminal’ application in early 2019, Microsoft Updated Command Prompt features With an additional ‘Terminal’ tab as part of Windows 10 build 18298. It includes several new customization options for the cursor and terminal color spaces that allow you to set RGB color values for the default foreground and/or background colors. Select the checkboxes next to ‘Use Separate Foreground/Background’ to get started.
- These colors are independent of the color palette you choose in the ‘Color’ tab. As you can see, I changed the fields to give the Command Prompt Window on my computer a bright orange background with white text in the foreground.
Customize the Command Prompt Font
- Back in the Properties dialog, switch to the ‘Font’ tab to change the properties for the font used in the Command Prompt. Here you can change the font and text size. You can also click the ‘Bold Fonts’ checkbox to add a little more weight to any font you choose.
You can play around with the settings and different options to see what you like.
Add a Color Line to the Familiar Windows Command Prompt on Your Computer
There it is folks! Now you know how to customize the Windows Command Prompt on your Windows 10 computer. If PowerShell is your command line tool of choice and you want to customize it with custom fonts and colors, you should check out our tutorial on how to change the Windows PowerShell color scheme in Windows 10. Windows Terminal application (download) if you frequently use command line tools and shells such as Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL.
