Anyone know why doesn't the Windows command prompt window maximize to the full screen size?
To the best of my knowledge, even in the new Windows 7 the command prompt window(cmd.exe) doesn't maximize to the full screen size like all other windows. This behavior is quite annoying for me, and I'm sure to many others as well.
Note: The size of the command prompt window can be changed, but the size remains fixed regardless of the screen size.
Best Answer
By default, each line of the command prompt's buffer is only 80 characters wide. If a program produces an output line of more than 80 characters, it is split into multiple lines of the buffer, so there's no point to having a command prompt window more than 80 characters wide.
You can change the size of the buffer on XP by going to the system menu > Properties > Layout tab > Screen Buffer Size. I usually leave mine set at 500x999 because I hate the default line wrapping (I prefer scrolling). A side effect of this is that you can now maximize the window to the full screen size.