Change Default Terminal Emulator on Windows – How to Guide

command lineterminal-emulatorwindows

Is it possible to change the default terminal emulator on Windows (7 and 8 in particular) from Console to, for example, Console2 or ConEmu? In essence, I want all command line tools, whether launched by double clicking, from "Run" or by other processes to use the custom terminal.

This is a trivial matter on Linux, is it even possible on Windows?

It would be especially helpful if this could be done via a script.

Best Answer

Default terminal

You may set up ConEmu as default terminal for cmd.exe, tcc.exe, powershell.exe or any other console application. In fact, you choose from what application you need to run any console application, even from Visual Studio for debugging your console applications.

ConEmu's Default Terminal set up

Just turn on checkbox, point applications from you like to start console tools (for example explorer.exe|totalcmd.exe|wdexpress.exe) and voila. You may press Win+R type ipconfig /all and press Enter. You may even start your console application in Visual Studio debugger. New console will starts attached to the new ConEmu tab. You may also doubleclick on some executable in the Explorer window.

You may find more information about the feature in the project wiki: DefaultTerminal.

Alternative

Also, there is an alternative less preferable way to auto run ConEmu on cmd.exe and tcc.exe startup. Just press "Register ConEmu autorun" in Settings -> ComSpec.

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