command linewindowswindows-vista
Clicking the maximize button on the Windows command prompt does not help because the size does not increase. First of all, why is that?
Also, if you run this instead,
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k "mode 200,70"
you get a bigger Window. How does that happen? What does /k "mode 200,70" mean?
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.
I am not aware of any hack that can increase the size of that window.
As far as I know, this size is built into cmd.exe and it would take a binary
hack of this executable to change it, which no one has done yet.
Some default settings are to be found in the registry under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console for all consoles as well as subkeys for individual settings for other console programs. However, there is no setting for this window size.
An alternative way of seeing more of the history is by using the doskey command.
DOSKEY /HISTORY
Displays all commands stored in memory.
DOSKEY /LISTSIZE=number
Sets size of command history buffer to number lines.
Otherwise, you could maybe find an alternative shell that does what you want. See the AlternativeTo article of Windows Command Prompt.
[EDIT]
In a deleted answer, user @Hicsy remarked that following the doskey /history command,
F9 can be used with a number counting from the bottom and starting with "1".
Best Answer
There are two parts to the answer.
The command shell option /k starts a new command prompt, runs some command (or a program, batch script, or group of commands) and the prompt remains rather than terminating.
In this case, the command is
mode, which can be used to set the command prompt screen size/window buffer so it's 200 columns wide and 70 rows high.Finally, if you want to change the default size of the command prompt, right click on the title bar, select 'Properties', and select the 'Layout' tab. You can set the size of the screen buffer and the window separately. The width should be the same for both. The screen buffer height setting determines how far back you can scroll.