ConEmu
Windows Terminal

Configuration

Disclaimer Please note, that this document has been written for a long period, and some answers may be obsolete. If you find any Q/A, which differs from other parts of documentation or the actual program behavior, please let us know via ‘Suggest better edit’ link at the bottom of the page.

Q. How run cmd file to initialize the environment (cmd prompt)?

A. There are examples in Tasks: ‘Shells::cmd’, ‘SDK::VS 15.0 x64 tools prompt’, and so on. They set up prompt and environment variables.

TL;DR. Use /k switch: cmd.exe /k ...! Without it you would get the message ‘Root process was alive less than 10 sec’. And it’s true. Without /k switch you ask ConEmu (actually cmd) to ‘execute this batch and exit’.

Does not matter how do you run you cmd (batch) script, the rules are the same for ‘cmd.exe’. Tasks, New console dialog, command prompt, Windows’ Win+R dialog, whatever…

Run cmd /? to understand switches and capabilities. And take care about double quotes.

Desktop shortcut example. It runs new ConEmu window with cmd.exe initialized via file C:\Your tools\YourScript.cmd.

ConEmu64.exe -nosingle -run cmd.exe /k "C:\Your tools\YourScript.cmd".

Q. How to let Shift-Home select prompt text to the start of command?

Some essential information cannot be obtained by ConEmu automatically in some shells. Obviously, if ConEmu doesn’t know where prompt input was started, it cannot select command text without prompt label.

Max@PC /mnt/c/Sources $ git clone ssh://...
<---- prompt label ----><command..........>

Use ANSI to notify ConEmu where command input starts. The solution depends on your shell, check examples for PowerShell and bash.

Q. Is it possible to set up ConEmu to open multiple tabs on startup (e.g. Far, CMD, PowerShell)?

A. Yes. Use a startup command file. Example - create startup.txt with the contents:

>E:\Source\FARUnicode\trunk\unicode_far\Debug.32.vc\far.exe
*/BufferHeight 400 cmd
/BufferHeight 1000 powershell

and run ConEmu like this:

conemu.exe /cmd @startfile.txt

Each line in the file corresponds to a launched command. You may specify the console buffer height using the /BufferHeight parameter. If the line starts with “>”, this tab will be active on startup. If the line starts with “*”, this command will be ran with administrator privileges.

Q. Duplicate Far Manager windows

A. The real console was not hidden. Check the ‘Visible’ flag on the ‘Features’ tab in the ‘Settings’ dialog, or this registry value:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ConEmu\.Vanilla]
"ConVisible"=hex:00

Q. How to configure a bitmap font?

A. The bitmap fonts selectable in the standard console’s properties are actually the Terminal font. For example, the bitmap ‘8 x 12’ font is ‘Terminal 12 x 8’ in ConEmu, ‘12 x 16’ -> ‘Terminal 16 x 12’, etc.

Take note: The ‘Charset’ field must be set to ‘OEM’. Personally, I prefer ‘Fixedsys 16 x 8’, which is absent in the standard console.

A. In the font list you may directly select e.g. [Raster Fonts 8x12].

Q. Why are horizontal lines (drawn using box drawing characters) discontinuous?

A. In some fonts, the width of the corresponding box drawing characters is shorter than the font’s declared average character width, which ConEmu uses to determine the size of box drawing characters. To get rid of the artifacts, enable the checkbox ‘Fix Far borders’ and increase the width of the “frames” font. The corresponding settings are on the ‘Main’ tab in the ‘Settings’ dialog.

Q. How to start several consoles in 2x2 grid

A. The question from superuser.com. ConEmu (build 120909 or higher recommended) provides SplitScreen feature. You may set up named task to open several consoles on startup in the grid. Here the example for 2x2 grid.

>cmd -cur_console:n
cmd -cur_console:s1TVn
cmd -cur_console:s1THn
cmd -cur_console:s2THn

Q. How do you configure ConEmu to run cmd.exe as an Administrator from an Explorer integration?

A. Read the answer on superuser.com.

Q. How do I give each tab opened by a {Task} a custom name?

A. Read the answer on superuser.com.

Q. How to set up Git Bash Here in ConEmu?

A. Read the answer on superuser.com.

Q. How to export ConEmu settings?

A. Read the answer on superuser.com.

Q. How to attach a running console application to a new ConEmu instance?

A. Read the answer on superuser.com.

Q. How to delete items from the ‘Create new console’ dropdown?

A. Read the answer on superuser.com.

Download    Donate