Getting started with PowerCmd

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PowerCmd is a modern and sleek Windows-like GUI replacement to Command Prompt that allows you to run
multiple consoles within a single tabbed window. You can easily organize prompt windows, use Windows style
text editing behavior, auto-log, highlight keywords, configure font and colors, customize a toolbar for frequently
used commands or tools, very nice full screen mode, and get much more functionalities.

About PowerCmd

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The software product "PowerCmd" is a leading Windows Command Prompt replacement with Windows-like behavior,
modern and sleek user interface.
The Author POWERCMD is a privately held independent software vendor committed to providing quality software
solutions.
We specialize in custom software development using Microsoft tools and technologies, including VisualStudio and
the Windows series of operating environments and systems.
We dedicate to the improvement of Windows Command Prompt usability for command line users.
Thank you for your interest in PowerCmd. If you have any questions, please be sure to drop us a line! And thanks
for visiting our site.
We would be pleased to help you resolve any questions or comments you may have about our software product or
services.

Key Features

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Easily Organize Command Prompts

Main view is split with specified layouts. Each view represents a tabbed control, which organize multiple command
line windows with associated tabs. The whole main window can be minimized to a system tray icon (in the
notification area of the taskbar).
PowerCmd allows you to view command line windows in a very nice full screen mode.

Enhanced Windows style text editing behavior

PowerCmd supports standard generic text editing behavior. You can cut, copy and paste using the conventional
Windows shortcuts, drag and drop text within PowerCmd. (the left part on the left screenshot)
PowerCmd still supports traditional column selection mode of the prompt window when ALT key pressed. (the right
part on the left screenshot)

Save Logs Automatically

To help prevent loss of your work, PowerCmd allows you to save the output of consoles automatically. This
capability doesn't impact your interactive operations on consoles, but can protect your data if console or your
computer unexpectedly quits, and can provide you the history log of consoles conveniently.

Highlight keywords on a console and Word Find Buttons

PowerCmd search toolbar puts a search box for consoles, making it easier than ever to find anything you want on a
console.
Once you've used the console search toolbar to find some keywords on a console, there's no need to scroll around
looking for your search terms. The Highlight button instantly lights them up on the page, making it easier to find
relevant information.

Finding a particular word on a console can be frustrating. With the PowerCmd Search Toolbar however you easily
jump to the first instance of a word by typing it into the Toolbar search box, then clicking on the Toolbar's Word
Find button to find each additional occurrence of the word.

Quick Launch Toolbar

PowerCmd allows you to customize a toolbar for quick launching applications, batch scripts and command prompt
commands, which can be launched to current console, start a new one or even not in a console.

Auto-Completion

Auto-Completion makes files under current dictionary easily accessible. You can display a list of files using TAB key
The system icon for files is displayed before the file names. When a file name from the list is selected, you can
press TAB or ENTER to insert that file name into your command line.

To use the Auto-Completion feature

1. Begin typing the name of a file or TAB key to list all files in Auto-Completion window which will display the files

2.

3.

4.
5.

list box if what you have typed has more than one possible match. If there is no match at all, the AutoCompletion window will be hidden.
Auto-Completion displays all valid files in a scrollable list. For example, you can scroll or use the arrow keys to
navigate through the list, or, if you know the first few letters of the file name, begin typing to jump directly to
the file in the list.
To insert the selected file name in your command line, press TAB, ENTER, or double-click to insert just the file
name. There is a slight difference between TAB and ENTER. TAB will leave a space after the file name while
ENTER or double- click does not.
Press ESC at any time to close the file names list.
Press SPACE at any time to close the file names list and input a space at the end.

To turn list file names off by default, clear "Enable auto-completion commands" checkbox from the General page of
Preference dialog.

Configurable

1. View/Hide line numbers

2. Enable/Disable word wrap
3. User defined "space" characters
4. Set font face and size, font color and background color.
5. Set start directory
6. Customized behavior when double clicking on tab
7. Log file names when enable auto-save
8. Behavior of triggering Auto-Completion
9. Set commands which will display directories for auto-completion
10.Automatically outlining according to your settings
11.Allow multiple instances
12.Set transparency

Managing the main window

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PowerCmd displays the managed command windows with specified layouts. The default layout is a single pane with
multiple prompt output windows.

To start a new command prompt window

Click "File" menu, select "New Prompt Window".
Or use short cut key "Ctrl + N"
Or click icon
on toolbar
Or press "start" in the command line and then press "Enter"

Shortcut key for changing active prompt window

Ctrl+(number, 1-4): The pane can be activated by Ctrl + 1, Ctrl + 2, Ctrl + 3 or Ctrl + 4. 1-4 represent the order
of panes, from left to right and then from top to bottom.
Ctrl+Tab:

Change the log file of active prompt window

Click "File" menu, select "Save Text As...".
Or use short cut key "Ctrl + S"
Or click icon

on toolbar

Clear the entire screen buffer

Run command "CLS"

Change the title of tab

Run command "TITLE" with your new title as a parameter

Change the layout of panes

Click "View" menu, select layouts
Or click layout buttons on toolbar
One single pane
Two panes horizontally
Two panes vertically
One pane on the left and two panes horizontally on the right
Three panes horizontally
Two by two grid

Change the owner pane of prompt windows

Drag the title of prompt window to the top of another pane

Close a prompt window

Click "close" button on the top right of the owner pane
Or press "exit" in the command line and then press "Enter"

Hide/Show main window

Click the icon in system tray to hide/show main window. (System tray: the notification area of the taskbar)

Transparency
On "Preference" dialog, "General" tab page, You can set the transparency of the application. 0 is opaque, and 90
is the maximum transparency.

Enhanced Windows style text editing behavior

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Enhanced Windows-like text editing behavior

PowerCmd supports standard generic text editing behavior. You can cut, copy and paste using the conventional Windows shortcuts,
drag and drop text within PowerCmd. Pressing Ctrl+C will get two different behaviors in different situations. PowerCmd still supports
traditional column selection mode of the prompt window when ALT key pressed.

Windows-like text editing

PowerCmd supports standard Windows text editing methods and shortcuts:
- Use mouse to select text as what you did in normal text editor
- Mouse left double clicking to select a word
- Mouse left triple clicking to select a line
- Mouse left clicking on line number margin to select a line
- Mouse left pressing and moving on line number margin to select multiple lines
- Ctrl+Left key to skip words
- Ctrl+Shift+Left key to select words
and more...

Column Selection Mode

PowerCmd still supports traditional column selection mode of the prompt window. If you wish to select a column of text, just pr
ALT key and drag mouse on text window.
Smart Ctrl+C
- If there is any text selected, and press Ctrl+C, selected text will be copied to system clipboard.
- If there is no selection, and press Ctrl+C, it will send a CTRL+C signal to a console process group that shares the console.

Drag and Drop text

If you with to quickly input a command which has been outputted, just select words, drag and drop it anywhere. The selected text w
be appended as command or its parameters.
Drag and Drop file or directory to cmd windows directly
All you to fill the command line and not to execute it if CTRL key is holding on.

History List
You can use the up and down arrows to recall commands from history buffer. F7 and F8, the undocumented command prompt tips,
are better if you want to re-execute a particular command. F7 brings up a history window with numbers, a command can be selected
by the arrow keys and then executed by pressing Enter or mouse double click. Ctrl+Enter or Ctrl + double click puts the command t
current command line but not executes it. F8 brings up the history window with filter. The listed commands are all start with the filter

The image left displays a command prompt commands history buffer window without filter. You can get this window by pressing F7.

The image right displays a command prompt commands history buffer window with filter "ping w". You can input "ping w" and press
F8 to popup this window or input the filter after it has been displayed.

Search and Find Words and Phrases

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Command Prompt Word Find and Highlight

PowerCmd search toolbar puts a search box for consoles. Once you've used the console search toolbar to find some keywords on a
console, there's no need to scroll around looking for your search terms. The Highlight button instantly lights them up on the page,
making it easier to find relevant information.
Finding a particular word on a console can be frustrating. With the PowerCmd Search Toolbar however you easily jump to the first
instance of a word by typing it into the Toolbar search box, then clicking on the Toolbar's Word Find button to find each additional
occurrence of the word.
Overview of Search Toolbar
PowerCmd search toolbar puts a search box for consoles, making it easier than ever to find anything you want on a console.

Search Box
The input of the PowerCmd Search Toolbar. Use it to do a Command Prompt search for words or phrases. Just enter your search
terms in the text box, then hit Enter. Recent searches appear in the drop-down menu below the search box.

Phrases need to be quoted by double quotation marks, you can search multiple words and phrases simultaneously. You can define
some characters from "General" tab page on "Perference" dialog as extra whitespaces which will be ignored when search the content
Highlight Button
Highlights terms on the console by placing a color bar over it. Each search term found on the console will be highlighted in a different
color. Click the highlight button to toggle highlighting on and off.

Word Find Button and Phrase Find Button

Allows you to find the words you searched for on a console and navigate to them. When you enter your search terms in the search
box, buttons containing these terms appear at the right end of the Toolbar. Click these buttons to jump to the next occurrence of tha
word on the console. Hold the Shift key while clicking a word find button to move backwards and find previous occurrences of the
word.
Each word has its own button. If you want to search for a phrase, put it in quotes (for example, "Command Line Tools").
If you do not need to highlight words and phrases, just click the highlight button to toggle highlighting off.
Search words and phrases on Internet
Keep the power of internet search close at hand, Powercmd makes it easier than ever to find any command line output words you
want on the Web. Just select the text appearing on the current console window, right-click and select "Search on Internet" from the
pop-up menu.

Quick Launch Toolbar

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Quick Launch Toolbar

PowerCmd allows you customize a toolbar for quick launching applications, batch scripts and commands. Each toolbar tool content
contains six elements: title, command, agruments and initial directory. The other two define the target of the tool, which can be a
console application or a Windows application with graphical interface. The console application or command, batch script file, can be
applied to current console or it will start a new one. The icons stand for the launch types of tools:
N
" ": in aNew console,
C":
" in Current console,
W":
" Windows applications.

Watch Environment Variables

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Watch Environment Variables

Environment variables have long been used in computer operating systems. To display environment variables, check "Watch
Environment Variables" under "view" menu. PowerCmd allows you to change environment variables from the watch window directly.

From the column header context menu, you can "Refresh" current variables, or save all environment variables and reload them later.

You may be able to find undocumented environment variables that you never see them before, such as "=U:" on the left image. "=U:"
is the working directory of volume U if you have ever changed the working directory of that volume.

Integrate to Shell

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Integrate to Shell
Similar feature as Microsoft PowerToy "Command Prompt Here" or "Dos is here". Add PowerCmd Shortcut to Windows Explorer. It
allows you to open "PowerCmd" from Explorer right click context menu with the initial directory setting to the selected folder.

Allow Multiple Instances

If user don't allow multiple instances, a new tab will start from the current instance.
Command Parameters
Usage: PowerCmd [/P <str>] [/C <str>] [/K <str>] [/H]
/P
Startup from the initial directory
/C
Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
/K
Carries out the command specified by string but remains
/H
Displays help on the command line parameters
Note: it's case sensitive

General Settings

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To specify general file settings, click "File" -> "Preference"

Enable autocomplete commands: AutoComplete makes files under current dictionary easily accessible. You can
check this item to enable/disable displaying a list of files using TAB key.
Display line numbers: Line numbers are displayed on the left side of console as default. Uncheck this checkbox
will hide line numbers.
In addition to space, list the characters which are considered as spaces when search the document:
console output text will be delimited by elements of these characters.

The

Enable word wrap: When a word in a line of text automatically moves to the next line as it approaches the righthand margin of the text block.
Set start directory: set directory that the command prompt will start in.
Customized behavior when double clicking on tab:set one or more commands which will be sent to the
command prompt when double click on tab.
Fonts and Colors: Set font face and size, font color and background color
Allow Multiple Instances: Allow or Disallow multiple instances

AutoSave

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All the console output will be automatically saved to "logs" folder under the application dictionary, which is
"C:\Program Files\PowerCmd\logs" in general.
The name of the log file is composed with 5 parts:
1. Prefix: Your special words, might be your pet's name.
2. "-": Connection character after the prefix
3. A string with time variables.
Every new console window will have a log file, you can avoid repeated names using time variables. Available time variables are as
follows:
Y
Year with century, as decimal number
M
Month as decimal number (01 - 12)
D
Day of month as decimal number (01 - 31)
h
Hour in 24-hour format (00 - 23)
m
Minute as decimal number (00 - 59)
s
Second as decimal number (00 - 59)
Note: Time variables are case-sensitive.

4. "[n]": Automatically renamed sequence number if the file with the name generated with other parts exists. "n" is
a natural number.
5. ".log": dot and extension name.
Note: File name cannot contains any of the following invalid characters below:
* ? : <> / | \ "

Commands Related

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Behavior of triggering Auto-Completion: Disable, auto completion or trigger by TAB key.

Commands specified for directories: only directories for the commands will be listed when auto-completion.

How Do I...
PowerCmd Quick Reference

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Organize and Manage Consoles

1. To tart a new console: Ctrl+N / Run START

2. To close a console: Run EXIT / Click close icon on the top-right of the console / Mouse middle click the
console tab
3. Click layout tools on toolbar: Change the count and position of panes
4. Ctrl+1/2/3/4: Change current focused pane
5. Ctrl+Tab: Shift focused tab within a single pane
6. Drag tab to another pane's tab area: Change the owner pane
7. Run TITLE: Change the title of tab
8. Ctrl+Enter: Full screen mode
9. Alt+F4: Close the application including all command prompts
10.File -> Preference -> General: Define your actions when double click on tabs. The actions are presented as
a set of commands, one per line
11.Click icon on system tray: Minimize to system tray / Restore from it
12.Run CLS: Clear the complete content
13.To Collapse / Expand a section: Click Outlining Margin on section line / Double click section line on console

Logs and History

14.File -> Save Log As or Save button on toolbar: Save the output of your current console to another file
15.File -> Open Logs Folder or Log button on toolbar: go directly to your logs folder and find your history. You
need to remove them manually
16.File -> Preference -> Auto Save: Customize log file name

Text Editing and Find

17.Use mouse to select text, double click to select a word

18.Ctrl + Left / Right: Skip words
19.Ctrl + Shift + Left / Right: Select words
20.Select some words, drag it and drop anywhere: append the selection as new command. If the selection includes
return / new line, the command will be executed right after you drop it.
21.Ctrl + F: Activate search tool and set focus to the input box
22.Input some words in search toolbar and press ENTER: Apply keywords find to all consoles
23.Use double quotation marks for phrases when input in search toolbar
24.Click word find button: Find the next occurrence
25.Press SHIFT when click word find button: Find the previous occurrence
26.Press ALT when Select Text: Column selection mode

Quick Launch Toolbar

27.File -> Preference -> Quick Launch: Customize a toolbar for your frequently used commands or applications
28.Icon N: Launch in New console
Icon C: Launch inCurrent console
Icon W: Launch as a Windows application

Q&A
29.Q: Why I didn't see my Quick Launch Toolbar?
A: Need to define at least a tool first.
30.Q: Sometimes other Shells like Cygwin do not work. Color setting of Cygwin doesn't work.
A: They did not have consistent stream output. Supporting non-consistent stream output and transfer colors
from console windows are our future functionalities.
31.Q: Something is wrong with my stored layout perspective, how can I reset it?
A: Close PowerCmd and delete the file perspective under PowerCmd program files folder.

Getting more help

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For more information about using PowerCmd, consult the following sources:
For information about using PowerCmd: This help system is your primary resource. For an introduction to
PowerCmd, choose Help > Contents > Introduction > Getting Started with PowerCmd...
For information about PowerCmd: Visit http://www.powercmd.com
If you cannot find the answers to your question in this help system, try these resources:
Online Support Forum: http://groups.google.com/group/powercmd
Technical support:
Send your questions or feature request to support@powercmd.com
Please send any comments about PowerCmd, technical documentation, and this help system, to
support@powercmd.com. Any comments will be highly appreciated.

Known Issues
1. Not compatible with 16bit applications.
2. "telnet" will be run in a separate Windows Command Prompt
3. Cygwin, PowerShell and other console applications which do not stream output consistently.
If you has any issues, please don't hesitate to contact us:support@powercmd.com.

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