mcinroy.org

Afer moving from Ubuntu back to Windows XP (Not by choice) I found that what I missed most was the ability to quickly access the terminal, either by using yakuake or pressing F4 in any conqueror window. I tried installing the “Command Prompt Here” powertoy for Windows XP, but I’m more of a command-line cowboy and I find right clicking a bit tiresome so I’m always searching for a better way.

Launchy is one alternative, just install, run, press alt+space and type cmd. Very good and all but if what your really looking for is an alternative to yakuake then i just might have found the closest thing: a mix of AutoHotKey, Console and cygwin. The original instructions I followed can be found here but I think I’ve made installation and configuration a lot easier.

So, start off download this .zip file and extract its contents to the root of your C:\ drive, you can then launch C:\Console\term.exe to get started right away. If you wish to use cygwin (installed at C:\cygwin) as your shell you must delete C:\Console\console.xml and rename C:\Console\consolecygwin.xml to console.xml.

To get our quake-style terminal to start automagically we can either follow the instructions here to create a sheduled task every time someone logs on, or we can drag term.exe from C:\Console to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup to start term.exe automagically everytime Windows starts.

Once thats done and term.exe has been started, press Win + ` to start using your new quake-style terminal.

Screenshot (Click to enlarge)

I’ve also hidden the Console and AutoHotkey icons from my system tray as I hate having a cluttered system tray, quick launch bar or desktop. If you wish to do this you can get the modified term.exe here, the modified console.xml here and the modified consolecygwin.xml here.

[Update] If you wish to use F12 as your console activation key (the same key as Yakuake’s default) use this term.exe