Command Line Warriors - Take Command! (LE, that is)

For those who arrived on planet Earth before the advent of Windows, and those who know about  the power and precision of the command line interface, yet aren’t ready to dive into a brand of  *x  just yet, there is a great little replacement for CMD.EXE. It is called Take Command Console {LE}.

First, the LE stands for Light Edition, but it is so unlimited, compared to CMD. EXE, and Powershell, that you may never know (or need) the difference.  It has a long heritage. It is made by JPSoftwware, the makers of 4DOS, 4OS/2, and 4NT. Take Command LE is a subset of the full Take Command command interface, which is a superset of the original Take Command, and 4NT.

Those of you who might have heard of, or used 4DOS, know about the amazing things that can be done with the batch processing commands built in, because they run in memory, and will augment the batch language left over from DOS and also work with Powershell. However, once you get used to TCC (LE), you may never use a Powershell command again. You also may find your keyboard gathering less dust on the keys, and your mouse collecting a little more.

from the JPSoft website

The ease of use of Windows File Explorer merged with the power of the command line - manipulate files at the command line and graphically see the results
Run sessions in multiple tab windows (including TCC, CMD, bash and Powershell)
Fully customizable - 10 startup tabs, up to 50 toolbar buttons, look and feel, etc
Find text in any tab window
(Optional) Common command input window for all tab windows

 

Enhanced command line editor with history, filename completion and cut & paste
Fast - 20-200% faster output display than the standard Windows console window
Built-in screen scrollback buffer lets you review or print output from past commands at any time
Enhanced Directory Navigation lets you quickly browse and change directories
Built-in file viewer includes scrolling, search, and print capabilities

 

Core scripting language - large superset of CMD with 111 commands, 140 functions and 97 internal variables
Complete flow of control structures including IF-Then-Else, DO Loops, Switch, subroutines, batch libraries, etc.
Enhanced batch file commands, such as error trapping
Upgraded CMD commands (e.g., Dir, Copy etc) with hundreds of additional options
Redefine commands through aliasing, create new commands and functions for your regular tasks, even assign frequently used commands to a single keystroke
Select or exclude files by date, time, size, and extended wildcards or regular expressions for extraordinary flexibility in file management

 

This version is totally free, and does not time out. You may, after a while decide you need additional features that the full version gives, but this will keep most going for a long time.

Highly recommended. (Although you may think it atavistic to use the command line, give it a try, and see how easy -With the built-in help as quick to be had as a strike of the F1 key- it is to achieve superior results to just using a mouse!)

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Quote of the day:

People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history. - Dan Quayle

[tags] JPSoft, Take Command (LE), 4DOS, 4NT, freeware, command line interface, Powershell [/tags]