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Microsoft Is Updating the Windows Console Colors For the First Time In 20 Years (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the hot-minute dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Microsoft is giving its Windows Console (Command Prompt) a color overhaul. Windows 10 testers will be able to try out the new color scheme in a new build (16257) that will available later today. Windows Console's legacy blue is getting a subtle change to make it more legible on modern high-contrast displays, alongside color changes to the entire scheme. Windows 10 testers will only see the new colors if they clean install build 16257, and if you upgrade you'll keep the legacy colors to ensure any custom color settings are not replaced. Microsoft is planning to release a tool soon that will allow Windows 10 testers to apply the new color scheme and a selection of alternatives. Developers, you can thank Microsoft summer intern Craig Loewen for the overhaul.

71 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. It's blue?! by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've always changed mine to the proper white on black. Or green on black for that 1984 Hackers look...

    1. Re:It's blue?! by dbwells · · Score: 2

      The article isn't worded very well, but looking at the pictures, I think it simply means wherever the console *used* blue before, that blue color will now be brighter. AFAIK, the default *background* has always been black for good old cmd.exe.

    2. Re:It's blue?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      OMG It's 1990 and X Windows lets you select Cornflower Blue, or any of dozens of similarly odd color names, to any part of your 'command' window

      I am left wondering why it took so damned long for MS to do the same, since they pretty much ripped of the whole X Windows idea in the first place

    3. Re:It's blue?! by rudy_wayne · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't see how this is a "new feature". You've been able to change the colors to anything you want for as long as I can remember.

      Properties --> Colors

      I guess they've given up on fixing the billion other things that are wrong with Windows 10.

    4. Re:It's blue?! by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Maybe they mean the powershell console (which is the default console on a fresh install after the April update on 10).

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    5. Re:It's blue?! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Amber on black, you insensitive clod! Not all of us could afford a green monochrome monitor.

    6. Re:It's blue?! by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      It is exactly this.

      In the beginning was the CGA/EGA 16-color text mode palette.

      They've adjusted some of those colors a little bit.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    7. Re:It's blue?! by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      Yep..I always just go to black with green text on every CLI I set up to work on....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    8. Re:It's blue?! by Jeremi · · Score: 2

      I guess they've given up on fixing the billion other things that are wrong with Windows 10.

      When every bug you fix introduces two new problems, the only way to win the game is not to play. :(

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    9. Re:It's blue?! by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Isn't blue background the powershell default?

      Like you, I prefer to work white/green on black. Some of the newer utility color schemes (vim) suck with a black background, so you need either turn off the colors or change background to white.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    10. Re:It's blue?! by ChatHuant · · Score: 1

      VT-52 green is a wonderful fashion statement

    11. Re:It's blue?! by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      downmodded troll? have you people not seen fight club? :(

    12. Re:It's blue?! by TWX · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't talk about Fight Club.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    13. Re:It's blue?! by TWX · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you're envious. Just not green with envy.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    14. Re:It's blue?! by RhettLivingston · · Score: 4, Informative

      I think you've misunderstood a bit. I had the same first reaction as you, but then read the article.

      They changed the colors used to represent the colors you can change to.

      For example, I've always changed mine to a yellow or bright green on dark blue background. If you look at the examples in the article, you can see that was a very high contrast but somewhat restful combination before. It is now actually reduced in contrast and I can't see a color combination in the new example that I would find comfortable.

    15. Re:It's blue?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I concur. There's no way to tell the difference between the two shades of purple on most backgrounds now, either. Good old Microsoft "fixing" things that weren't broken. :(

    16. Re:It's blue?! by yagu · · Score: 1
      a billion other things wrong with Windows 10

      I don't think anyone would ever need more than that.

    17. Re:It's blue?! by mea2214 · · Score: 1

      It's Malibu Stacy with a new hat.

    18. Re:It's blue?! by hawk · · Score: 1

      The times I've had to use windows, it always seemed to turn blue soon enough . . . :)

      hawk

    19. Re:It's blue?! by eam3 · · Score: 1

      I do black with green for regular command prompt. Black with amber for Admin command prompt.

  2. It's a black and blue issue... by thegreatbob · · Score: 2

    I could've sworn the legacy console colors were black and not-quite-white. I've only seen the blue scheme in PowerShell.

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  3. We've had ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... the black screen of death. And the blue screen of death. What else?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:We've had ... by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      You forgot the black and blue, and screams of living with Windows.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:We've had ... by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      Red screen of death (bootloader implosion), the bluish screen of death (windows 8/10 default), and a green screen of death in preview builds of 10. I'm not aware of any others in WindowsLand, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were.

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    3. Re:We've had ... by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      The colors also used to be configurable (dunno about the graphical mode form of Win8+) via SYSTEM.INI. Potentially useful in a high security environment to make the screen unreadable, to make a specific machine more identifiable, or just for kicks.

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    4. Re:We've had ... by PPH · · Score: 1

      The colors also used to be configurable

      To digress: I remember the time when the BSOD screen saver made it's way around our company. Numerous calls were made to IT support when people would leave their PC for a few minutes and return to what looked like a crashed system.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    5. Re:We've had ... by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      Those and cracked LCD backgrounds are always a blast...

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  4. Nethack by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 1

    Looks like the new color scheme would make it much easier to spot floating eyes.

    That was my motivation for making a similar change to the blue on my xterm.

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    1. Re:Nethack by hord · · Score: 1

      I play blindfolded. And die a lot.

    2. Re:Nethack by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Ha! That was the first thing I thought of as well. That's why I always change the default CGA-ish Dark blue in various terminals to "DodgerBlue"

      I also change DIR 01;34 to DIR 37;44 in /etc/DIR_COLORS (it makes directory names show up as white text on a light blue background)

  5. "Nothing new under the sun" ANSI.SYS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    See subject: This is an old trick you could do in DOS via ANSI.SYS loading in config.sys ala DEVICE = C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS & then in autoexec.bat using $e[xx;yy;zzm
    where xx = attribute code, yy = foreground color code, and zz = background color code.

    A table of the color codes follows:

    Code Color
    0 Turn Off Attributes
    1 High Intensity
    2 Normal Intensity
    4 Underline (mono only)
    5 Blink
    7 Reverse Video
    8 Invisible
    30 Black
    31 Red
    32 Green
    33 Yellow
    34 Blue
    35 Magenta
    36 Cyan
    37 White
    40 Black
    41 Red
    42 Green
    43 Yellow
    44 Blue
    45 Magenta
    46 Cyan
    47 White
    For example, the following command will result in a bright red C:\> prompt and bright yellow text on a blue background.

        C:\> prompt $e[1;31;44m$p$g$e[1;33;44m

    APK

    P.S.=> See subject - it's been done, long ago.. apk

    1. Re:"Nothing new under the sun" ANSI.SYS by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Every moderator who moderated the parent up needs to go RTFA. Nothing in the parent post allows one to change the actual colors used to represent the ANSI color codes. That is what MS has done. Amongst others, blue is no longer the same blue.

    2. Re:"Nothing new under the sun" ANSI.SYS by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3

      They have actually redefined the RGB values of those colours, supposedly to better suit LCD monitors.

      You couldn't do that originally under DOS because the various graphics adaptors of the day emulated ancient text modes that only supported digital colour and half-bright. That is, each of the red, green and blue channels could be binary on/off and a binary half brightness applied to all of them, so the available colours were (hex RGB values):

      000 black
      00F blue
      0F0 green
      0FF cyan
      F00 red
      F0F magenta
      FF0 yellow
      FFF white
      007 dark blue
      070 dark green
      077 dark cyan
      700 dark red
      707 dark magenta
      770 dark yellow
      777 grey (default text colour in DOS)

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:"Nothing new under the sun" ANSI.SYS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I shouldn't have typed that out from a screenshot. There were two extra semi-colons. Apparently this also works on the latest Windows 10 bash shell, so I guess they added support there first and TFA is about a partial backport to Windows native shells.

      awk 'BEGIN{
      s="/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\"; s=s s s s s s s s;
      for (colnum=0; colnum 255) g = 510-g;
              printf "\033[48;2;%d;%d;%dm", r,g,b;
              printf "\033[38;2;%d;%d;%dm", 255-r, 255-g, 255-b;
              printf "%s\033[0m", substr(s, colnum+1, 1);
      }
      printf "\n";
      }'

  6. Command Prompt is black. Powershell is blue. by ITRambo · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not sure where the information came from, but I presume that the change is to Powershell and not to the Command Prompt, which in Windows 10 defaults to a black screen with white text. Powershell defaults to a blue screen with white text.

    1. Re:Command Prompt is black. Powershell is blue. by Ubi_NL · · Score: 1

      Maybe you should try reading TFA beforing concluding the story is wrong. This is not about the background, it is about the coloring scheme defaults in cmd.exe. I agree it is a bit far-fetched to call this an overhaul though.

      --

      If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
  7. Wow, just wow by marcle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We should all be grateful that the insanely talented coders at Microsoft were able to perform such a thrilling technical feat. It must have been incredibly difficult, as evidenced by how long it took.
    This is no doubt why Windows 10 is so buggy, since so many team members were slaving away adding colors to the terminal window instead of actually, you know, trying to fix the operating system.

    1. Re:Wow, just wow by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
      Every element in Xwindows can have its color specified in RGB, and window managers as primitive as MWM allowed a clear hierarchy to specify the colors. How old is that? 20 years? 30 years?

      Multiple work spaces have existed from 1990s in all unix systems. Even now in Win10, finally some lame way MS has implemented it. Still does not allow windows to moved easily or pinned. Worst thing, there is no indication to tell which work space you are in. No way to customize it. One of the first things I did when I joined my company back in 1994 was to set six colors and backgrounds for the six workspaces in HPUX.

      I think MS top managers have stopped eating their own dog food ages ago, with minions setting up and running their systems, severely afflicted with not-invented-here syndrome. Would not be surprised if there is a team they are funding to improve the wheel.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    2. Re:Wow, just wow by rogoshen1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Do you have *any* idea how much telemetry they need to go through? Every click, every window, every interaction -- everything!

      Once Team Windows gets that telemetry data back from the NSA, they still need to sift through it, and then look for ways to improve the OS.

      But once they start getting caught up, you'll see more game changing improvements out of Redmond.

    3. Re:Wow, just wow by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      since so many team members were slaving away adding colors to the terminal window

      Slashdot fail. When making a hyperbolic claim you need to reference something in TFA, not TFS. There's always a risk someone may read TFS and then point out that this was done by a single summer intern.

      Or maybe you're making a subtle joke that all of Windows 10 is managed by one summer intern in which case I tip my hat to you.

  8. Re:Coming Next.....Cut and Paste by t0y · · Score: 1

    It's been there for a while...

  9. I guess it is time to start using windows again by Major_Disorder · · Score: 1

    I mean after all if they are fixing unimportant things like this it must mean that they have fixed every other bug in existence. It will be wonderful to finally get to use 100% bug free software.

    --
    First law of people: People are generally stupid.
    1. Re:I guess it is time to start using windows again by the_skywise · · Score: 1

      It's like the 1960s color TV fad all over again... Definitely makes Windows worth a 2nd look, dontcha think?!

      Windows console - now in COLOR!

    2. Re:I guess it is time to start using windows again by tomxor · · Score: 1

      I mean after all if they are fixing unimportant things like this it must mean that they have fixed every other bug in existence. It will be wonderful to finally get to use 100% bug free software.

      No need for sarcasm... Microsoft has had bug free software since 1981, it's called DOS, although they didn't write it - maybe that's why.

  10. Re:Linux has had this capability for decades by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 1

    Trolling aside, for a long time I've been using that capability to set my terminals to a palette based on the popular "Solarized light" scheme (but even a little more muted). Now I can look at the output of a "ls /dev" command, and not have my eyes bleed.

  11. Re:Coming Next.....Cut and Paste by EvilSS · · Score: 1

    Whatever are we going to do when we don't have to click an icon and select a sub-menu item to paste?

    You have been able to paste into the console by just right-clicking since Windows XP. All you had to do was turn on Quick Edit mode. It's on by default in later versions of Windows.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  12. Re:somehow this is news? by EvilSS · · Score: 1

    Seriously? This is news? Why the fuck is this news? This has been basic fucking functionality in unix operating systems for decades. Decades! Hell even as APK said in another post, you used to be able to do this in DOS.

    I mean...WTF

    Not sure how it's news at all. All they did was tweak the color pallet a bit. You have been able to change the colors for as long as I can remember. In windows it's in the console properties menu.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  13. Also coming easter egg along with that by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

    The BSOD Blue Screen of Death is also getting an overhaul, and it would inherit the color scheme from the upgraded console. No longer limited to the standard blue, you can have a choice of translucent, iridescent, fluorescent, speckled and coruscant versions of blue.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Also coming easter egg along with that by tomxor · · Score: 1

      The BSOD Blue Screen of Death is also getting an overhaul, and it would inherit the color scheme from the upgraded console. No longer limited to the standard blue, you can have a choice of translucent, iridescent, fluorescent, speckled and coruscant versions of blue.

      No it's more advanced than that... the BSOD themes are going to be in-death purchases, the transactions will be handled by a intel ME firmware module to allow the system to continue crashing unhindered.

    2. Re:Also coming easter egg along with that by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
      STOP 0x69696969 PERMANENT_SHUTDOWN_COMPULSATOR_NOT_FOUND

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  14. Pure innovation by paulpach · · Score: 1

    This is ground breaking and truly innovative.

    Who cares about having multiple tabs or unicode? The reason why millions switched to mac os x was that the blue in the console was too dark.

  15. Re:Coming Next.....Cut and Paste by sexconker · · Score: 1

    It doesn't work in all contexts. It can't be triggered with Control+V or Shift+Insert.
    I've taken to using Alt+Space, E, P as a "shortcut" when I have to paste into a cmd.exe terminal.

  16. Re:Linux has had this capability for decades by tsqr · · Score: 1

    Here's a nickel, go buy yourself a real computer system

    Now, that's a genuine oldie.

  17. Re:command.com and cmd.exe up until at least Vista by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I always changed the cmd colors. Yellow on black for my non-Admin account and Cyan on Black for my Admin account. All I had to do is look to see what account the cmd window was using. Started doing this with Windows NT 3.0 (yup a Windows NT Beta tester here) I never looked back.
    Although I now use Bright Green on a Dark green background for my "local" account on most of my machines now. But this article is bogus in that you have been able to change colors to what you want in the CMD window for ---- decades. Why is this article here?

    Even back in the MS-DOS days you could change the color scheme. I had a co-worker who was color blind so he chose some fuchsia color for the text and a weird greenish color for the background. Most of us would look at the screen (Compaq 386) and want to puke, but he could work on that butt ugly bad boy for hours.

  18. Which black, which blue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Which black, which blue? :-)

    Read the actual Microsoft information, it's actually conhost.exe (which is the actual 'console renderer' -- think 'xterm' in linux terms); used by powershell AND cmd (and any other console-mode program).

    And it's about redefining the ANSI colours to RGB value mapping (e.g., DARK_BLUE goes from 0,0,128 to 0,55,128. lightening it somewhat to be appealing on today's higher contrast displays.) It's still blue, it's just a different blue.

    And it's the default mapping being changed (so you won't see any difference unless you clean-install until they release a management tool. (See, you've been able to customise this mapping since the beginning on Windows NT 3.1; right back at the beginning.)

    1. Re:Which black, which blue? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      There is LITERALLY only 1 black.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:Which black, which blue? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Unless you realize that brides don't shop for wedding dresses with their grooms and are trying to tell me it is easy to see I'm not gay you should probably stick to following the advice of your high school writing teacher and only write about subjects with which you have experience.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  19. Wow! What a breakthrough! by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    I will forever remember where I was when I learned about such momentous news. There is no gainsaying that the world will be an utterly different place after this epoch-making development.

  20. Too much hype by meglon · · Score: 1

    All they're doing is adding mauve to the palette.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  21. What about the color command? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    C:\>COLOR AB
    Where : A is background color and B: Is forreground color.
    Colors could be like:
    0: Black
    1: Blue
    2: Green
    3: Cyan
    4: Red
    5: Purple
    6: Yellow
    7: White
    8: Gray
    9: Light Blue
    A: Light Green
    B: Light Cyan
    C: Light Red
    D: Light Purple
    E:Light Yellow
    F: Bright White

  22. See? After 20 years in beta, by Provocateur · · Score: 1

    Windows Version one-point-oh finally hits primetime!

    Kinda odd how everyone refers to this version as "ten"

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    1. Re:See? After 20 years in beta, by toonces33 · · Score: 1

      But this Windows version goes up to 11!

  23. Reeks of advertorialism by sombragris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From TFA:

    It’s a minor change, but if you’re familiar with the Windows Console then it’s a welcome addition that developers have been asking for. It’s also a particularly relevant change now that Microsoft is supporting its own console alongside Bash, and another example of Microsoft paying attention to the small things that matter in Windows 10.

    Yeah right. If MS is paying attention to small things that matter and things developers (and other people) were asking for, why then they did not restore Classic style? Or disable telemetry...? Or refrain from forcing updates down our throats...?

    The original article is nothing but blatant ad copy thinly disguised as editorial content. In other words, an advertorial.

    --
    -- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
  24. fix the damn scroll buffer by Mandrake · · Score: 1

    your text paints like I'm on a 300 baud modem and the scroll buffer is unusable. Fix fundamental issues with the app, you can already get far better console apps like cmder for windows, you should worry about coming to usability parity before freaking colors.

    --
    Geoff "Mandrake" Harrison
    Some Random UI Hacker
  25. Comprehension Fail. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    The article has nothing to do with changing your console prompt to a set of predefined colours. The change here is that the pre-defined colours have been changed so that you can actually read 34 on 40 for example.

  26. ConEmu by dhalsim2 · · Score: 1

    20 years and that's all we get?! The console with DOS 25 years ago was more powerful than what we have today! After decades of waiting for something _at_least_ as good as we had back then, I got sick of waiting and found ConEmu. It's a wonderful console. I can't imagine ever going back to the built-in Windows console.

  27. How about implementing Copy and Paste properly? by hackertourist · · Score: 1

    I'm using an alternative shell because the standard Windows one still doesn't support selection with the mouse, or the standard Ctrl-X/C/V shortcuts.

  28. Console has more problems than this by DrXym · · Score: 1
    Microsoft have the inexplicable practice of radically altering the look and experience of Windows while leaving some of the most fundamental tools broken or seriously deficient. Things like msconfig, notepad, paint, calc, etc.

    Compare Conemu or other console replacements to the default and it's quite obvious it has more problems than a simple colour scheme. Just being able to horizontally resize the console would be nice, or allowing it to handle standard escape codes, or selection / copy behaviour or using a nice default font, or having multiple tabs open.

  29. No. by The123king · · Score: 1

    http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/...

    --
    If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
  30. Re:Coming Next.....Cut and Paste by EvilSS · · Score: 1

    Why not just turn on quick edit and right-click to paste (literally right-click, no context menu required). But if you are that into CTRL-V you can turn it on in Windows 10 in the console.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  31. Re:Coming Next.....Cut and Paste by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Because I'd have to move my hand to the mouse.
    And Windows 10? NO THX.