Much has been written and much will be written about the Windows 10 announcement.

Windows 10, because 7 8 9. — Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) September 30, 2014

I'm pretty stoked, and am playing with the Windows 10 Technical Preview now. I can see that there's lots of new enhancements to the shell, the Start Menu/ Screen, how Universal apps work, and so much more. But, let's focus on the "other shell." The console!

The console (conhost) that cmd.exe (often incorrectly but colloquially called the DOS Prompt) and PowerShell live within hasn't had much love in the last several years, IMHO. But then, suddenly, on stage at the Windows 10 announce we've got a VP showing folks that Ctrl-V (paste) works in the command prompt. Why would he do such a crazy thing?

remember when microsoft demoed the command prompt in windows on a stage in 2014 — spooky dan seifert (@dcseifert) September 30, 2014

Well, from what I can tell looking at the Preview, there's a LOT of cool Console goodness coming in Windows 10.

Here's a list of hotkeys in the Windows 10 Technical Preview console. This is just hotkeys! Be sure to explore the Properties dialog as well, resize, word wrapping, and more.

Text selection keys

These combinations interoperate with the mouse so you can start selecting with the mouse and continue with one of these commands, or vice versa.

Selection Key Combination Description SHIFT + LEFT ARROW Moves the cursor to the left one character, extending the selection. SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW Moves the cursor to the right one character, extending the selection. SHIFT + UP ARROW Selects text up line by line starting from the location of the insertion point. SHIFT + DOWN ARROW Extends text selection down one line, starting at the location of the insertion point. SHIFT + END If cursor is in current line being edited * First time extends selection to the last character in the input line. * Second consecutive press extends selection to the right margin. Else Selects text from the insertion point to the right margin. SHIFT + HOME If cursor is in current line being edited * First time extends selection to the character immediately after the command prompt. * Second consecutive press extends selection to the left margin. Else Extends selection to the left margin. SHIFT + PAGE DOWN Extends selection down one screen. SHIFT + PAGE UP Extends selection up one screen. CTRL + SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW Extends the selection one word to the right. CTRL + SHIFT + LEFT ARROW Extends the selection one word to the left. CTRL + SHIFT + HOME Extend selection to the beginning of the screen buffer. CTRL + SHIFT + END Extend selection to the end of the screen buffer. CTRL + A If cursor is in current line being edited (from first typed char to last type char) and line is not empty and any selection cursor is also within the line being edited Selects all text after the prompt. (phase 1) Else Selects the entire buffer. (phase 2)

Extra Fun with CTRL + A

CTRL + A behavior is interesting. Regardless of the state of mark mode and quick edit mode, one of two things should happen. Either the entire buffer is selected, or (only in a single case) '2-Phase select' starts. 2-Phase select is the process where the first CTRL-A selects the characters to the right of the edit line prompt, and the second press selects the entire buffer.

Editing keys

As I mentioned above you can copy and paste text with the keyboard. When copying text, you might worry that CTRL + C has always been the BREAK command. This is a nice touch, it will still send the break signal to the running application when no text is selected. The first CTRL-C copies the text and clears the selection, and the second one signals the break. Nice attention to detail, IMHO.

Editing Key Combination Description CTRL + V Paste text into the command line. SHIFT + INS Paste text into the command line. CTRL + C Copy selected text to the clipboard. CTRL + INS Copy selected text to the clipboard.

Mark mode keys

These keys function in mark mode. You can enter this mode by right-clicking anywhere in the console title bar and choosing Edit->Mark from the context menu as before, or via the new shortcut combination, CTRL-M. In the original console, mark mode resulted in block mode text selection. While in mark mode, you can hold down the ALT key at the start of a text selection command to use block mode in the new console. The selection key combinations above are all available in mark mode. CTRL + SHIFT + ARROW operations select by character and not by word while in mark mode.

Mark Mode Key Combination Description CTRL + M Enter "Mark Mode" to move cursor within window. ALT In conjunction with one of the selection key combinations, begins selection in block mode. ARROW KEYS Move cursor in the direction specified. PAGE KEYS Move cursor by one page in the direction specified. CTRL + HOME Move cursor to beginning of buffer. CTRL + END Move cursor to end of buffer.

History navigation keys

Navigation Key Combination Description CTRL + UP ARROW Moves up one line in the output history. CTRL + DOWN ARROW Moves down one line in the output history. CTRL + PAGE UP Moves up one page in the output history. CTRL + PAGE DOWN Moves down one page in the output history.

Other keys

Other Key Combination Description CTRL + F Opens "Find" in console dialog. ALT + F4 Close the console window, of course!

If you are like me and also love the console and want it to get even better, head over to the Windows Command Prompt Uservoice and be heard!