# A terminal emulator for Windows that doesn't suck? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terminal-emulator-for-windows-that-doesnt-suck/383335 "2006-12-08T14:03:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terminal-emulator-for-windows-that-doesnt-suck/383335/1 "2006-12-08T14:03:55Z")
I’m at a new job that requires that I run Windows on my workstation. Well, not really - some of the admins who have been around here longer can justify installing Linux on their boxes, but the official corporate training sequence is Windows-only, so I’m stuck with it at least until my first yearly review. So, I’m stuck with Cygwin, and I’m looking for a terminal emulator that I can stand. This is probably a lost cause, but here’s my wish list: [ol] [li] Primarily a local terminal emulator, not an ssh client. I’ve already got openssh installed.[/li][li] Tabs.[/li][li] Reasonable integration with the Windows shell - maybe one modifier for copy/paste, etc.[/li][li] Mappable key bindings.[/li][li] Reasonably fast.[/li][li] Not fricking ugly - I’ve got to look at this thing for seven hours a day. This includes decent font support.[/li][/ol] cmd.exe is a joke. Poderosa is mostly an SSH client, it’s slow, and ugly. Terminator is slow, ugly, an has goofy key mappings. Cygwin’s [m]rxvt requires that I run X, which is kinda buggy on Windows. Basically, I want something equivalent to gnome-terminal, xfterm, or konsole. I’m currently using PuttyCyg, which, as the name implies, is a hacked version of Putty that provides a local Cygwin session, but there are no tabs, and it feels only marginally better than a bare xterm. I have a hard time believing that I’m the only Unix admin in this situation. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terminal-emulator-for-windows-that-doesnt-suck/383335/2 "2006-12-08T14:52:28Z")
I don’t know of anything other than Cygwin, but what about using [VMWare](http://www.vmware.com) and actually running Linux under Windows in a virtual machine? VMWare player and server are free. ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terminal-emulator-for-windows-that-doesnt-suck/383335/3 "2006-12-09T05:09:47Z")
There’s the opensource [Console](http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=43764), which seems to be constantly in beta. I’ve never used it. JPSoft, the makers of 4DOS, have a commercial product called [TCI](http://www.jpsoft.com/tcides.htm) which again gives you a Windows console with tabs. I haven’t used this one either, but I did use 4DOS for a while, and as a console interface and a batch file scripting language it ain’t half bad. Finally, there’s one I came across recently but never bookmarked. I seem to recall that it was opensource, and hosted on a Japanese website. I’m still looking for it… ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terminal-emulator-for-windows-that-doesnt-suck/383335/4 "2006-12-11T04:47:39Z")
[QUOTE=Subway Prophet] Finally, there’s one I came across recently but never bookmarked. I seem to recall that it was opensource, and hosted on a Japanese website. I’m still looking for it… [/QUOTE] Found it. It’s called [Ponderosa](http://en.poderosa.org/). I came across it via this blog post [asking the same question as the OP](http://www.blueskyonmars.com/2006/03/07/a-better-command-line-for-windows/). Whew. This has been bugging me. I think I can sleep now. ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terminal-emulator-for-windows-that-doesnt-suck/383335/5 "2006-12-11T05:01:08Z")
[QUOTE=Subway Prophet] Found it. It’s called [Ponderosa](http://en.poderosa.org/). [/QUOTE] :smack: Now the embarassment of not remembering Ponderosa being mentioned in the OP will keep me awake at night. Sigh. Could I possibly redeem myself by mentioning [FreeSSHD](http://www.freesshd.com/)? It’s a bit easier to muck with than Cygwin’s sshd, though your mileage may vary. Putty is all I use anymore, warts and all. It would actually be perfect for my own needs if it picked up two features: copy and paste keystrokes closer to the CTRL-C/CTRL-V standard; saving its settings in a file rather than the registry. Several moons ago, I convinced my boss to fork over the dough for a copy of [SecureCRT](http://www.vandyke.com/products/securecrt/). At $99 a pop for an SSH client, it’s not a fantastic deal by any stretch of the imagination, though the application itself is pretty decent. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terminal-emulator-for-windows-that-doesnt-suck/383335/6 "2006-12-11T07:48:58Z")
[Kermit 95](http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html)