Comparing FireCMD and PromptPal – Windows Console Replacements

PromptPal is a Windows console replacement like FireCMD. Unlike FireCMD, it does not provide a command processor replacement and just provides console emulation. It seems to work by redirecting the console program output and displaying the contents in a GUI window which is probably making it’s display output slower.

Some features of PromptPal are:

  • Tabbed Interface
  • Configurable fonts and colors
  • Supports Windows PowerShell
  • Command auto-completion
  • Search facility
  • Persistent command history
  • Save to file

There is no significant feature in PromptPal which is missing in FireCMD. The command name auto-completion feature that was missing is added in version 1.2.

PromptPal doesn’t support console apps that change the cursor position. PromptPal’s display output speed is slower than the Windows default console and more than 8 times slower than FireCMD! Lets check out the comparison table.

Features FireCMD PromptPal
Price $29 $29.99
GCLI (Graphical Command Line Interface) Yes
Tabbed Windows for Console Programs and Command Line Apps Yes Yes
In-built File Editor (FireTXT) Yes
UNIX-like Environment Support Yes
Persistent Aliases/Macros Yes
Recursive Aliases Yes
Customizable Font Yes Yes
Quick Zoom In/Zoom Out Yes
Enhanced Command Line Editor Yes
Multiple Undo / Redo Options in Command Line Editing Yes
Enhanced File and Directory Name Completion Yes
Command Substitution Yes
Command Substitution using Files Yes
Enhanced Path Environment Variable Management Yes
HTML and CSS Support Yes
Text Search Utility Yes Yes
Remembers Command History for Next Session Yes Yes
Remembers Last Working Directory for Next Session Yes
Save Output as HTML Yes
Snapshot Feature Yes
Display Speed – dir /s c:windows (in seconds) 19.4 162.9
Commands Provided 218 0

PromptPal doesn’t include a command interpreter and thus it is not a CMD replacement but just a console replacement.

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