We have already compared FireCMD with Take Command and PromptPal. Today we are looking at PowerCmd which is a cmd emulator like FireCMD. Unlike FireCMD, it does not provide a command processor replacement. It is not even a complete console emulator.
Some features of PowerCmd are:
- Tabbed Interface
- Save command line sessions
- Configurable fonts and colors
- Search bar
- Configurable fonts and colors
- Optional line numbers
- Optional window to display environment variables
I doubt the usefulness of an optional window to display environment variables and line numbers. We can simply type “cmd:SET” or “env” (without quotes) in FireCMD shell or “SET” in cmd.exe to view a list of environment variables. I’m not aware of any other significant feature in PowerCmd that’s lacking in FireCMD.
PowerCmd doesn’t support console apps other than CMD. You can’t run PowerShell or Cygwin in tabs. It always loads CMD when starting tab windows. PowerCmd’s display output speed is slower than the Windows console, and more than 4 times slower than FireCMD. Scrolling the display takes a long time. Lets check the comparison table.
| Features | FireCMD | PowerCmd |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | – |
| 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 | 94.2 |
| Commands Provided | 218 | 0 |
PowerCmd doesn’t include a command line interpreter.
Also check: