People who rely on the Windows command line are a dying breed, but a proud group. However, the default fonts Microsoft provides us could use some improvement. There are a lot of better fonts out there, but none of them are enabled by default for use with cmd.exe. Here are a few simple steps to get your favorite monospaced font to work in the Microsoft Windows Command Prompt.

1. Open regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Microsoft -> WindowsNT -> CurrentVersion -> Console -> TrueTypeFont
3. By default on WinXP SP1 installations, there is only one entry. 0 - Lucida Console. To create additional entries, create a new string value. The name value of the second font will be 00. (The third would be 000, the fourth 0000, etc...) The Data value is the textual name of the font. (Check %SYSTEMROOT%\Fonts for the Font Name column.)
4. Three finger salute! A reboot is required. Once you've started back up, you may edit the properties of your Command Prompt shortcut, click the Font tab and your font should not be available. Yay!

• I believe this hack will only work on NT-based systems. Sorry 9x users. You should migrate anyways.
• The font you use must be Monospace and TrueType.
• I have nothing against Lucida Console. :) (Well, other than it being too wide...)
• I made this page because I got tired of figuring out the correct Google / MSDN search terms to find the information I was looking for.
• I suggest using Bitstream Vera Sans Mono as the default font. It's easy on the eyes and the difference between zeros and the letter O and ones and the lowercase letter L are very discernable.
• You may also be interested in using an alternate font in Visual Studio.NET.
• Font suggestions:
  • Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
  • Proggy Clean
  • Raize
  • Andale

• http://blogs.msdn.com/tonyschr/archive/2004/02/03/66552.aspx
• http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q247815