Install and Use cmder Console Emulator on Windows

Cmder is a portable console emulator for Windows that bundles ConEmu, Clink, and optionally Git for Windows into a single package. It gives you a tabbed terminal with Unix commands, proper copy-paste, customizable themes, and alias support – all without installing anything on the system.

Original content from computingforgeeks.com - post 79233

This guide covers downloading and setting up cmder on Windows, configuring fonts and colors, integrating it with Windows Terminal, setting up the PATH and context menu, working with PowerShell and WSL, creating aliases and startup tasks, and using SSH through cmder. The current stable release is v1.3.25.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have the following:

• Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
• Administrator access for context menu registration and PATH changes
• At least 150 MB of free disk space for the full version (15 MB for mini)
• Internet connection to download cmder

Step 1: Download cmder Console Emulator

Cmder comes in two editions. The mini version (~8 MB) includes ConEmu and Clink but no Git. The full version (~100 MB) adds Git for Windows, which brings Unix commands like ls, grep, cat, ssh, and git to your terminal. For most users, the full version is the better choice.

Download the latest release from cmder.app. Choose either the full or mini zip file.

Extract the zip to a permanent location. Good choices are C:\tools\cmder or C:\Users\YourName\cmder. Avoid extracting to C:\Program Files since cmder needs write access to its own directory for settings and history.

You can also extract to a USB drive for a fully portable setup – cmder stores all configuration inside its own folder, so your settings travel with it.

After extracting, launch Cmder.exe from the extracted folder. On first run, it initializes Clink and sets up the default profile. This takes a few seconds.

Step 2: Configure Fonts and Colors in cmder

Cmder ships with the Monokai color scheme by default, which works well for most users. To customize the appearance, right-click the title bar and select Settings, or press Win+Alt+P.

Change the Font

Navigate to General > Fonts in the settings window. Set the main console font to a monospace font that supports powerline glyphs if you plan to use custom prompts. Good options include:

• Cascadia Code – ships with Windows Terminal and supports ligatures
• JetBrains Mono – excellent readability at small sizes
• Fira Code – popular among developers for its programming ligatures

Set the font size to 14-16 for comfortable reading. Check Bold if your font looks too thin.

Change the Color Scheme

Go to Features > Colors in settings. Cmder includes several built-in schemes. Click the Schemes dropdown to browse them. You can also import custom .xml color schemes from the ConEmu color scheme repository.

To import a scheme, save the .xml file to cmder\config, then select it from the Schemes dropdown after restarting cmder.

Adjust Transparency

Under Features > Transparency, you can set window opacity. Values between 200-230 (out of 255) give a subtle transparency effect without making text hard to read.

Step 3: Integrate cmder with Windows Terminal

If you already use Windows Terminal, you can add cmder as a profile. This gives you cmder’s enhanced command-line features inside the Windows Terminal interface with its GPU-accelerated rendering.

Open Windows Terminal, go to Settings > Add a new profile, and configure these values:

• Name: Cmder
• Command line: cmd.exe /k "%CMDER_ROOT%\vendor\init.bat"
• Starting directory: %USERPROFILE%
• Icon: C:\tools\cmder\icons\cmder.ico (adjust path to your cmder location)

Alternatively, edit the Windows Terminal settings.json file directly. Open it from Settings > Open JSON file and add this profile to the profiles.list array:

{
    "guid": "{4b6b4e6a-c3d1-4e2b-a1f0-5d9b8e7c6f3a}",
    "name": "Cmder",
    "commandline": "cmd.exe /k \"%CMDER_ROOT%\\vendor\\init.bat\"",
    "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%",
    "icon": "C:\\tools\\cmder\\icons\\cmder.ico",
    "hidden": false
}

Make sure the CMDER_ROOT environment variable is set (covered in Step 4), or replace it with the full path to your cmder directory.

Step 4: Add cmder to PATH and Context Menu

Adding cmder to the system PATH lets you launch it from anywhere. The context menu integration adds a “Cmder Here” option when you right-click a folder in File Explorer.

Add cmder to System PATH

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run this command to add cmder to the system PATH permanently. Adjust the path if you extracted cmder elsewhere:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $env:Path + ";C:\tools\cmder", "Machine")

Set the CMDER_ROOT environment variable so other tools can find it:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("CMDER_ROOT", "C:\tools\cmder", "Machine")

After setting these, open a new terminal window for the changes to take effect. Verify by running:

cmder

Register the Context Menu

To add the “Cmder Here” right-click option in File Explorer, open an elevated Command Prompt (Run as Administrator) and navigate to your cmder directory:

cd C:\tools\cmder
Cmder.exe /REGISTER ALL

The /REGISTER ALL flag adds the context menu entry for all users. Use /REGISTER USER instead to register only for the current user without needing admin rights.

To remove the context menu entry later, run:

Cmder.exe /UNREGISTER ALL

Step 5: Use cmder with PowerShell and WSL

Cmder supports multiple shell types through task profiles. You can switch between cmd.exe, PowerShell, and WSL sessions within the same window using tabs.

Add a PowerShell Task

Open cmder settings with Win+Alt+P, navigate to Startup > Tasks. Click the + button to create a new task and configure it:

• Name: PowerShell::cmder
• Task parameters: /icon "%CMDER_ROOT%\icons\cmder.ico"
• Commands: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoLogo -NoProfile -NoExit -Command "Invoke-Expression '. ''%CMDER_ROOT%\vendor\profile.ps1''"

Cmder v1.3.25 includes a default PowerShell task already configured. Check the existing tasks before creating a duplicate.

Add a WSL Task

If you have WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) installed, add a task for it. Create a new task in Startup > Tasks:

• Name: WSL::bash
• Commands: wsl.exe -d Ubuntu

Replace Ubuntu with your installed distribution name. You can check available distributions with:

wsl --list --verbose

To open a new tab with a specific shell, click the + button next to the tab bar and select the task, or use Ctrl+T to open the new console dialog.

Step 6: Create Aliases and Startup Tasks

Cmder supports persistent aliases that survive restarts. This is one of its strongest features over plain cmd.exe.

Create Aliases

Use the alias command to create shortcuts for frequently used commands:

alias gs=git status
alias gp=git pull
alias gl=git log --oneline --graph --all
alias ll=ls -la
alias hosts=notepad C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Aliases are stored in cmder\config\user_aliases.cmd. You can also edit this file directly with a text editor. Each line follows the format alias_name=command $* where $* passes additional arguments.

To view all defined aliases, run:

alias

Configure Startup Tasks

You can set cmder to run specific commands or open multiple tabs on startup. Go to Settings > Startup > Tasks and select your default task. To launch multiple tabs automatically, go to Settings > Startup and choose Auto save/restore opened tabs.

For a custom startup script, edit cmder\config\user_profile.cmd for cmd.exe sessions or cmder\config\user_profile.ps1 for PowerShell sessions. These scripts run every time a new cmder session opens:

:: cmder\config\user_profile.cmd
@echo off
:: Set custom environment variables
set PROJECTS=C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Projects
set EDITOR=code

:: Change to projects directory on startup
cd /d %PROJECTS%

Step 7: SSH Integration with cmder

The full version of cmder includes Git for Windows, which bundles OpenSSH. This means you can use ssh, scp, and ssh-keygen directly from the cmder prompt without any extra installation.

Generate an SSH Key

Generate an SSH key pair for connecting to remote servers:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"

The key pair is saved to %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\ by default. Press Enter to accept the default path and set a passphrase when prompted.

Connect to a Remote Server

Connect to a remote Linux server using SSH:

ssh [email protected]

Copy your public key to the remote server for passwordless authentication:

type %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub | ssh [email protected] "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

SSH Config File

Create an SSH config file to store connection shortcuts. Open the config file:

notepad %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\config

Add host entries for servers you connect to frequently:

Host webserver
    HostName 192.168.1.100
    User admin
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Host dbserver
    HostName 10.0.1.50
    User root
    Port 2222
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

After saving, you can connect using just the host alias:

ssh webserver

Step 8: cmder vs Windows Terminal Comparison

Both cmder and Windows Terminal are solid options for Windows. Here is how they compare across the features that matter most.

Feature	cmder	Windows Terminal
Installation	Portable – extract and run	Installed via Microsoft Store or winget
Unix Commands	Built-in with full version (ls, grep, cat, awk)	Requires WSL or Git Bash separately
GPU Rendering	No (GDI-based via ConEmu)	Yes (DirectX/GPU accelerated)
Aliases	Built-in persistent aliases	Depends on the shell (PowerShell profiles, .bashrc)
Tab Management	Tabs with split panes	Tabs with split panes
Portability	Fully portable – runs from USB	System install required
Customization	ConEmu settings GUI, color schemes	JSON config, themes, color schemes
Performance	Moderate – older rendering engine	Fast – modern GPU-accelerated renderer
Shell Support	cmd, PowerShell, WSL, Git Bash	cmd, PowerShell, WSL, Azure Cloud Shell
Clink Integration	Built-in (command completion, history search)	Not included – manual install needed

Use cmder when you need a portable terminal with Unix commands and persistent aliases that works without installation. Choose Windows Terminal when you want the best rendering performance and tighter integration with the Windows ecosystem. You can also use both together by adding cmder as a terminal profile as shown in Step 3.

Conclusion

You now have cmder set up as a portable console emulator on Windows with custom fonts, aliases, SSH integration, and support for multiple shells. The combination of ConEmu’s tabbed interface with Clink’s command-line enhancements and Git for Windows’ Unix tools makes cmder a practical daily driver for sysadmins and developers working on Windows.

For a production workflow, keep your cmder config folder backed up or synced to cloud storage so your aliases, startup scripts, and SSH configs are always available. Pin the Cmder.exe to your taskbar for quick access, and keep the installation updated – the latest v1.3.25 release includes an important security fix for a vulnerable dependency.