Non-rectangle select in Windows command line [duplicate]

Is there any way I can disable the stupid rectangle selection mode thing in the Windows command line? I want to select line by line like normal. Currently it's a giant pain when I need to copy things that span multiple lines because the copied text gets lineendings where there shouldn't be any...

Solution 1:

There is ConEmu - configurable and flexible windows console emulator, I'm the author of it.

ConEmu allows both rectangular (block) and stream (text) selection.

• Using mouse just start dragging (with LeftBtn pressed) over console in vertical direction to begin block selection and in horizontal direction to begin text/stream selection;
• With keyboard you may start block selection with Shift+UpArrow/DownArrow and text selection with Shift+LeftArrow/RightArrow. Press WinAltK if you want to set up your own hotkeys for that actions;
• From System menu or Tab menu -> Edit -> Mark block, Mark text or Copy all;
• At last, you may use modifiers (choose from Ctrl, Alt or Shift) to start exact type of selection. By default, hold Alt+LeftBtn and use mouse drag to start block selection, hold Shift+LeftBtn and use mouse drag to start text selection.

Copy format

You may choose plain text or HTML (to paste colors/fonts into blogs etc).

Some useful answers

are here in the ConEmu tag. And user comments on StackOverflow.

A brief excerpt from the long list of options

• Tabs and splits for running any shell you choose
• Use any font installed in the system, or copied to a folder of the program (ttf, otf, fon, bdf)
• Run selected tabs as Administrator (Vista+) or as selected user
• Windows 7 Jump lists and Progress on taskbar
• Integration with DosBox (useful in 64bit systems to run DOS applications)
• Smooth resize, maximized and fullscreen window modes
• Scrollbar initially hidden, may be revealed by mouseover or checkbox in settings
• Optional settings (e.g. pallette) for selected applications
• User friendly text and block selection (from keyboard or mouse), copy, paste, text search in console
• ANSI X3.64 and Xterm 256 color

For more information you may refer to ConEmu documentation or mailing list.

Solution 2:

With the standard command prompt no. It is possible though with an alternative command prompt such as Console2. It will also allow you to freely set the the window size, have multiple tabs etc.