Warp Support cmd.exe shell for Warp on Windows

Pre-submit Checks

[x] I have searched Warp feature requests and there are no duplicates
[x] I have searched Warp docs and my feature is not there

Describe the solution you'd like?

I would like for Warp on Windows to support Cmd.exe.

Commonly known as Command Prompt, is the default command-line interpreter for various Microsoft operating systems, including Windows NT and Windows CE. It provides a text-based interface for users to execute commands and perform a wide range of system tasks.

Operating system (Optional, if relevant)

Windows

How important is this feature to you?

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Warp Internal (ignore) - linear-label:39cc6478-1249-4ee7-950b-c428edfeecd1

None

Feb 25 '25 04:02 dannyneira

More than just supporting cmd, I'd like the equivalent of the "Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio" to be supported which means launching cmd with a /k option to run a specific batch file. The batch file adds environment variables and adds to the PATH for the Visual Studio tools. There is also a "Developer PowerShell for VS 2022" shortcut.

For Visual Studio 2022 Community edition, the VS Installer creates the "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022" shortcut with:

%comspec% /k "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat"

Feb 26 '25 15:02 jrdodds

I have a theme and everything set up with https://github.com/chrisant996/clink. I need this to support my workflow, and I am not willing to move to powershell because of some of the differences in features and syntax verbosity. Many others feel the same way, so I would really encourage supporting it if possible!!

Feb 26 '25 16:02 aqilc

I am absolutely delighted to have Warp for Windows (Warp was already my daily driver for Linux and Mac but now windows as well) but I am kinda gobsmacked that the base "shell" for the OS (cmd.exe) isn't supported (yet). I'd have put that as the starting point above anything. In any case: +1 for cmd.exe support (and clink.exe as per @aqilc 's comment).

Feb 28 '25 06:02 joevaughan

Yes, this is almost quite comical that it's not supported out of the box. Is this a cruel joke? Please add in the next update! Love the product, glad it's on Windows.

Mar 06 '25 00:03 teeesss

Agreed - it would be nice if we could also get a cmd command/shortcut profile that we could set to match the common cmd behaviors and shortcuts. I would like something that adds to cmd features, not replaces everything about it, including the features that I am used to.

Mar 06 '25 03:03 AntonPo456

Yes this is needed. A temporary workaround if you only care about theming (like me) is use cmd in powershell

Mar 18 '25 13:03 Ashwin-droid

I would really like cmd.exe in Warp since I am better with Command Prompt than PowerShell.

Apr 06 '25 16:04 Frubby21

I just learned about warp and will give it a try as it looks really neat. But I would also like it to be able to use CMD instead of powershell.

Apr 17 '25 09:04 quintonn

Please add support for cmd.exe. Powershell has too verbose commands (like when I type CD it gets translated into Set-Location).

Apr 28 '25 11:04 jaowork

Please add support for cmd.exe on Windows

May 04 '25 19:05 kevingandrades

I need cmd support

May 28 '25 21:05 eskayamadeus

@dannyneira, I don't believe that this is possible. The inherent portability of PowerShell between terminals is due to how the shell and terminal emulator are separate. This is not true for cmd.exe. What you need to do is download a FOSS remake of a batch shell, and invoke that within Warp. (An advantage of this approach is that it'll be usable across OSes.) ^1

Jun 13 '25 16:06 RokeJulianLockhart

Your proposition is much more impossible than just making cmd.exe work or emulating its' behavior. I don't know why you felt the need to down vote this issue just because you don't have the technical knowledge to contribute something meaningful to the conversation.

Jun 15 '25 15:06 aqilc

@RokeJulianLockhart, Portability/usability across OSes is not relevant to this issue. No one expects cmd.exe to be supported on an OS other than Windows.

Also see Microsoft/Terminal as a starting point to understand how the command line processor has been separated from the older console host and is shared with the newer Windows Terminal.

Jun 15 '25 16:06 jrdodds

Thanks.

Jun 15 '25 19:06 RokeJulianLockhart

https://chrisant996.github.io/clink/ is an obvious candidate to look at...

Jun 15 '25 20:06 joevaughan

I tried clink as an alternative to cmd.exe and like it but at work, it was flagged & blocked by end-point-protection due to clink's use of code-injection to get beyond cmd.exe's lack of a PTY interface.

Jun 26 '25 12:06 jimfred

@dannyneira, macOS and the Linux-based OSes that I've utilised (Fedora and OSTW), wine cmd.exe has worked inside warp (and warp-preview): ^2

This made me wonder whether Windows' cmd.exe doesn't, but it does:

^1

  [2]: https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/revisions/93455/1#:~:text=wine%2D10.11%2D1.1.x86_64%20provides-,wine%20cmd,-:%20%5B1%5D

  [1]: https://github.com/warpdotdev/Warp/issues/6745#issue-3197138024

Consequently, what's this issue requesting? Warpification's IntelliSense eqivalent, etcetera?

Jul 02 '25 20:07 RokeJulianLockhart

The initial request includes:

I would like for Warp on Windows to support Cmd.exe.

Running cmd from another shell is not Warp supporting cmd. (It is also not useful or accurate to say that Warp supports notepad because notepad can be started from a shell in Warp.)

Warp supporting cmd should include (among other things):

The new tab drop-down menu includes cmd.exe as a choice.
In Settings -> Features -> Sessions, "Custom" for "default shell" accepts an executable path that uses cmd.exe. (Currently the executable path edit box is outlined in red with no explanation.)

Yes, for "Custom" I can enter a path for pwsh with command arguments to run cmd and not exit. That's not Warp providing support for cmd. Yes, I can create a workflow. That's also not support for cmd.

Jul 02 '25 22:07 jrdodds

In Settings -> Features -> Sessions, "Custom" for "default shell" accepts an executable path that uses cmd.exe. (Currently, the executable path edit box is outlined in red with no explanation.)

@jrdodds, yeah, I see that too. Though, note that it reds if the user uses an environment variable too, so ensure that you solely utilise absolute paths, when confirming in the future. Someone should report that.

The new tab drop-down menu includes cmd.exe as a choice.

Hopefully, the undermentioned is of use:

#!/usr/bin/env pwsh

#Requires -PSEdition Core
#Requires -Version 7.6

If ($IsWindows) {

	New-Item `
		-Path "$Env:AppData\warp\WarpPreview\data\launch_configurations\" `
		-Name 'cmd.yaml' `
		-ItemType 'File' `
		-Value @'
---
name: cmd.exe
active_window_index: 0
windows:
  - active_tab_index: 0
    tabs:
      - layout:
          cwd: "%USERPROFILE%"
          is_focused: true
          commands:
            - exec: cmd.exe .
'@

}

I believe that it'll nest cmd.exe inside whatever's the default shell, but it's at least easier: