Win-X blacklist for cmd.exe?


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Windows 10 Pro
This seems to be a weird one.

Since Windows 11 is heavily pushing their "Windows Terminal" (which sucks, btw... even on a 9th gen i7 it takes 3-4 full seconds to open, instead of popping up instantly like the classic console host cmd.exe. Because of their stupid UWP system), I wanted to restore the classic "command prompt" option to the Win-X menu.

My initial workaround does work, but it's really silly. If I go into the app execution aliases and turn off Windows Terminal (wt.exe), it frees up that filename, and I can just copy cmd.exe and cmd.exe.mui, rename them wt.exe, and it'll open the classic one instead. But the text still says "Windows Terminal", so...

Anything I do, it seems to hide a shortcut to cmd.exe. I tried the Win+X Menu Editor from WinAero, which supposedly "re-hashes" the shortcuts so they show up. I was able to make shortcuts to basically any EXE file but cmd.

I even tried editing one of the shortcuts, pointing it to cmd.exe instead, and it *disappeared from the menu*. It actually briefly worked before I restarted Explorer - so for example the shortcut said Notepad, but it would open cmd - but then when I restarted Explorer it disappeared.

Does anyone know a workaround for this? I know it's petty, but I want things my way. I haven't tried PowerShell but I have a feeling they'll do the same thing.
 

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Have you tried adding cmd as a custom shortcut?

 

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Have you tried adding cmd as a custom shortcut?

Indeed I did. It doesn't work, any link to cmd.exe gets hidden. I even did it just now with the hashlink thing (even though WinAero's editor already does the same thing!) and it doesn't show up.

If I change it to any other .exe, it shows up.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
I type Command in the Search box on Win11, get choices and pick Run as Administrator, seems to work fine so far. However when I right-click the icon when on the Taskbar and choose to Pin it doesn't retain the Administrator part like it does in Win10.
 

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I'm not around my personal machine right now but when I am later today, I will post how mine is. Mine works on the WinX menu. Std and Admin both.
 

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System One

  • OS
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This seems to be a weird one.

Since Windows 11 is heavily pushing their "Windows Terminal" (which sucks, btw... even on a 9th gen i7 it takes 3-4 full seconds to open, instead of popping up instantly like the classic console host cmd.exe. Because of their stupid UWP system), I wanted to restore the classic "command prompt" option to the Win-X menu.
Windows terminal is awesome. You have tabs, and you have access via 1 interface to cmd, powershell, WSL if you use it, etc. It's so customizable, etc.

I can understand your desire to have speed for cmd, and for me, i just hit Windows Key + cmd + enter and i'm in. That's as quick for me as hitting Windows Key +X to bring up the menu.
 

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I'm not around my personal machine right now but when I am later today, I will post how mine is. Mine works on the WinX menu. Std and Admin both.

Please do!

Windows terminal is awesome. You have tabs, and you have access via 1 interface to cmd, powershell, WSL if you use it, etc. It's so customizable, etc.

I can understand your desire to have speed for cmd, and for me, i just hit Windows Key + cmd + enter and i'm in. That's as quick for me as hitting Windows Key +X to bring up the menu.

My issue is that, at least in Windows 10 and 11, any of the "modern" apps using UWP have a noticeable lag before they open. It's not even just the first time either, it does it every time you close the program and relaunch it. I'm not sure what is going on behind the scenes that causes this behavior, but it's easily noticeable. I'm impatient, and when I want a terminal for something I want it to open *right now*

For WSL, I just have an "Open Bash here" shortcut I add with WinAeroTweaker, that directly launches the WSL terminal. It might be using conhost (I don't know) but it's separate from cmd, as it has the little penguin icon. I mean, I get the appeal of Windows Terminal to some people, having tabs is kinda cool I guess, but I really do like keeping them separate. If I need PowerShell, I can just type powershell in a command window.

Also, I mostly enter a directory within Windows Explorer and then right click to open a command window in that folder. So opening a new tab wouldn't help...

Either way, it's just a matter of opinion and preferences. I'm sticking to Windows 10 until I can truly make 11 look and function the way I am used to with 10. I don't *need* any of the stuff it offers.
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
Have you tried just uninstalling terminal through Settings, Apps, Apps and Features? That should allow you to return cmd.exe to the win-x menu avoiding the aliasing Windows does internally.
 

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Have you tried just uninstalling terminal through Settings, Apps, Apps and Features? That should allow you to return cmd.exe to the win-x menu avoiding the aliasing Windows does internally.
Doesn't work. The "Windows Terminal" shortcut stays, and then just says it can't find wt.exe every time you click it lol.

So what I did was kind of a bypass, I just copied cmd.exe and the cmd.exe.mui files, and named them wt. But that's not really ideal.
 

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  • OS
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You might need to use something like process explorer or similar to monitor, or snapshot, before and after registry entries/ calls, then install and/ or run terminal and cmd.exe using menus and shortcuts to see what MS does to redirect calls for cmd.exe to terminal in order to bypass this 'feature', although the monitoring and setting filters to view only relevant events will be a lot of work.
It is entirely possible MS has hard coded terminal into the Start Menu .exe so no matter what you do you will not end up with a satisfactory solution.
 

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notepad and paste:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

file > save as > (all file types from dropdown) > name it NAMEHERE.bat

this is will a standard command prompt window
create a shortcut to that batch file > right click shortcut > Advanced > Run this Program as Administrator > Apply > OK

use WinX menu editor from Winaero to add both the batch and the shortcut (batch = Standard; shortcut = Admin) to whichever section of WinX you want them in.


*Edit > you can also use WinaeroTweaker to create a shortcut to the Admin (Shortcut) that does not prompt with UAC... if you want...
 

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  • OS
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If you like, you can change the default profile for Windows Terminal to have it open to the Command Prompt by default. This way you do not need to change anything in the Win+X menu.

 

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the OP whole issue (from what the OP said anyways...) is the amount of time it takes to load the framework of the UWP terminal... even on my system it takes multiple seconds, whereas cmd is instant..
 

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1652833813271.png
 

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notepad and paste:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

file > save as > (all file types from dropdown) > name it NAMEHERE.bat

this is will a standard command prompt window
create a shortcut to that batch file > right click shortcut > Advanced > Run this Program as Administrator > Apply > OK

use WinX menu editor from Winaero to add both the batch and the shortcut (batch = Standard; shortcut = Admin) to whichever section of WinX you want them in.


*Edit > you can also use WinaeroTweaker to create a shortcut to the Admin (Shortcut) that does not prompt with UAC... if you want...
Ah, clever, using a batch file to bypass whatever blacklist it has built in. Cool
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro

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