Command line on desktop

Question

Is it possible to have a command line interface like the command prompt constantly running on the Windows desktop, instead of a wallpaper for example? This to achieve a kind of MS-DOS experience, but with all the usual Windows features.

Answer 1

While I suspect someone has done a more formalized version of this before, you could riff on the following code:

#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

HWND g_hwndTarget;

BOOL CALLBACK  EnumCallback(HWND hwnd, LPARAM lParam)
{
    wchar_t szText[MAX_PATH] = {};
    GetWindowTextW(hwnd, szText, MAX_PATH);

    std::wstring strTitle = szText;
    if (strTitle.find(L"cmd.exe") != std::string::npos)
    {
        g_hwndTarget = hwnd;
        return FALSE;
    }
    return TRUE;
}


int main()
{
    EnumDesktopWindows(NULL, EnumCallback, 0);

    RECT rect = {};
    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETWORKAREA, 0, &rect, 0);

    if (g_hwndTarget)
    {
        LONG style = GetWindowLong(g_hwndTarget, GWL_STYLE);
        style &= ~WS_BORDER;
        style &= ~WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW;
        SetWindowLong(g_hwndTarget, GWL_STYLE, style);
        SetWindowPos(g_hwndTarget, HWND_BOTTOM, 0, 0, rect.right, rect.bottom, 0);
    }

    return 0;
}

Compile the above and run it from an existing console window. What the code does is this:

• Find a console window (first window with cmd.exe in its title bar). With this window handle it does the following.

  • Removes the title bar and top level button/menus

  • Sticks it at the bottom of the window stack

  • Resizes it full screen.

The result is that you have a pseudo "command line desktop"

It's far from robust. And it might make sense to have a background process constantly ensuring it exists and is positioned/styled correctly. But it's a start. You'll have to take it to the next level to meet your needs.