The command line has a reputation problem on Windows. To the average user, it looks intimidating, feels outdated, and often feels like something meant for developers. In reality, a few well-chosen tools can make your experience faster and easier than clicking through menus, installing apps, and managing files.
The default Command Prompt and even PowerShell haven’t aged particularly well. They work, but they don’t make anything feel intuitive. Windows Terminal changes that immediately. It adds tabs, cleaner text rendering, improved copy and paste, and support for multiple shells in one place. Instead of feeling like a leftover system tool, it feels more like a modern app. That shift is why power users start here. When the interface is fast, readable, and flexible, the command line stops feeling like a barrier. Once you start using it, the rest of these tools feel far less intimidating and far more useful.
Install all your apps at once instead of one by one
Queue everything up, let it run in the background, and skip the usual routine
Winget turns what is usually the slowest part of setting up a new Windows PC into a background task. Instead of opening a browser, searching for each app, downloading installers, and clicking through prompts, you can queue up everything you need and let it run. WinGet can discover, install, and manage thousands of apps directly from the command line, all without the usual friction.
In practice, this means installing multiple apps at once and letting them run while you do something else. You can chain installs together or use a simple script, kick it off, and walk away. By the time you come back, your browser, utilities, and core apps are already set up. It replaces the usual “next, next, finish” routine with something faster and far more consistent.
It also helps that WinGet covers most of the apps people actually install on their PC. That’s what makes it so effective as a first step. Instead of hunting down installers, everything is handled in one place, in one pass. Once that initial setup is done, the rest of your system is already in a much better place.
Here’s a quick example of installing common apps in one pass:
winget install 7zip.7zip
winget install VideoLAN.VLC
winget install Google.Chrome
winget install Mozilla.Firefox
winget install Git.Git
winget install Spotify.Spotify
winget install SlackTechnologies.SlackTo see if your PC has it installed, open Windows Terminal and run:
winget --version
Make the terminal easier to read and actually useful
A cleaner prompt with helpful context turns the command line into something you’ll want to use
Oh My Posh replaces the default PowerShell prompt with something that’s actually useful at a glance. Instead of a plain path and cursor, it can show your current folder, Git status, and other context right in the prompt. There are plenty of themes to choose from, so you can keep it simple or surface more information as you need it. That’s why people stick with it. The terminal stops feeling opaque and starts giving you useful feedback without extra effort.
It’s not perfect. Some themes are a bit busy, and the added information can feel like overkill at first. There’s also a small setup step, which is more than most tools on this list. But once it’s in place, it changes how the terminal feels. It looks cleaner, reads better, and feels like a modern tool.
Getting started is straightforward. Install it with winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh, then open your PowerShell profile with notepad $PROFILE and add:
oh-my-posh init pwsh | Invoke-ExpressionSave the file, restart Windows Terminal, and you’re done. It only takes a few minutes, and the difference is immediate.
Track changes and undo mistakes for any files
Git works with documents, scripts, and notes, giving every folder a built-in safety net
Git has a reputation as a developer tool, but at its core it’s just a way to track changes and undo mistakes. That’s useful for anyone working with files, not just code. If you’re editing scripts, keeping notes, or managing settings or config files, Git gives you a simple safety net. You can go back to a previous version, see what changed, or recover something you accidentally deleted. It turns a folder into something you can experiment with without worrying about breaking it.
Getting started is easy. Install it with winget install Git.Git, then navigate to any folder in the terminal and run git init. From there, you can track changes with a few basic commands. git add stages your changes, git commit -m "message" saves a snapshot, and git status shows what’s changed. You don’t need to use GitHub or learn advanced workflows to get value out of it. Even at a basic level, it gives you a reliable way to manage and protect your files without adding much overhead.
View files instantly without opening Notepad
Syntax highlighting and clean formatting make text files easier to read at a glance
Opening a file on Windows usually means launching Notepad and staring at a wall of plain text. bat skips that entire process. It lets you view files directly in the terminal with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and clean formatting by default. Logs, configs, scripts, even simple text files are easier to scan and understand immediately.
It’s not a full editor, and it doesn’t try to replace something like Notepad or VS Code. You’re not editing files here, just viewing them better and faster. That’s exactly why it fits so well on Windows. Install it with winget install sharkdp.bat, then use bat filename.txt whenever you want to quickly inspect a file. It’s a small upgrade, but it fixes one of the most basic and surprisingly slow parts of the default Windows experience.
This simple setup is how power users make Windows faster and easier
None of these tools are required, but together they change how Windows feels to use. This type of setup removes the small bits of friction that add up over time. Apps install in the background, files are easier to read, and the command line becomes something you actually want to use instead of avoid. You don’t need to adopt everything at once, but even adding one or two of these tools makes Windows faster, more predictable, and far more efficient.
