How to change Screen buffer size in Windows Command Prompt from batch script

I was just searching for an answer to this exact question, come to find out the command itself adjusts the buffer!

mode con:cols=140 lines=70

The lines=70 part actually adjusts the Height in the 'Screen Buffer Size' setting, NOT the Height in the 'Window Size' setting.

Easily proven by running the command with a setting for 'lines=2500' (or whatever buffer you want) and then check the 'Properties' of the window, you'll see that indeed the buffer is now set to 2500.

My batch script ends up looking like this:

@echo off
cmd "mode con:cols=140 lines=2500"

mode con lines=32766

sets the buffer, but also increases the window height to full screen, which is ugly.

You can change the settings directly in the registry :

:: escape the environment variable in the key name
set mySysRoot=%%SystemRoot%%

:: 655294544 equals 9999 lines in the GUI
reg.exe add "HKCU\Console\%mySysRoot%_system32_cmd.exe" /v ScreenBufferSize /t REG_DWORD /d 655294544 /f

:: We also need to change the Window Height, 3276880 = 50 lines
reg.exe add "HKCU\Console\%mySysRoot%_system32_cmd.exe" /v WindowSize /t REG_DWORD /d 3276880 /f

The next cmd.exe you start has the increase buffer.

So this doesn't work for the cmd.exe you are already in, but just use this in a pre-batch.cmd which than calls your main script.


I was just giving a try for max lines on windows 7 i can set using mode con command and found it to be 32766 2^15-2 and you can set it with following command

mode con lines=32766

although you can set screen buffer size from the GUI too, but the max you can get is 9999.