3 Ways to Replace PowerShell with Command Prompt in Windows 10/11

Windows PowerShell is the new avatar of the Command Prompt with lots of new features and capabilities. With the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft replaced CMD with PowerShell. If you are unable to find the option to launch the Command Prompt from the Power User Menu and the Context menu, there are a couple of ways to make things right. In this tutorial, see how we can replace PowerShell with Command Prompt in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

There are more than 18 ways to open the Command Prompt in Windows 10. However, we’ll discuss only 2 of them here. We’ll check out the easy way to replace PowerShell with Command Prompt from Windows settings. In case you want to learn how to open the Command Prompt instead of PowerShell in a folder, you can make changes to the Registry Editor to replace PowerShell with CMD in the Windows context menu.

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1. Replace PowerShell with CMD in Power User Menu

This tip to replace PowerShell with the Command Prompt in the Power User Menu works only in Windows 10. You can follow the quick steps given below to bring back the Command Prompt in the Power User Menu on your Windows PC.

1. Click Start (Windows logo icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen) and choose Settings.
2. Next, click Personalization. You can directly access the personalization menu by doing a right-click on the desktop screen and selecting the Personalize option.
3. Now click Taskbar on the left panel in the Settings window.
4. After that, click the toggle button below ‘Replace Command Prompt with Windows PowerShell in the menu when I right-click the start button or press Windows Logo Key + X‘ on the right panel.

Once you have done that the 2 options to open Powershell in the Power User Menu will be replaced by Command Prompt and Command Prompt (Admin) respectively as shown below.

2. Replace PowerShell with CMD in File Explorer

If you want to open Command Prompt instead of PowerShell in a folder or File Explorer, you’ll need to replace PowerShell with CMD in the right-click Context Menu on your Windows 10 or 11 PC. We can do some tweaks to the Registry Editor to make this happen. Let’s begin.

1. Press the Windows Logo key on your keyboard, look for the Notepad++ app in the Start menu and open it.
2. Now, copy the following code and paste it into the empty Notepad file.

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmdprompt]
   @="@shell32.dll,-8506"
   "Extended"=""
   "NoWorkingDirectory"=""
   
   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmdprompt\command]
   @="cmd.exe /s /k pushd \"%V\""
   
   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\cmdprompt]
   @="@shell32.dll,-8506"
   "Extended"=""
   "NoWorkingDirectory"=""
   
   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\cmdprompt\command]
   @="cmd.exe /s /k pushd \"%V\""
   
   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmdprompt]
   @="@shell32.dll,-8506"
   "Extended"=""
   "NoWorkingDirectory"=""
   
   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmdprompt\command]
   @="cmd.exe /s /k pushd \"%V\""

3. Click File and choose the Save As… option.
4. When you click the Save As… option, you’ll be prompted to assign a file name and type. Click the File name section and type ‘cmdfix.reg‘ as the file name. Then click the drop-down icon in front of the Save as type box and select All Files. Finally, Save the file to your preferred location.
5. Once you have saved the file, navigate to cmdfix.reg and double-click it. When prompted, choose Yes.
6. Next, you’ll see a pop-up window asking if you want to add the new configuration to the registry. Choose Yes.
7. The newly created cmdfix.reg will be added to the registry.

You have successfully replaced PowerShell with CMD in the Windows 10 or 11 right-click context menu. Do not forget to check out our detailed tutorial on customizing the Windows context menu. You should now be able to open the Command Prompt instead of PowerShell in a folder.

Anyway, in case you want to undo the changes made by this registry editor tweak anytime later, just paste the following text into a new notepad file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd2]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\cmd2]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd2]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LibraryFolder\Background\shell\cmd2]

Make sure that you name this notepad file as ‘Defaultcmd.reg‘ and select ‘All Files‘ as the file type before saving it. Double-click the file, and select Yes.

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3. Edit Registry Entries to Replace PowerShell with CMD

While the trick we mentioned above should work fine, there’s one more way you can use to replace PowerShell with Command Prompt in Windows 10 and 11. This method involves manually editing the registry entries.

1. Click the Search icon and type “registry” in the text box and click Registry Editor.
2. Alternatively, you can open the Run window by pressing Windows Logo Key + R, and type “regedit” to open Registry Editor.
3. Now, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd.
4. Right-click on the cmd folder and choose Permissions from the context menu.
5. When a small window entitled Permissions for cmd pops up, click the Advanced button.
6.  The Advanced Security Settings window will appear. Click the Change option to change the permission settings for the Owner.
7. In the Select User or Group window, click the Advanced button.
8. In the window that pops up next, click the Find Now button. Then select your user group from the search results and click OK.
9. When you return back to the Advanced Security Settings for cmd window, check the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects option. Then click Apply and OK respectively.
10. Finally, you’ll return to the Permissions for cmd window from where you initially started. Now, select Administrators under Group or user names, and check the Allow box next to Full Control under Permissions for Administrators. Click the Apply button followed by OK.
11. When you come back to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd path in the Registry Editor, right-click on the HideBasedOnVelocityId entry. Choose the Rename option.
12. Rename the entry to ShowBasedOnVelocityId.
13. As soon as the name of the DWORD entry is changed, PowerShell will be replaced by CMD in the right-click menu in Windows 10 or 11.

Done! Now, open a folder and press the Shift key + right-click. You should be able to open Command Prompt instead of PowerShell in a folder. Actually, you’ll have the options to open PowerShell and Command Prompt both in the context menu in the File Explorer.

In case you want to remove the Open PowerShell window here option from the File Explorer context menu do as directed below. The steps are almost the same as you went through a while ago to replace PowerShell with the Command Prompt in the right-click menu.

1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\PowerShell.
2. Right-click on PowerShell and then select Permissions from the context menu.
3. Now repeat Steps 5-10 from above.
4. After that, right-click on ShowBasedOnVelocityId and rename it to HideBasedOnVelocityId.
5. The Open Powershell window here option will be removed from the context menu.

Replacing Command Prompt with PowerShell

In case you want to replace the Command Prompt with PowerShell in the File Explorer right-click menu, follow the quick steps described below.

1. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd.
2. Right-click on ShowBasedOnVelocityld and rename it to HideBasedOnVelocityld.
3. Now, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\PowerShell, right-click on HideBasedOnVelocityld and rename it to ShowBasedOnVelocityld.

I hope you were able to replace PowerShell with CMD in Windows 10 or 11 (or vice versa) using this tutorial. In case you get stuck at any step and need help or just have something to share about the topic, feel free to drop us a comment.

Also, if you own an old laptop or PC that doesn’t support the Windows 11 upgrade the official way, read our tutorial about installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware (CPU or TPM).

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