XyWrite is not the point. (OT = "off-topic", yes?) I think it's big news because it's the first upgrade to the Windows command-line user interface since ... forever? ... and it appears to be a major one. The command window will be a lot more customizable -- pick your fonts, colors, etc. -- and run different command shells side-by-side in tabs. Unicode, too, undoubtedly. And making it open-source is the biggest news of all. It's true that most if not all of this is already available in an environment like ConEmu. It's endlessly customizable -- like XyWrite! -- and XyWrite under vDosPlus runs very nicely in a tab as an "attached" application, which is handy at times: http://xywwweb.ammaze.net/img/conemu1.png -- Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxxxx