How to change default path in cmder

Question

I have Cmder for Windows it has default path c:\Users\ username and I want to change it to any other path I like or want. How do I change it ?

Also cmder can replace cmd.exe meaning is it possible to set cmder as default program insted of cmd.exe

Answer 1

As of cmder v1.3.6:

1. Go to 'settings'

2. In the settings group 'Startup', click on 'Tasks'

3. Click the console you want to modify (e.g. cmd::Cmder, cmd::Cmder as Admin, bash::bash etc.)

4. Click the button that says 'Startup dir...'

5. Select the directory you want the console to start up in by default

6. Enjoy

Answer 2

In the init.bat file in ~/cmder/vendor, before

:: Set home path

add

@cd /d "C:/YOUR_PREFERRED_FOLDER/"

Answer 3

1. Create a shortcut to cmdr
2. Edit the shortcut, change the "Start in" path to the desired path
3. Profit

Answer 4

For those who none of the above solutions worked (Cmder keeps reverting back to old path), here's what I did to fix it:

1. Do a text search with Notepad++ in your Cmder directory for C:/OLD_FOLDER/
2. Replace each found instance with your new directory: C:/YOUR_PREFERRED_FOLDER/.

For me, the issue was in ConEmu.xml which was preventing startup folder changes.

Answer 5

In cmder\vendor\init.bat there are these lines:

:: Set home path
if not defined HOME set "HOME=%USERPROFILE%"
%lib_console% debug_output init.bat "Env Var - HOME=%HOME%"

set "initialConfig=%CMDER_ROOT%\config\user_profile.cmd"
if exist "%CMDER_ROOT%\config\user_profile.cmd" (
    REM Create this file and place your own command in there
    %lib_console% debug_output init.bat "Calling - %CMDER_ROOT%\config\user_profile.cmd"
    call "%CMDER_ROOT%\config\user_profile.cmd"
)

So to change your default path for cmd.exe all you need to do is to edit your cmder\config\user_profile.cmd file and add something like this at its end:

if not defined CMDER_HOME set "CMDER_HOME=%HOME%"
cd %CMDER_HOME%

I'd recommend using a specific environment variable like %CMDER_HOME% because if you use the same cmder config on multiple hosts, you can set this environment variable to the appropriate directory on each host and use cmder with the exact same configuration. cmder provides a default value for %HOME%, as you can see above, so that seems to be a safe failback value (you get the same behaviour without that line too, but that's probably because the cd failed; which feels nicer to be avoided).

Also cmder can replace cmd.exe meaning is it possible to set cmder as default program insted of cmd.exe

I'm not sure what you mean by this. cmder is just a console emulator that nicely integrates other terminal emulators into its windows. One of these terminal emulators is cmd.exe. So cmder's purpose isn't really to replace cmd.exe, although most certainly you can just create a new tab in cmder whenever you would otherwise spin up a new cmd window. It would be probably useful to know where and why you'd like to use cmder by default instead of cmd?