When comparing Andy vs cmder, the Slant community recommends cmder for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for Windows?” cmder is ranked 6th while Andy is ranked 70th. The most important reason people chose cmder is:
Cmder builds on [ConEmu](https://code.google.com/p/conemu-maximus5) console emulator, by adding enhancements from [clink](http://mridgers.github.io/clink/) (such as bash-style completion in cmd.exe and PowerTab in powershell.exe) and optionally extending it with [msysgit](http://msysgit.github.io), that brings Unix tools to Windows.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Can be rooted
To root Andy download this rootkit, extract the archive and run AndyRootkit30.exe. It comes with frequently installed root applications that can be installed in the process and also allows unrooting Andy.
Pro Easy to get started
As long as virtualization is enabled in BIOS, the setup is straightforward. Simply download, install, run. First time the software runs it will ask to either log in with a Google account or create one allowing it to download software directly from the Play Store.
Pro The virtual machine Andy runs in is highly customizable
With some tinkering, Andy can be set up to run with up to 3GB of RAM, the current Android 32bit RAM limit. It allows for a smooth experience and offers enough power to have multiple apps running simultaneously. The VM can even add more virtual CPU cores to Andy, doubling it's processing power or more.
Pro Use of Genymotion VHD allows Andy to be very fast
Andy is built on top of the powerful Genymotion VHD. It takes advantage of OpenGL capable graphics cards allowing it to be one of the fastest Android emulators.
Pro Allows installing third-party launchers
Andy comes with a custom clever implementation of ADW. It is theme-able, while functions very well without any modifications. The app sorting is a nice touch. Andy is compatible with most Android launchers.
Pro Great application compatibility and stability
Andy is constantly optimizing for applications to perform better on their system. Their support staff has a reporting setup to get the right information to the developers as fast as possible.
Pro Allows using a smartphone as a controller
It can't stream media to a phone, but it can work as a game controller. It allows for accelerometer- and touch-based interactions.
Pro Good customer support
Andy manages support mostly through a Facebook group where both knowledgeable admins and smart community members help answer questions.
Pro Fully functioning notifications and widgets
Andy supports all traditional Android widgets and notifications. It can even use apps like Push Bullet to send those notifications to their other devices.
Pro Great Clash of Clans gameplay experience
The new launcher provided for, it seems, limitless number of Andy tablets. Have a Andy just for CoC with 3GB and 4CPUs to maximize your CoC play to the next level. Then make a full copy of that machine for a full backup. Have an Andy for the children, be able to lock each Andy with a password lock-screen. And manage all this with less only 7 buttons ;) Again, Simple and powerful.
Pro Simple OS upgrade process
As of this latest version, users can be notified of new versions and incremental changes. It's possible to update only certain pieces or parts, rather than downloading an entirely new build. Andy is also exploring OTA update possibilities.
Pro Andy is available in over 40 languages.
For a full list of supported languages, see here.
Pro All apps and settings can be synced between Andy and an Android device on the same network with 1ClickSync
While setting up Andy, 1ClickSync will ask for Google Account credentials that allow keeping apps and their settings in sync between Andy and an Android device.
Pro Available on Windows 7 & 8
Andy is available on Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs with OS X support in development.
Pro No signup required
Downloading Andy requires only one click with no email address or account needed.
Pro Minimal and portable version available
There is a portable version of cmder available which is just 10 MB in size. It can be put on an external device, like a USB stick, and run off it. There's no installation required.
Pro Has built-in Quake style drop-down mode
This is an extremely useful mode whereby the console hides and shows on ctrl+~ similar to a gaming console. This feature is inherited from ConEmu.
Pro Works nicely with command line applications
Such applications include CMD, Powershell, and MinTTY.
Pro File explorer integration
Cmder can be added to the right-click menu, allowing the user to start a terminal session from the selected directory with a "Cmder Here" command. The functionality can be enabled by opening up a terminal with administrator privileges, navigating to the Cmder folder and executing .\cmder.exe /REGISTER ALL
.
Pro Monokai color scheme
Cmder pretties up the default look of ConEmu using Monokai color scheme out of the box and allows flexible color and transparency schemes, including custom out-of-focus opacity.
Pro Integrates with graphical applications
Portable GUI applications can be integrated directly into the interface of the terminal emulator.
For example, it's possible to integrate ST3 with cmder by moving the portable version of ST3 to /cmder/vendor/
and editing alias file in /cmder/config/aliases
to include subl="%CMDER_ROOT%\vendor\Sublime Text 3\sublime_text.exe" $1 -new_console:s75V
. Now writing subl
in the command line will open ST3. The alias of subl can be changed to whatever's needed and similarly, the -new_console
option's parameters can be changed to alter how the text editor integrates with the terminal emulator. It can be horizontal or vertical splits of varying sizes or tabs, etc.
Pro Works with WSL bash.exe
CMDer works great with the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Just change your startup task to point to the bash.exe file.
Pro Highly flexible
Integrates with:
- cygwin
- mintty
- powershell
- msysgit
Pro Works with ZSH and Oh My ZSH through WSL (using ubuntu 18.04)
Set ZSH as shell using "chsh" command, and launch the console using "ubuntu1804" command.
Pro Works with VS Code, Hyper and IDEs
Cmder can be used with popular editors such as VS Code, which delivers aliases and clink as well as its color scheme to VS Code.
It can also be used without ConEmu and Hyper as an alternative terminal emulator, which makes customizing the UI through NPM plugins much easier.
Cons
Con Andy's Installer is known to drop/install a bitcoin miner
Andy's Installer has been reported to drop a bitcoin miner on users computer which causes significant drop in PC performance.
Con Still on Jelly Bean
KitKat version is planned.
Con No Linux Version
Con Can crash your mac
Con Only installs in Windows Drive C:/
Which is where windows is installed. What's more, it does not let you change the installation path.
Con Quite resource intensive
Con Issues with non-unicode characters
'ls' command can have issues with non-unicode characters such as cyrillic. As of 1.1.2, 'dir' can be used as a substitute that will properly display non-unicode characters. Unfortunately, it's an issue with msysgit that isn't being officially addressed (a workaround is available) thus no official ETA on the bugfix is available.
Con Not as portable as advertised
Even though cmder is advertised as a "portable terminal emulator for Windows", it's not adequately minimalistic to be considered truly portable. In fact, one of the dependencies required to use it is the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015.
Con Issues with escape codes
Sometimes it doesn't interpret terminal escape codes correctly and the output gets mangled using tmux over ssh, for instance.
Con Slower than ConEmu
Con There is no ligatures support
As though the fonts like Fira Code or Hasklig work in Cmder, this enhancement for the Windows command prompt doesn't display ligatures in the above-mentioned fonts.
Con Lots of conflicts with OS keybindings
By default, things lke ctrl-w will close your window unexpectedly when using nano or trying to delete a word in bash.
Con The portable (mini) version does not have UNIX commands
UNIX command support is only available for the full version.
Con Very slow
Scrolling in vim lags the screen and can crash.