When comparing Console2 vs CLink, the Slant community recommends Console2 for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” Console2 is ranked 13th while CLink is ranked 38th. The most important reason people chose Console2 is:
Console2 comes with multiple window styles out of the box and allows the user to configure fonts, colors, and transparency to their liking.
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Pros
Pro Customizable aesthetics
Console2 comes with multiple window styles out of the box and allows the user to configure fonts, colors, and transparency to their liking.
Pro Easy-to-use text selection
Console2's text selection is intuitive and easy to use.
Pro Highly configurable hotkeys
Hotkeys allow the user to easily trigger an action and can be configured to their liking.
Pro Borderless mode minimizes crashes
Borderless windowed mode is basically a fullscreen mode but with a super fast alt tab option and seamless task switching without the risk of crashes or freezes.
Pro Transparency support
Console2 supports transparency. You can adjust how transparent the background should be.
Pro Dynamically resize window
You can change the width and height of the console window without having to reset your session.
Pro Supports fullscreen mode
Console2 supports fullscreen mode, making for greater visibility.
Pro Can run any existing shell
Console2 facilitates the running of CMD, PowerShell, Cygwin, PuTTY, etc.
Pro Free and open source
Console2 is licensed under MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1, making it free and open source.
Pro Tabbed
Console2 allows the user to create tabs for separate instances of the terminal, allowing them to have both multiple shells and multiple instances of the same shell open.
Pro Transforms cmd.exe into something bearable
Cmd.exe is still irreplaceable for many tasks on Windows. This makes the experience less painful.
Pro Can easily search in history
The user can search in history by simply pressing Ctrl+R.
Cons
Con Not maintained
The development of Console2 has been abandoned. The latest change was made in 2013.
Con Stopping a script closes the tab
Usually when a script is running and you try to stop it with Ctrl-c, it stops and shows the empty command prompt waiting to get a new command. In Console2 this does not happen: instead the whole tab where the script is running is closed.
Con Supports cmd.exe not the successor platform
It's for cmd.exe which was abandoned by Microsoft in the favor of PowerShell. Using PowerShell is more effective than cmd.exe even with CLink, unfortunatelly.