JP Software has released Take Command 14, a powerful alternative to the regular Windows command prompt. And now it’s more powerful still, courtesy of some useful additions to the program’s scripting language.

The new TPIPE command, for instance, allows you to filter, convert and process text in a variety of ways. You can convert files to and from Unicode, for instance; convert the end-of-line type; use Grep-type line-based filters, and run a search and replace filter on a file.

And just one TPIPE switch – /simple – probably adds more filtering functionality than we’ve ever seen in a single program. There are options to convert a file to upper or lower case, or toggle case entirely; you can remove text from the beginning or end of lines; you’re able to UUEncode or UUDecode, MIME Encode or Decode a file; strip the email headers from a file; convert PDF documents and Excel spreadsheets to text, and much more (80 options in total).

Bring the command line right up-to-date with this powerful scripting tool

Another highlight is the ability to create a new Windows desktop from the command line, or a script, and switch to it later.

The new RESOLUTION command allows you to set the resolution, colour depth and refresh rate of a particular display.

If you enter a command such as COPY without any arguments then Take Command will now display the relevant command dialog, a welcome usability improvement.

And there are plenty of enhancements behind the scenes, too, with a major reworking of the Internet code, and the IDE editor being updated to a new version of Scintilla.

The only bad news we could find is that JP Software aren’t going to be following their usual pattern of releasing a cut-down freebie version of the latest build: there’s not going to be a TCC/LE 14.0.

If you’re on a budget, then, the best option is to download TCC/LE 13.0, which remains powerful for a free command line alternative.

The full Take Command 14.0 build offers considerably more functionality, though, more than enough to justify its $99.95 price tag. And if you’re interested then the 30-day trial build gives you plenty of time to explore this for yourself.