Enabling ANSI colors in older versions of Windows To use ANSI colours in the Windows terminal requires setting VirtualTerminalLevel. VirtualTerminalLevel = 1 is now set by default for the terminal and in ConPTY. In Windows versions 1511 through to 1903 this had to be enabled in the registry at: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console] "VirtualTerminalLevel"=dword:00000001 Alternatively it can be enabled by calling the SetConsoleMode API with the ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING flag 24 bit color The latest W10 Console has full 24-bit color support, this is primarily for Linux compatibility so the console properties page and the default Windows color mappings still use just 16 colors, there is no plan to add additional console colors to the Win32 API. To take advantage of the new colors use ColorTool.exe and install a theme, or use the VT100 sequences described here. When the VT100 sequences are used with a version of the Windows Console that supports 24-bit colors they will display the desired RGB color, older consoles will choose the nearest appropriate color from the existing 16 color table.