How to Recreate the Matrix Rain in Command Prompt

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Create a Matrix-style rain effect using a Command Prompt batch file

Written by Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: December 16, 2025 Fact Checked

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Using Command Prompt

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Using PowerShell

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Video

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Q&A

Do you want to make a cool Matrix-style digital rain effect in Command Prompt? You can, and thankfully, it's really easy! In this article, we go over how you can write your own batch file to create a digital rain effect in Command Prompt, and we also teach you how to use a PowerShell script from GitHub to make a more advanced digital rain effect. Read on to learn more!

Creating the Matrix Digital Rain in CMD

To create the digital rain effect in Command Prompt, create a batch file that constantly creates random numbers that fill up the screen. You can also download a PowerShell script from GitHub that will create a realistic Matrix digital rain animation in PowerShell, another Windows CLI.

Section 1 of 2:

Creating a Batch File in Command Prompt

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You can create a simple Matrix digital rain effect in Command Prompt with just a few simple lines of code.
2
Paste the following code into the Notepad document. Highlight all of the code, press Ctrl+C, then paste it into your Notepad file by pressing Ctrl+V.
```
@echo off
color A
:start 
echo %random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%
timeout /t 0 /nobreak > nul
goto :start
```
- Add more "%random%" to the fourth line to make the text fill up the width of the Command Prompt window, if you prefer.
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3
Save the file. Click File > Save As…, then choose a folder on your computer to save it to. Name the file whatever you want, but add a ".bat" to the end of the filename to make it a batch file.
- For example, if you wanted to name the file "Matrix," you'd save it as "Matrix.bat" (without quotation marks).
To do this, navigate to the batch file and right-click it, then click Run as administrator.
5
Press the maximize button to make the Command Prompt window fill your screen. To really make this look like the Matrix, click the button in the upper-right corner that looks like a square. This will make the Command Prompt window fill the entire screen.
Press ↵ Enter and the window will close.

Section 2 of 2:

Using a PowerShell Script

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1
Download the Matrix animation repository from GitHub. If you want a more realistic digital rain effect in your command line interface, download the Pwsh Matrix Animation project by avdaredevil on GitHub.
- To download the repository, go to the Pwsh Matrix Animation page on GitHub. You don't need a GitHub account to do this.
- Click the green Code button to open a drop-down.
- Click Download ZIP.
- Unzip the zipped file once it's done downloading.
2
Open PowerShell as an administrator. You can do this by searching "powershell" in the search bar, then right-clicking it and choosing Run as administrator.
- This script will only work in Windows PowerShell, not Command Prompt. PowerShell is another command-line interface available on modern Windows operating systems.
3
Update your Execution Policy. To run scripts from the internet, you must change the Execution Policy in PowerShell. To do this, run the command Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser Unrestricted and type "Y" to confirm.^{[1]
X
Research source}
- Only run scripts you trust in PowerShell. Once you're done with the Matrix script, make sure to change your Execution Policy back to "Restricted."
4
Navigate to the directory that holds the Matrix.ps1 file. For example, if the Matrix.ps1 file is in your Downloads folder on your C drive, you'd enter the command cd C:\Users\[username]\Downloads (where [username] is your Windows username).
- To learn how to use the change directory (cd) command, check out our CD command guide.
5
Run the command. To do so, type .\Matrix.ps1 and press Enter. You'll be prompted to confirm if you want to run the script. Press "R" to continue.
- The animation will now play in your PowerShell window! To make it as big as your screen, click the Maximize button in the upper-right corner (the icon of the square).
- You can also add parameters to your .\Matrix.ps1 command. For the best experience, use the command .\Matrix.ps1 -SpecialChars -Sparsity 1 -Renderer Windows.
  - For all the parameters you can use, go to the Pwsh Matrix Animation GitHub page.

Community Q&A

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Question

I created the .bat file, but I want to open from cmd. How can I do that?

Community Answer

If you have clicked it and it has not opened itself, then save it again and name it. At the end of the name put .bat and then try.

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Question

Can this be done in Windows 7?

Community Answer

As long as you have a notepad or a similar application terminal or command prompt.

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Question

I've created my matrix batch file, but the cmd opens for just two-thirds of a second, and then the cmd closes. How can I fix this?

Community Answer

Try modifying your script to this: title MATRIX echo off cls :start echo %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% goto start

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