Consolas is one of a set of new ClearType fonts that shipped as part of Windows Vista and Office 2007.

It's absolutely beautiful. I love to code in it.

The problem: no applications seem to be smart enough to use it by default. In this post, I'll go through all the places I use monospaced fonts

Visual Studio

Tools->Options->Environment->Fonts and Colors

Set "Plain Text" under "Display Items" to Consolas.

Firefox

Tools->Options

Under the Content tab, in the "Fonts & Colors" box, pick "Advanced". In Monospace, pick Consolas.

Internet Explorer

Tools->Internet Options

General tab, under Appearance, pick 'Fonts'.

Under "Plain text font:" pick Consolas.

.NET Reflector

View->Options

Under 'Appearance', 'Code Font': Consolas.

CMD.EXE

(Thanks to Walter for pointing this out to me.)

Yes, even the command window. If you're running Vista, make sure to run this command 'elevated'. You'll have to restart your machine before the setting takes effect.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont" /v 00 /d Consolas

Next, right click on the command window header and pick 'Properties'. You'll probably want to up the font size, too.

And there you go. All your most important applications using the nicest monospaced font.

Happy hacking!