Sending ANSI escape sequences to something that amounts to a TTY is like trying to run a Perl program using the Java compiler. What you see are the ANSI escape sequences you are sending to the console. Not knowing they're suppose to be special, the console simply displays them. Forunately, it's possible to add support for ANSI escape sequences in this case. Simply add the line use Win32::Console::ANSI; to your script (after installing the module).