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Thread: The Black Screen of DOS Window

  1. #1
    Senior Member The Old Man's Avatar
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    Question The Black Screen of DOS Window

    Anyone know how to put some color in the popup DOS screen in Windows? (Start - Programs - MSDos Prompt...) It used to be we could make a notation in the Autoexec.bat file, to give a background color of say light blue and a font color of white or whatever you wanted on the start screen ... That bright white on dark black is really a hard one to look at. I can't find anything in the Windows books or the MS knowledge base that matches anywhere close.

  2. #2
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    doesn't the prompt commando work anymore? (I don't run windows so I couldn't check if it does)
    I remember using the prompt commando once in Win98 to change the look of the <current dir> thingy...
    zion1459
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    \"Software is like sex: it\'s better when it\'s free.\" -Linus Torvalds

  3. #3
    Senior Member BrainStop's Avatar
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    COLOR

    Old Man,

    There are two options for you.

    - If you want to permanently change the look of your command screens, you can go to the properties screen of one and set the color. When you close the properties screen, it will ask you whether you want to apply this change to this window only or all future windows as well.

    - If you want to have changes while you are in the window, there is the COLOR command:

    C:\>color /?
    Sets the default console foreground and background colors.

    COLOR [attr]

    attr Specifies color attribute of console output

    Color attributes are specified by TWO hex digits -- the first
    corresponds to the background; the second the foreground. Each digit
    can be any of the following values:

    0 = Black 8 = Gray
    1 = Blue 9 = Light Blue
    2 = Green A = Light Green
    3 = Aqua B = Light Aqua
    4 = Red C = Light Red
    5 = Purple D = Light Purple
    6 = Yellow E = Light Yellow
    7 = White F = Bright White

    If no argument is given, this command restores the color to what it was
    when CMD.EXE started. This value either comes from the current console
    window, the /T command line switch or from the DefaultColor registry
    value.

    The COLOR command sets ERRORLEVEL to 1 if an attempt is made to execute
    the COLOR command with a foreground and background color that are the
    same.

    Example: "COLOR fc" produces light red on bright white
    If you want to set the background while calling the command window, there are options you can use, at least in W2K:

    cmd /t:fg

    (Codes for fg same as the COLOR command)

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers,

    BrainStop

  4. #4
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    if you are using win 95:98 this won't work as there are no color command
    use the prompt command the code up there are sitll valid ....
    assembly.... digital dna ?

  5. #5
    AO Curmudgeon rcgreen's Avatar
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    Thumbs up

    If you have the ANSI.SYS driver loaded:
    PROMPT $e[1;37;44m$p$g
    will give you a blue screen with white text.
    I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.

  6. #6
    Senior Member The Old Man's Avatar
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    Thanks all, none of the temp commands seem to work but I'll try the permanent change.

  7. #7
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    If one such as yourself uses a win2k box, the color command exists, but is only temp. If you go into the properties of the shortcut to the command prompt, you can make a permanent-yet-still-changeable alteration to the prompt screen... is it possible to do the same thing to the terminal in unix based operating systems?
    Welcome to Hell , where we have served more than all of the fast food chains put together! And the number grows everyday! Stay tuned!

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