DOS for Windows9x

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Making DOS More Colourful

Topics
Changing Screen Colours	Changing The DOS Prompt
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Giving the screen some colour

OK, then - let's make the bleak, black world of DOS less cheerless!

Open your Config.sys with the DOS Editor (or one of the alternatives mentioned in Editing Files):
     Edit Config.sys    [Enter] or:
     Edit c:\config.sys    [Enter]

Move the cursor down to somewhere near the end of the Config.sys lines, and type in:
     DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ANSI.SYS
or, if Config.sys loads Himem.sys and includes 'DOS=HIGH', then:
     DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ANSI.SYS

Save the file (Alt-F-S), and open your Autoexec.bat. Just key Alt-F-O and tab to the list. Select the file and press Enter.
You probably have the line: PROMPT $P$G At the beginning of that line type the word REM to make it read REM PROMPT $P$G which will make it into a "Remark" to be ignored.
At the end add the line:
     PROMPT $e[1;33;44m$P$G    (Use lower case for 'e' and 'm' as given here. They are case-sensitive).

On the final line type in:
     CLS      Save the file (Alt-F-S), and key Alt-F-X to exit the DOS Editor.

Reboot ( Ctrl+Alt+Del ), press F8 and choose "Command Prompt only" again. Type in any harmless command such as DIR, then CLS. Now is that better?

C:\>_

Other colours are available, the ANSI numbers to change in the example above being the 33 (foreground) and 44 (background):

*Colour*	*Foreground*	*Background*
Black	30	40
Red	31	41
Green	32	42
Brown	33	43
Blue	34	44
Magenta	35	45
Cyan	36	46
Light Grey	37	47

In the example above - PROMPT $e[1;33;44m$P$G - '1' after the e[ (square bracket) means 'Bright', so alters tones. The alternative is '0' (zero). Experiment with colour combinations to suit your taste.

Changing the DOS Prompt

If you want to personalise the default - PROMPT $P$G - you can change that, too, using the combinations here.

$+	Gives	$+	Gives
$P	Current Drive & Directory	$G	The > Character
$D	Current Day & Date	$L	The < Character
$T	Current Time	$Q	The = Character
$V	DOS Version	$B	The \| Character
$_	New Line
These letters may be Upper or lower case

Try your own version. You could write something like this, which is broken into the lines as they appear on screen:


PROMPT $e[1;33;44m$Q$Q Welcome $Q Today is $D $Q$Q

$_$L I am $V_$G

$_$B Please give me an order. Thank you. $B

$_

$_$P

which comes out as the 5-line Prompt:


== Welcome = Today is Tue 09/12/2003 ==

< I am Windows 95. [Version 4.00.1111]  >

| Please give me an order. Thank you. |


C:\>_

The command must be all on one line when written:


PROMPT $e[1;33;44m$Q$Q Welcome $Q Today is $D $Q$Q$_$L I am $V_$G$_$B Please give me an order. Thank you. $B$_$_$P

You could tire of this very soon, as it would reappear in full every time ... It's only an example!