ARCHIVED: In DOS, how can I modify my prompt or the screen color?
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You can use the prompt command to personalize the DOS prompt. The format of the command is:
prompt text
where text
is a line of text that specifies the format of
the prompt.
Changing Prompt Information
Place the following special codes in the text string to produce special information or characters:
Code | Result |
---|---|
$_ | Enter/Linefeed |
$$ | Dollar sign |
$b | | (pipe) |
$d | Current date |
$e | ASCII escape code (code 27) |
$g | > (greater-than sign) |
$h | Backspace |
$l | < (less-than sign) |
$n | Current drive |
$p | Current drive and path |
$q | = (equal sign) |
$t | Current time |
$v | DOS version number |
For example, a typical use of the prompt
command is:
prompt $p$g
This produces a prompt that consists of the current drive and path
followed by a greater-than sign. Once you have found a prompt that
you like, you should include the prompt
command that
produces it as an entry in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file,
located in the root directory.
Changing Colors
If you wish to produce text of different colors, you will need to
install the ANSI screen driver. Make sure that the file
ANSI.SYS
exists on your hard drive and is correctly
referenced in an entry in your CONFIG.SYS
file, similar
to the following:
DEVICE = C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS
The above example assumes that the ANSI.SYS
file is
located in your DOS
directory on the
C:
drive. Replace the drive letter and/or
path information as necessary on your own computer.
Note: ANSI.SYS
replacements such as
NANSI.SYS
or FCONSOLE.DEV
may also work, but
may be incompatible with some software.
You can change the colors of the text in the DOS prompt (and the color attributes of the screen) using the following escape sequence:
$e[xx;yy;zzm
where xx
= attribute code, yy
= foreground
color code, and zz
= background color code.
A table of the color codes follows:
Code | Color |
---|---|
0 | Turn Off Attributes |
1 | High Intensity |
2 | Normal Intensity |
4 | Underline (mono only) |
5 | Blink |
7 | Reverse Video |
8 | Invisible |
30 | Black |
31 | Red |
32 | Green |
33 | Yellow |
34 | Blue |
35 | Magenta |
36 | Cyan |
37 | White |
40 | Black |
41 | Red |
42 | Green |
43 | Yellow |
44 | Blue |
45 | Magenta |
46 | Cyan |
47 | White |
For example, the following command will result in a bright red
C:\>
prompt and bright yellow text on a blue
background.
C:\> prompt $e[1;31;44m$p$g$e[1;33;44m
Including color specifications in the prompt command changes not only the color of the prompt, but also the color of other text that you type or display. In the above example, the prompt will appear red, but other text will show up as yellow on blue.
Sample Prompts
For some interesting prompts, cut and paste as entries in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT
file one of the following command lines that
begin with the prompt command:
GO IU!:
prompt $e[5;37GOm$e[5;31mIU$e[0;33m$p$g
Merry Christmas:
prompt $e[1;5;37m *$_$e[0;32;40m 1$_ $e[1;31;42m u $_$e[33;42m x o $e[30;40m$e[K$_ _$_$e[31m MERRY$_CHRISTMAS!$_$e[37m$p$g
Jack o' Lantern:
prompt $e[1;32;40m Z$_$e[33;43m $e[40m$e[K$_$e[43m $_ __ $e[37;40m$e[37;40m$e[K$_ BOO!$_$_$e[35m $p$g$e[37m
Choo choo train:
prompt $e[44;37;5m$e[16C$e[0;44;1;31m$_111$e[36m111$e[31m111$e[3 5m11 1\]$_$e[32;5mx x x x x x x$e[0;1;44;37m$e[1A$p$g
This is document aamm in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-01-18 08:50:34.