Microsoft KB Archive/95099

= Changing Colors in MS-DOS Shell =

Article ID: 95099

Article Last Modified on 10/13/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q95099



SUMMARY
This article discusses changing colors in MS-DOS Shell and covers these two topics:


 * Choosing Colors in MS-DOS Shell Generates a Beep
 * Adding New Colors to MS-DOS Shell



Choosing Colors in MS-DOS Shell Generates a Beep
If your computer beeps when you try to choose Colors from the Options menu of MS-DOS Shell, the DOSSHELL.INI file is probably corrupt.

To change the colors, MS-DOS Shell looks in the DOSSHELL.INI file for a section that begins with the line: color = If this section does not exist, choosing Color causes a beep. To correct this problem, expand the file EGA.IN_ (for an EGA or VGA monitor) on Disk 3 (MS-DOS 5.0 5.25-inch set) or Disk 2 (MS-DOS 6.0 5.25-inch set) or Disk 2 (MS-DOS 5.0 3.5-inch set) or Disk 1 (MS-DOS 6.0 3.5-inch set).

If you have a CGA monitor, the compressed file is CGA.IN_ instead of EGA.IN_. The EXPAND.EXE utility can be found on Disk 6 (5.25-inch set) or Disk 3 (3.5-inch set). The EGA.IN_ or CGA.IN_ file contains the same color information as the original DOSSHELL.INI. To get the color information into the DOSSHELL.INI, do the following (substitute &quot;cga.in_&quot; for &quot;ega.in_&quot; if you have a CGA monitor):

 Expand the file. For example:

expand a:\ega.in_ c:\dos\color.txt

 Edit COLOR.TXT so only the color information is left in the file. To do this, you can use MS-DOS Editor. Combine the DOSSHELL.INI file with the COLOR.TXT file. Use the COPY command:

copy c:\dos\dosshell.ini + c:\dos\color.txt c:\dos\dosshell.ini



You should now be able to change the color scheme in MS-DOS Shell.

Adding New Colors to MS-DOS Shell
To change the colors in MS-DOS Shell, choose Color from the Options menu. Only certain choices are available; to create more choices, you must edit the DOSSHELL.INI file.

The currentcolor= section is the color scheme being used. The color title is placed here. The color= section keeps records of all the available color schemes.

The color options for the following include:   black         brightblack white        brightwhite red          brightred cyan         brightcyan magenta      brightmagenta green        brightgreen blue         brightblue brown        brightyellow NOTE: There is no yellow or brightbrown color.

The DOSSHELL.INI color settings are as follows:   Setting         Description ---        ---

color=         Header for the list of color schemes selection=     Header for a particular color scheme alert=         Color of a warning dialog box menubar=       Color of the menu bar menu=          Color of the menu text disabled=      Color of a disabled menu item accelerator=   Color of a menu accelerator dialog=        Color of a dialog box button=        Color of a button elevator=      Color of the list box elevator titlebar=      Color of the title bars when focused scrollbar=     Color of a scroll bar borders=       Color of the lines around menus and dialog boxes drivebox=      Color of the area around the drive icons driveicon=     Color of the drive icons cursor=        Color of the mouse cursor You can change any part of the screen by changing the existing color name. You can create a new color scheme by copying one of the existing color schemes and changing the title and any of the individual colors. The name you choose for the new color scheme will be added to the Color Scheme dialog box.

Additional query words: 5.00 5.00a 6.00

Keywords: KB95099

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