Vic's Registry RoundUp and DOS Den
~~Vic Ferri, Win Tips and Tricks

This month I will show you how you can create your own color files and then use them to change the boring black color  and drab white text of  your Windows DOS screen. There are probably programs that can do this and more for you but the idea here is to show you how you can do it yourself without needing any programs.

You'll actually be creating your own color .com files.

This will work in most Windows versions as it doesn't require native dos.  However, it does require that you have debug.exe on your system. Check your Command folder if you're not sure you have it.  That's the default location of it in Windows 9x.  Debug is what you'll be using to create the .com files. Don't worry if you've never used it before.  I'm going to make this easy for even a beginner to do.   

In this example, we'll create a .com file that can be used to give your DOS screen a cyan background with bright white text,  but you can easily create other colors as well, if you wish.   

1. Start by creating a new Notepad document (right click your desktop and choose New > Text Document) and copy and paste the following debug lines into it:   

n cyan.com
e 0100 B4 12 B3 10 CD 10 B8 40 00 8E D8 B8 00 06 B7 3F
e 0110 29 C9 B6 18 80 FB 10 74 04 8A 36 84 00 8A 16 4A
e 0120 00 FE CA CD 10 B4 02 8A 3E 62 00 29 D2 CD 10 C3
rcx
0030
w
q   

Make sure you copy the text exactly as is - no spaces after the end of the lines and make sure to do a carriage return after the quit command - which is the last command (q).  In other words, if the cursor is at the end of q ( q| ) press Enter to bring  it to the beginning of the next blank line. 

2.  Save the file on your desktop. It will have a .txt extension.  Now, right click it and rename it CYAN.SCR   Ignore the warning about changing the file extension and click YES - you are sure.   

3. Go to the Windows DOS prompt - click Start>Programs>MS-DOS Prompt and at the Windows prompt type cd desktop
C:\WINDOWS>cd desktop   

Press Enter - the prompt should now be:   C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP>

Now at the new desktop prompt type DEBUG<CYAN.SCR

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>DEBUG<CYAN.SCR
and press Enter.

That's it - you just created CYAN.COM on your desktop. Exit DOS, go to your desktop and double click your new com file. It should open up as a blank cyan colored screen.   

Next, we want to use your new file to change the background color of your Windows DOS screen.   

1. Move CYAN.COM from your desktop  to your Windows folder.

An easy DOS way to move it -  Click Start>Run and type this:

move cyan.com \windows   

2. Go to your Windows folder (this time just type \windows in the Run box), right click an empty area and choose New>Text Document.  Open the new document and copy and paste the following two lines into it:   

@echo off
c:\windows\cyan.com   

Save the file and then rename it G.BAT
Again, ignore the warning about changing file extensions.   So you should now have two new files in your Windows directory:

cyan.com and g.bat.   

3.  Right click your Start button and choose Open. Double click on the Programs folder to open it.  Find the "MS-DOS Prompt" shortcut icon, right click it and go to Properties. Then click the Program Tab.

4. In the box labeled Batch File, enter:  G.BAT  and click OK.   Exit and that's it. 

To test your new creation, go to the Windows DOS prompt your regular way.

Click Start>Programs>MS-DOS Prompt. Your Windows DOS screen should now be cyan colored and any text you type white.

You may also want to change the font to make it more friendly.  The color will be lost if you clear the screen by typing cls but you can easily bring it back by entering the letter G at the prompt and pressing Enter (that was the purpose of naming the bat file G.bat - to make it easy to get the color back if you clear the screen).  Note that you don't have to enter the .bat extension to execute it.   

To create other colors - repeat the above steps to create a com file but substitute 3F at the end of the first line:

e 0100 B4 12 B3 10 CD 10 B8 40 00 8E D8 B8 00 06 B7 3F

With any of these other combinations - choose one Screen color number and one Text color number.
For example, the cyan.com file you made was 3F

3 for the cyan screen
F for bright white text  

Colors (background)   

1 = blue
2 = green
3 = cyan
4 = red
5 = magenta   

Text Colors (foreground)   

1 = blue
2 = green
3 = cyan
4 = red
6 = magenta
9 = Bright Blue
A = Bright Green
B = Bright Cyan
C = Bright Red
D = Bright Magenta
E = Yellow
F = Bright White

Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks and Registry Answers. Subscribe to either and receive free Windows and Registry Tips. He is also in charge of the Printing Tips pages at Linda's Computer Stop. Vic has also created a program which allows you to Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME. Read more and get the free demo here. And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.