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Software Vault: The Gold Collection
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Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
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1993-06-01
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When you work in a Windows 3.0 DOS session for extended
periods, you might forget that Windows is running and type
WIN to enter it again, starting one Windows session inside
of another. In January's "50 Tips for DOS and Windows," the
Microsoft Technical Support staff offered a solution to this
problem: Change your prompt. But the two-line prompt their
batch file creates results in a screen that scrolls one
extra line for every command, wasting space.
My solution is a variation on that tip: Use ANSI.SYS
parameters to put a reminder at the top of the screen. Also,
change the foreground and background colors to make the
screen more vivid. For this technique to work, you must have
the line DEVICE=C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file.
Then, rather than a standard DOS session, run DOS.BAT
(below) to use the prompt in Windows.
Steve Johnson
Powder Springs, Georgia
Editor's Note: DOS.BAT demonstrates a very useful technique
that lets you place a message in a fixed spot on your screen
every time the DOS prompt appears. (OS/2 1.x's "DOS box"
used a similar prompt to tell you how to get online help --
the first time a help prompt was ever included in the DOS
environment.) Mr. Johnson's screen is not needed in Windows
3.1, which won't let you load Windows within Windows, but
his tip can save a lot of confusion in Windows 3.0 or most
other places where you might shell out of a program. Check
out "Retrieving Your Precious Prompt," Star-Dot-Star,
December 1991, to see how a batch file can change the
prompt, enter an application, and then change it back again
when you exit. That batch file and this one can be easily
combined.
You can also play with the PROMPT command to change the look
of your screen. For instance, if you change the batch file's
first line to
PROMPT $e[1;33;44m$p$g$e[1;31;44m$e[s$e[1;1H$e[KWindows is active$e[1;69H$t$e[1;3744m$e[u
(note that there are no blank spaces here except the two in
the text 'Windows is active'), you can also display the
time.
DOS.BAT:
---- BEGIN LISTING ----
PROMPT $e[1;33;44m$p$g$e[1;31;44m$e[s$e[1;62HWindows is active.$e[1;37;44m$e[u
CLS
@COMMAND.COM
---- END LISTING ----
Title: A Message From the Top
Category: DOS
Issue Date: August, 1992
Editor: Brett Glass
Supplementary Files: None
Filename: P5DOS005.TIP