How to Use ANSI.SYS in Windows NT

Article ID: 100394 - View products that this article applies to.
This article was previously published under Q100394
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SUMMARY

You can make use of ANSI.SYS under Windows NT, but you must run COMMAND.COM from Microsoft MS-DOS version 5.0 to do so; the Windows NT command interpreter, CMD.EXE, does not support ANSI.SYS. To use ANSI.SYS, do the following:

NOTE: You can add ANSI.SYS to a specific program by modifying its program information file (PIF). To install ANSI.SYS in your default command prompt configuration, do the following:
  1. Add the following line to the CONFIG.NT file located in the SYSTEM32 subdirectory:
    DEVICE=%SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\ANSI.SYS
  2. Exit any command prompts you have open.
  3. Start a command prompt.
  4. Run COMMAND.COM from MS-DOS 5.0. Use the following command to make sure you are running MS-DOS 5.0 COMMAND.COM and not the Windows NT version:
    c:\dos\command.com
You should now be able to use ANSI.SYS. To test it, try entering the following escape sequence with the PROMPT command:
prompt $e[31;42m

Properties

Article ID: 100394 - Last Review: November 1, 2006 - Revision: 2.1
APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
Keywords: 
KB100394
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