INFO: Setting the Console Configuration

ID: Q105674

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), used with:
- Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.1, 3.5, 4.0
- Microsoft Windows 2000

SUMMARY

To create a command prompt with custom features such as

Settings
Fonts
Screen Size and Position
Screen Colors

create a new entry in the Program Manager for CMD.EXE (suppose that the description is CUSTOM), or a shortcut named custom if you are using NT4 or later), choose these items from the CMD system menu, and select Save Configuration in each dialog box. The settings are saved in the registry under


   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ 
             Console\ 
             custom

and are used when starting the CUSTOM command prompt from the Program Manager or when specifying:

start "custom"

This behavior is really a convenient side effect of

start <string>

which sets the title in the window title bar. When you create a new console window with the START command, the system looks in the registry and tries to match the title with one of the configurations stored there. If it cannot find it, it defaults to the values stored in:


   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ 
             Console\ 
       Configuration

This functionality can be duplicated in your own applications using the registry application programming interface (API).

For more information, please see the "Registry and Initialization Files" overview and the REGISTRY sample.

Additional query words: 3.10 3.50

Keywords : kbConsole kbKernBase kbWinOS2000 kbDSupport kbGrpKernBase
Version : winnt:3.1,3.5,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbinfo