How To: Customize Background Color to Admin Command Prompts in Windows Vista
If you often work with the command prompt within Windows Vista, or with DOS(Disk Operating System) applications that run in Windows, you don’t need to settle for the same old boring white text on black background. It’s easy to customize your Windows Vista command prompt and save the changes so that you get the same look and feel each time you open it.Here is the easy way to customize the command prompt window in Windows Vista.
- Click on the Windows Vista start button. Click on the start menu search and type in the letters “cmd.”This will opens the Windows Vista command prompt window. Right click on the blue bar on the top of the command prompt. Click “Properties.”
- Choose the “Options” tab. Change the cursor size by selecting the button next to “Small,” “Medium” or “Large.”
- Hit the “ALT” key and “U” to display the command prompt in full screen mode. When in full screen mode, hit “ALT,” “P” and the spacebar at the same time to bring up the command prompt’s properties.
- Select the “Font” tab. In the “Size” box, choose the characters’ pixel width and height Under “Font,” choose from available fonts.
- Change screen buffer and window size on the “Layout” tab. To change the position of the Windows command prompt window, uncheck the “Let system position window” box, and select the left and top values. The value “0″ displays the window in the top left corner.
- Move on to the “Colors” tab. Choose colors for screen text, background, popup text and popup background. Customize colors by changing the color values manually, or select from the color palette to choose a standard color.
- Click “OK” at the bottom of the window. You will be prompted to save properties for all future command prompts. Choose this option to keep the values each time you open a command prompt. For individual batch files that open a DOS prompt, you can choose “Apply properties to current window only.”
You can also customize command prompt window in Windows Vista using a batch file:
- Create a batch file using the following and save it to your hard disk.
@echo off
pushd %SystemRoot%\System32
set ADMINTEST=~~4uDude.JHP
:START
MD %ADMINTEST% > NUL 2>&1
if exist %SystemRoot%\System32\%ADMINTEST% GOTO ADMIN
GOTO END
:ADMIN
color 4f
RD %ADMINTEST%
:END
set ADMINTEST=
popd
Basically this batch file is a simple test if you have admin right by trying to create a folder under system32 which a non-admin would not have rights to do. If successful it will change the background color to red. You could do this a number of different ways, but this gives you the concept.
- Create a string value called “autorun” under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor then point it to the file that you created in Step1. This value will run the batch file anytime a command prompt is started and change the color for you.
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Written by Tony on November 15th, 2008 with
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