Category : Utilities for DOS and Windows Machines
Archive   : DCLR1050.ZIP
Filename : DCOLOR.DOC

September 29, 1991

DColor 1.0

DColor is a small utility that will PERMANENTLY modify the MS-DOS
5.0 COMMAND.COM file for colors other than the boring default white on
black. It's sad that even with the arrival of this new improved DOS we
still have the same colors we were working with on our CPM and DOS 1.0
equipped computers of almost a decade ago! The only DOS alternative is
the ANSI.SYS driver that uses up precious memory and does not properly
re-set the colors when you exit from a program. DColor will finally
put an end to monochrome life on modern color monitors!

DColor will provide you with seven color schemes along with the
DOS default of white on black so you can regress to standard DOS if you
feel the need to. If you have ANSI.SYS loaded in your CONFIG.SYS file
you will not see any color change because the ANSI.SYS takes control of
the screen colors that the COMMAND.COM would otherwise do.

DColor will work reliably ONLY with the COMMAND.COM from MS-DOS
5.0 dated 04-09-91 with a file size of 47,845 bytes! DColor will
verify that the file is located in the current directory and that the
file size is correct. The file size check is usually very dependable
because it is EXTREMELY doubtful that another DOS release (other than
the previous DOS 5 Beta's) would have the same COMMAND.COM file size!
DColor will also check to see if the file is read-only (see the ATTRIB
function in your DOS manual) and give an error message if it is.

Please make sure that you make a backup copy of the COMMAND.COM
file because you should never modify your original or your only copy of
a file! DColor must be in the path or the same directory as the
COMMAND.COM file. If DColor is in the UTIL directory that is in your
path, you must be in the same directory (usually the root directory) as
the COMMAND.COM otherwise you will get a file not found error.

Please don't send me any money as this utility is of such modest
means that I would feel unscrupulous being compensated in any way for a
program that SHOULD have been included with MS-DOS 5.0 from the start!
I am open to suggestions on other color schemes.



REVISIONS:
Version 1.0 released 09/29/1991 for MS-DOS 5.0


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Thanks to Mr. Robert Zale of Spectra Publishing for the great
effort he put forth to furnish me with the ultimate computer
programming language known as PowerBASIC 2.10a



Duane A. Allred
DACC Consulting
534A Van Houten
El Cajon, CALIF
92020
(619) 440-1702