28 May 2013

How to Change Windows Command Prompt Color



If you belong to those groups of users who use the Windows Command Prompt so often, then probably sometimes you must bored with the default dull black background color of the CMD window. But you can use the MS-DOS color command and CMD Properties to change the color scheme (background and text) and give a colorful look to the Command Prompt window. First I’ll show you how to use the window Properties for changing default color and then the MS-DOS color command.

Change Windows Command Prompt Color using Properties
Step 1

Go to the Start>All Programs>Accessories>CMD to open the Windows Command Prompt. Right-click on the CMD title bar and from the pop-down window, select Properties.



Step 2

In the Command Prompt Properties window, navigate to the Colors tab. You will find four options in the Colors tab: "Screen Text, Screen Background, Popup Text and Popup Background". To change the Screen Background or Screen Text, simply select its option and then choose your desired color from the color palate in the middle of the window. 



When you change the color scheme, you can view the change you are made in the preview section. Also you have the other options in the properties window such as changing the window size (Layout) or Font.




Change Windows Command Prompt Color Using MS-DOS color command
Step 1

Open the Command Prompt window by going to the Start>All Programs>Accessories>CMD or in the Run (Win + R) dialog box, type CMD and hit the Enter key.


Step 2

The syntax for changing the foreground (text) and background color of the CMD window is

Color [bf]

Where the attributes [bf] correspond to background (b) and foreground (f) color. For example if I want to change the background color to blue and text to bright white, I will enter

Color 1F



There are 16 colors available in the CMD from 0 to 9 and A to F that you can find in the table below:



Step 3

Using just one value in front of color command will change only the text color. For example color 2 will only change the text color to the green.



To go back to the CMD default color scheme, just type color without any attribute and hit the Enter key.