How to Use ANSI.SYS in Windows NT

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: