Content

MS DOS Command: DISPLAY.SYS
 Description
 Syntax
 Parameters
 Remarks
  Using DISPLAY.SYS with monochrome or CGA display adapters
  Installing a third-party console driver
 Examples

MS DOS Command: DISPLAY.SYS

Reference from Microsoft MS-DOS cmd help

Description

Enables you to display international character sets on EGA, VGA, and LCD monitors. This device driver must be loaded by a DEVICE or DEVICEHIGH command in your CONFIG.SYS file.

For an introduction to preparing your screen and keyboard for character sets, see the chapter "Customizing for International Use" in the MS-DOS User's Guide.

Syntax

DEVICE=[drive:][path]DISPLAY.SYS CON[:]=(type[,[hwcp][,n]]) DEVICE=[drive:][path]DISPLAY.SYS CON[:]=(type[,[hwcp][,(n,m)]])

Parameters

[drive:][path]

Specifies the location of the DISPLAY.SYS file.

type

Specifies the display adapter in use. Valid values include EGA and LCD. The EGA value supports both EGA and VGA display adapters. If you omit the type parameter, DISPLAY.SYS checks the hardware to determine which display adapter is in use. You can also specify CGA and MONO as values for type, but they have no effect because character set switching is not enabled for these devices.

hwcp

Specifies the number of the character set that your hardware supports. The following list shows the character sets that MS-DOS supports and the country or language for each:

437	United States
850	Multilingual (Latin I)
852	Slavic (Latin II)
860	Portuguese
863	Canadian-French
865	Nordic

Additional character sets are supported by the EGA2.CPI and EGA3.CPI files. For more information, see the COUNTRY.TXT file (located in the directory that contains your MS-DOS files).

For more information about using character sets, see the appendix "Keyboard Layouts and Character Sets" in the MS-DOS User's Guide.

Specifies the number of character sets the hardware can support in addition to the primary character set specified for the hwcp parameter. Valid values for n are in the range 0 through 6. This value depends on your hardware. For EGA display adapters, the maximum value for n is 6; for LCD display adapters, the maximum value for n is 1.

Specifies the number of subfonts the hardware supports for each code page. The default value is 2 if type is EGA, and 1 if type is LCD.

Remarks

Using DISPLAY.SYS with monochrome or CGA display adapters

Because monochrome and CGA display adapters do not support character set switching, using DISPLAY.SYS with either type of adapter has no effect.

Installing a third-party console driver

If you install both DISPLAY.SYS and a third-party console driver, such as VT52.SYS, the third-party device driver must be installed first. Otherwise, the third-party device driver may disable DISPLAY.SYS.

Examples

Suppose you want DISPLAY.SYS to support an EGA display adapter with the United States hardware character set (437) and the potential for two additional MS-DOS character sets. To do this and to specify that DISPLAY.SYS is in the DOS directory on drive C, add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS file:

device=c:\dos\display.sys con=(ega,437,2)

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ID: 110700162 Last Updated: 7/25/2011 Revision: 0

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