Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

 
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                          MODE (Set Display Mode)
 
Selects the active display adapter and its display mode, or reconfigures the
active display adapter.
 
Syntax
 
    MODE [display-adapter][,shift[,T]]
 
    MODE [display-adapter][,n]
 
    MODE CON[:] [COLS=c] [LINES=n]
 
Parameters
 
display-adapter
    Specifies a setting category. The following list shows the value(s)
    associated with each setting category for display-adapter:
 
    40 or 80
        Indicates the number of characters per line.
 
    BW40 or BW80
        Specifies a color graphics adapter (CGA) with color turned off, and
        specifies the number of characters per line.
 
    CO40 or CO80
        Specifies a color monitor with color enabled, and specifies the
        number of characters per line.
 
    MONO
        Specifies a monochrome display adapter with a constant width of 80
        characters per line.
 
    shift
        Specifies whether to shift the CGA screen to the left or to the
        right. Valid values for shift are L (for left) and R (for right).
 
T
    Enables you to align the screen by using a test pattern. MS-DOS prompts
    you to indicate whether the screen is aligned correctly.
 
CON[:]
    Refers to the monitor.
 
COLS=c
    Specifies the number of characters (columns) per line. Valid values are
    40 and 80.
 
LINES=n
    Specifies the number of lines that can be displayed on the screen. Valid
    values for n are 25, 43, and 50. Not all display adapters support all
    three settings. To set the number of lines, you must have installed the
    ANSI.SYS device driver by using a device command in your CONFIG.SYS
    file.
 
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