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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out of date.
MENUITEM
◄Notes► ◄Example►
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MENUITEM
Defines an item on the startup menu. You can use this command only within a
menu block in your CONFIG.SYS file. You can have up to nine menu items per
menu.
The startup menu is a list of choices that appears when you start your
computer. You define a startup menu by using special CONFIG.SYS commands.
Each item on the menu corresponds to a set of CONFIG.SYS commands called a
"configuration block." A startup menu makes it possible to start your
computer with a variety of configurations. For more information about
defining multiple configurations, see the chapter "Configuring Your System"
in the MS-DOS User's Guide.
Syntax
MENUITEM=blockname[,menu_text]
Parameters
blockname
Specifies the name of the associated configuration block. The block must
be defined elsewhere in the CONFIG.SYS file. If the menu item is
selected from the startup menu, MS-DOS carries out the commands in the
associated configuration block, as well as any commands at the beginning
of the CONFIG.SYS file and any commands in configuration blocks with the
[common] header.
If MS-DOS cannot find a block with the specified name, the item does not
appear on the startup menu. The block name can be up to 70 characters
long and can contain most printable characters. It cannot include
spaces, backslashes (\), forward slashes (/), commas, semicolons (;),
equal signs (=), or square brackets ([ and ]).
menu_text
Specifies the text you want MS-DOS to display for this menu item. If you
don't specify any menu text, MS-DOS displays the block name as the menu
item. The menu text can be up to 70 characters long and can contain any
characters you want.
Related Commands
The MENUITEM command is one of six special CONFIG.SYS commands for defining
startup menus and multiple configurations. The other menu-definition
commands are:
♦ The <MENUDEFAULT> command, which specifies the default menu item.
♦ The <MENUCOLOR> command, which defines the color of the menu's text and
screen background.
♦ The <SUBMENU> command, which defines a submenu.
♦ The <NUMLOCK> command, which specifies the state of the NUM LOCK key when
the startup menu appears. (Although NUMLOCK can be used anywhere in the
CONFIG.SYS file, it is especially useful when defining a startup menu.)
♦ The <INCLUDE> command, which includes the contents of one configuration
block in another. This command cannot be included in a menu block.
For an overview of the procedure for defining multiple configurations, see
the topic <Commands for Defining Multiple Configurations>
♦