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out of date.
SUBMENU
◄Example►
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SUBMENU
Defines an item on a startup menu that, when selected, displays another set
of choices. You can use this command only within a menu block in your
CONFIG.SYS file.
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
SUBMENU=blockname[,menu_text]
Parameters
blockname
Specifies the name of the associated menu block. The menu block must be
defined elsewhere in the CONFIG.SYS file and can contain menu-definition
commands. Unlike the "main" menu block, which must have the block name
[MENU], a menu block for a submenu can have any name you want. 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
(\) and forward slashes (/), commas, semicolons (;), equal signs (=),
and 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 SUBMENU command is one of six special CONFIG.SYS commands for defining
startup menus. The other commands are:
♦ The <MENUITEM> command, which defines an item on the menu.
♦ 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 <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 steps required to define multiple configurations, see
<Commands for Defining Multiple Configurations>.
♦