DISPLAY.SYS

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.

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

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

[drive:][\path\] (v3.30)

Specifies the location of the DISPLAY.SYS file.

hwcp (v3.30)

Specifies the number of the character set that your hardware supports. The list shows the character sets that the operating system 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 operating system files).

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

m (v3.30)

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.

n (v3.30)

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.

type (v3.30)

Specifies the display adapter in use. Valid values:

• CGA no effect, character set switching is not enabled for this type device.
• EGA supports both EGA and VGA display adapters.
• LCD
• MONO no effect, character set switching is not enabled for this type device.

If you omit the type parameter, DISPLAY.SYS checks the hardware to determine which display adapter is in use.

none.

none.

• Installing a third-party console driver
• 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.

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.

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 the operating system character sets. To do this and to specify that DISPLAY.SYS is in the DOS directory on drive C, add this line to your CONFIG.SYS file:

    DEVICE=C:\dos\DISPLAY.SYS
    CON=(ega,437,(2)

none.

External

DOS

v3.30 v3.3A v3.3R v3.3T v3.31 v3.40 v4.0 v4.01 v4.01A v5.0 v5.0A v5.00.02 v5.001A v5.01 v5.02 v6.0 v6.10 v6.2 v6.21 v6.22 v6.23 v7.00 v7.0R1 v7.10 v8.00

Windows

none

Windows NT

none