64
15
I often run commands in cmd.exe that have pretty colors in their output, which is great. Unfortunately, sometimes they die in the middle, or I have to kill them, and then the console window itself gets stuck in (say) red text on black background, which is awkward.
How do I reset the text color to the default?
On a unix terminal, I can type reset -- I'm looking for the cmd.exe equivalent of that.
Ken
Posted 2010-06-30T21:07:44.987
Reputation: 2 669
77
Color 07 will set it to the default scheme that cmd.exe uses.
Color attributes are specified by TWO hex digits -- the first corresponds to the background; the second the foreground. Each digit can be any of the following values:
0 = Black 8 = Gray
1 = Blue 9 = Light Blue
2 = Green A = Light Green
3 = Aqua B = Light Aqua
4 = Red C = Light Red
5 = Purple D = Light Purple
6 = Yellow E = Light Yellow
7 = White F = Bright White
Hondalex
Posted 2010-06-30T21:07:44.987
Reputation: 1 524
33
Try Color
Use color /? to see all the commands
COLOR If no argument is given, this command restores the color to what it was when CMD.EXE started. This value either comes from the current console window, the /T command line switch or from the DefaultColor registry value.
Moab
Posted 2010-06-30T21:07:44.987
Reputation: 54 203
1+1 for quoting the docs instead of linking to not even official information :-) – Joey – 2010-06-30T21:49:13.443
12
Well according to: http://commandwindows.com/vista-commands.htm
You just type COLOR.
Worked for me just now...
peelman
Posted 2010-06-30T21:07:44.987
Reputation: 4 580
Dang, beat me to it. – Moab – 2010-06-30T21:26:00.643
Disappointing that
color 00doesn't work... – tim_hutton – 2015-12-18T13:38:40.483All 3 answers so far are very helpful, but
color 07(and not justcolor) worked here, so I'll mark this one. – Ken – 2010-06-30T22:32:39.953colorhas on my environment the same effect ascolor 75(purple on light gray), a combination that I set as the default in console's settings (and that I would like to remove now).color 07turns my console into a scary white on red. – xverges – 2014-01-06T14:36:05.943