Switching Between Code Pages

After using the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT file commands to set up your system for multiple national languages, use the following command to change to a different code page on all devices or for a single prepared device:

C:\> chcp code page 

or

C:\> mode device cp select=code page 

where:

code page is one of the pages set up in AUTOEXEC.BAT and device is CON or LPT1.

Listing Current Code Pages

You can list the current prepared and selected code pages for your console screen or a parallel printer by using the mode command in the following form:

C:\> mode device cp

Displaying Current Device Code Pages

To display the current code pages for your console screen device, enter the following:

C:\> mode con cp

OpenDOS displays a message similar to this one:

Example B–1 OpenDOS Output

Active code page for device CON is 437hardware code
pages:	Code page 850prepared code pages: 	Code page 437 	Code page
850 	Code page not prepared 	Code page not prepared MODE Status
Code page function completed 

Refreshing Lost Code Pages

It is possible for prepared code pages to be lost due to hardware errors. For example, suppose you had selected the Canadian-French code page (863) as the active code page for your console screen (CON). But, because of a hardware error, the active code page was lost. You can use the refresh keyword with the mode command to restore the lost code page for your screen, by entering the following:

C:\> mode con cp refresh