This  small  batch  file redefines the F9 key to print 'dir  '  on  the
    screen,  you can insert any text you like in the quotes.  To use it you
    must have the line

    device=ansi.sys

    in your config.sys file and ansi.sys on your boot disk

    In your Autoexec.bat file (anywhere) put the following code. The second
    line prints 'dir = F9' on the screen,  this line may be deleted if  you
    like.

    echo off
    echo [AF9 = "dir "[K
    echo [0;67;"dir "p
    echo [A

    (The ^[ character is an ASCII 27 or Esc character, it cannot be printed
    from DOS using the 'copy con:*.bat' command,  so a text editor or  word
    processor  will have to be used.  In Wordstar,  ctrl P then ctrl [ will
    do, the same for Sidekick. The character may look like ^[ but it may be
    a  left arrow or an inverse square bracket,  depending on  the  editor.
    Play around,  you should get there in the end,  an idea is to load this
    article  into your editor and see what character it uses for ASCII  27, 
    or  delete all the text and build your batch file around the one above. 
    For  convenience  sake,  the  batch file is included on  this  disk  as 
    FKEY9.BAT,  run it to see what it does (remember to boot with  ANSI.SYS 
    on your boot disk and 'device=ansi.sys' in your config file.


    Another nice feature of ANSI graphics are bold and flashing characters, 
    this  example  changes your dos prompt,  type it in at the dos  command 
    line or put it in your autoexec file.

    prompt=$e[1m$p$g$e[m
              ^
    This number is the important one,

    1 bolds the text,
    2  doesnt seem to do anything (I am using a mono graphics screen  so  I 
       cant tell if it produces other colours)
    3 see 2
    4 hides the text
    5 flashes the text
    6 see 2
    7 inverts text
    8 see 4
    9 and above seem to have no effect

    $b gives this character |
    $d gives the current date
    $g gives this character >
    $h sets number of characters of a string to print
       eg   prompt $d$h$h$h$h$h$h$h$h$h$h will give just the day no date.
    $l gives this character <
    $n gives current default drive
    $p gives current default drive and current subdirectory
    $q gives this character =
    $t gives the current time
    $v gives DOS version number

    All these can be put together on one line, (if you wish) as well as any 
    other text you want eg

    prompt $e[1mAlans PC, keep off$e[m$n}

    Play around with these, you can get some very intresting results. There 
    are many other things hidden in DOS,  I just haven't found them yet. If 
    you have, I would love to hear from you.

    Matthew