Chcp

Displays the number of the active console code page, or changes the console's active console code page. Used without parameters, chcp displays the number of the active console code page.

Syntax

chcp [nnn]

Parameters

nnn   : Specifies the code page. The following table lists each code page supported and its country/region or language:

Code page

Country/region or language

437

United States

850

Multilingual (Latin I)

852

Slavic (Latin II)

855

Cyrillic (Russian)

857

Turkish

860

Portuguese

861

Icelandic

863

Canadian-French

865

Nordic

866

Russian

869

Modern Greek

/?   : Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

  • Only the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) code page installed with Windows XP appears correctly in a command prompt window that uses Raster fonts. Other code pages appear correctly in full-screen mode or command prompt windows that use TrueType fonts.

  • You do not need to prepare code pages, as in MS-DOS.

  • Programs that you start after you assign a new code page use the new code page, however, programs (except Cmd.exe) that you started before assigning the new code page use the original code page.

Examples

To view the active code page setting, type:

chcp

A message similar to the following appears:

Active code page: 437

To change the active code page to 850 (Multilingual), type:

chcp 850

If the specified code page is invalid, the following error message appears:

Invalid code page

Formatting legend

Format

Meaning

Italic

Information that the user must supply

Bold

Elements that the user must type exactly as shown

Ellipsis (...)

Parameter that can be repeated several times in a command line

Between brackets ([])

Optional items

Between braces ({}); choices separated by pipe (|). Example: {even|odd}

Set of choices from which the user must choose only one

Courier font

Code or program output

Country

Device

Devicehigh

Mode

Command-line reference A-Z