ColourText changes the colour of the text to be printed. This technique is the ONLY one that will work on all Windows version.

This uses the inbuilt compilers in Windows 10 - there are three VB.NET compilers and three C# compilers - just copy each text file into the same folder and double click the batch file to make the program.

To use

ColourText <ColourOfText> <ColourOfTextWhenFinished> [Text]

Also the CLS command becomes interesting. Color command without parameters resets all colours to startup colours.

To get the colour code add the following numbers together. Use Calculator in programmers mode. These are hex numbers. They can be added together eg Red + Blue + FG Intensity = 13 = D. As 10+ wasn't used the background will be black. Colour codes MUST be two characters, eg 08 not 8.

FOREGROUND_RED = &H4     '  text color contains red.
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY = &H8     '  text color is intensified.
FOREGROUND_GREEN = &H2     '  text color contains green.
FOREGROUND_BLUE = &H1     '  text color contains blue.
BACKGROUND_BLUE = &H10    '  background color contains blue.
BACKGROUND_GREEN = &H20    '  background color contains green.
BACKGROUND_INTENSITY = &H80    '  background color is intensified.
BACKGROUND_RED = &H40    '  background color contains red.

So black background is 0 while white is F0 (adding 10 + 20 + 40 + 80). Red on white is f4.

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REM 2 files follow
REM ColourText.bat
REM Compiles ColourText.vb to ColourText.exe
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\vbc.exe" /target:exe /out:"%~dp0\ColourText.exe" "%~dp0\ColourText.vb" /verbose
pause

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'ColourText.vb
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports Microsoft.Win32

Public Module MyApplication  
Public Declare Function GetStdHandle Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetStdHandle" (ByVal nStdHandle As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SetConsoleTextAttribute Lib "kernel32" Alias "SetConsoleTextAttribute" (ByVal hConsoleOutput As Long, ByVal wAttributes As Long) As Long
Public Const STD_ERROR_HANDLE = -12&
Public Const STD_INPUT_HANDLE = -10&
Public Const STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE = -11&

Sub Main()
    Dim hOut as Long
    Dim Ret as Long
    Dim Colour As Long
    Dim Colour1 As Long
    Dim Text As String
    hOut  = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE)
    Colour = CLng("&h" & Split(Command(), " ")(0))
    Colour1 = Clng("&h" & Split(Command(), " ")(1))
    Text = Mid(Command(), 7)
    Ret = SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut,  Colour)
    Console.Out.WriteLine(text)
    Ret = SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut, Colour1)
End Sub
End Module