Hi All,

I am trying to write a bat file fin windows 2003.
I want to use some special character as Options.
But it is not taking as options.

When I am trying to give
CHOICE /C KHNUXDSAQ?# /M "Choose an Option"

It gives me following ERROR
ERROR: Invalid choice. The valid choice characters are: a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and ASCII
values of 128 to 254.

Please suggest me how to INCLUDE the characters ? and # in choice command options?

Regards,
NilashreeJust another option for you, I stopped using the choice command long AGO, I create menu options. If you wanted the menu to return when finished running sub just add goto menu at the end of the sub.

echo off
setlocal
Title Exchange Tools Menu
set running=c:\menu
GOTO MENU

:menu
CLS
echo Please make a selection
echo.
echo 1. Reboot Server
echo 2. Start Stopped Services
echo 3. Check Status of Exchange Services
Echo 4. Start all services
echo 5. Stop all services
echo 6. Instructions
echo.
echo 7. Exit
echo.
set /P menu1=
if "%menu1%" == "1" goto restart
if "%menu1%" == "2" goto startstop
if "%menu1%" == "3" goto check
if "%menu1%" == "4" goto startall
if "%menu1%" == "5" goto stopall
if "%menu1%" == "6" goto document
if "%menu1%" == "7" goto endApparently the Win2003 version of CHOICE is more RESTRICTIVE than the Win9x version. You may be SOL on this request: # (acsii 35) and ? (acsii 65) are not in the allowable range of keys.

Could I interest you in a square root (ascii 251) or degree symbol (ascii 248 )?

I'm suprised Microsoft resurrected CHOICE in Win2003. I wonder what Vista has planned.

The set /p command has it's uses, but unfortunately it doesn't restrict reponses to a single character without some quirky coding.

If the user doesn't select a specified option do this. Place the code below after "if "%menu1%" == "7" goto end" statment

cls
Echo Sorry you selected an invalid option, Hit enter to try again or press 7 to exit.
set /p error=
IF "%error%" == "7" (
goto end
) ELSE (
goto menu
)

I hope this helps