Re-direct LPT1 on Windows XP

I could do this in DOS

Published on April 8, 2005 By Lantec In PC Hardware

Back in the good old days of DOS I was able to Re-diredt output to the parallel port to say a serial port or file etc.
I have a program that will only print to LPT1 but my printer is connected to the Docking Station for my Laptop and is USB001
The Laptop itself does not have a parallel port. The program is old and quite expensive to upgrade so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

Phoon

on Apr 08, 2005

try this..
Open printers and faxes, right click on your printer and go to properties. On the sharing tab, check the box to share the printer, give it the share name of lets say $printer. (by using the $ sign it will be invisible to browsing on the network)
Click start, run, enter cmd and hit enter. At the command prompt type in this..
net use LPT1 \\pcname\$printer and hit enter (substitute your pc name accordingly).
To stop the redirection, type net use /delete LPT1 at the command prompt. You can set up a batch file and put it in your startup if you like.

Lantec

on Apr 08, 2005

I'll give it a try.
Thanks Phoon.

Phoon

on Apr 10, 2005

so did it work? I'm curious...

Lantec

on Apr 10, 2005

I didn't get the post until after I left work Friday. (didn't go back after lunch) I carry my laptop home but leave the docking station at the office. I let you know sometime Monday. Probably after lunch, I have a Project Management meeting every Monday morning to assign work for the week.

Lantec

on Apr 11, 2005

Works like a charm Phoon. Many thanks. I've avoided replacing this program since 1993. It helps me prepare Traffic Studies.
It's an older text only program that does the job better than it's Windows Version. I only need the data and the XP version
gives you the Kitchen Sink as well (& takes ten times as long to print)

Thanks again

Phoon

on Apr 12, 2005

Lantec,
Have you considered VMWare Workstation and running this application in a MS-DOS Virtual Machine. It may increase performance.

Lantec

on Apr 13, 2005

It's the only throw back to DOS I use anymore, and even then I only need it maybe a dozen times in a year.
It was written when a machine with 8mb ram was "cutting edge" so it doesn't use much in the way of resources.
The fix you suggested works good and I'm also using it to capture the raw output to file.

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