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Parallel Port Access from Windows XP?

I have a pile of Quickbasic utility/hardware control programs that directly access PC parallel port hardware. I also have several legacy hardware devices that interface via the Parallel port...logic analyzer, prom programmer, battery charger etc.

These have all been rendered obsolete by Windows XP's denial of access to the port hardware. Yes, I can dual boot, but that ain't what I want.

I'm sure this is a good idea for 99.9% of the population who only use their PC for power point presentations and downloading p*rn. But it's a problem for us hardware junkies.

Recoding all the programs in VB with a third party control to access the ports works, but only for the code I wrote. And it will no longer run on the dos laptop. I'd really like to be able to pop out three lines of quickbasic code to run some hardware test.

What's needed is a hack for XP that lets the OS ignore direct reads/writes to the parallel port. If hackers can disable registration codes, they ought to be able to figure out how to make XP ignore direct port accesses. It might be as simple as hacking an older version of Command.com to run as the dos box in XP. I haven't tried setenv yet, but that would be too easy.

Google turns up LOTS of requests for this capability, but so far, no solutions.

Anything helpful available? Thanks, mike

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Reply to
mike
Loading thread data ...

Google TOTALIO.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Is there a reason you don't want your posts archived or don't you realize that you have that bit set?

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Reply to
JeffM

Thanks, initial tests indicate that userport will solve the problem. mike

Reply to
mike

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I gotta admit that I have no idea what I'm doing. I think I'm using the default settings in the Netscape 7 mail/news reader. Is there a reason I WOULD want my posts archived? And where would I set the bit? Thanks, mike

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Reply to
mike

Mike, Your posts look normal.

The query was for Si Ballenger. I tried to get the link to point to his post but it looks like I don't have it quite figured out on the NEW IMPROVED Google Beta. (Yeeck) ...or maybe THEY don't have it debugged yet.

Reply to
JeffM

Have you looked at

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Per there website: "ParPort 2004 delivers the ability to access PC parallel ports from Win32 applications under Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP & Windows Server

2003. Previously, the only way would have been to write an device driver to perform the I/O on behalf of the application.

This package allows Win32 applications to access hardware connected to a parallel port with the same ease as was previously available under Windows

98 and MS-DOS.

Access is coordinated with the standard Windows parallel driver to ensure that the parallel port is only 'claimed' if no other process is currently using it. Once the port is 'claimed', other processes are blocked from using the port.

Once the application has finished using the parallel port, the parallel port is free for use by any other process again."

I have no interest in this company, I am only trying to help.

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry

In the headers X-No-Archive: Yes

I think JeffM was referring to the post from Si Ballenger.

Reply to
Jerry

Not even when you click "show quotes text"?

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Best Regards,
Mike
Reply to
Active8

Reply to
Si Ballenger

Should have. When I go to beta, first I have to click "view tree" and then "show quoted text". The former is a link near the top and the latter is a link wherever quoted text has been snipped and it just expands it. That's DHTML/javascript - the text was already downloaded, but it's not yet displayed. Kinda like preloading images for mouseovers - you don't have to wait.

What pisses me off is those "see reply" or whatever links at the bottom of posts where you used to see a link to view the rest of a long reply. You have to register to see that.

And the ASCII art is still FUBAR.

No. If you're talking about the old google (the new on is *still* a web based reader,) you had to click on "view all messages in thread." *Then* you get the frame that shows the whole thread.

Haven't looked.

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Best Regards,
Mike
Reply to
Active8

The same question was asked in the microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware news group. I turned off the x-no-archive for that post as it contained a more detailed answer, and the followups from the MS types that give advice in the MS groups said you couldn't have access to the parallel port in XP. I wanted that followup to be archived as it has more info on how to get access. I usually have no archiving turned on for general post and usenet flame wars. Started it back in ~1996 with the old DejaNews archive, and old habits die slowly. One problem I see with the new "google groups" is that the followups don't include some of the origional post like above, so it is often difficult to know who you are replying to.

Reply to
Si Ballenger

The followup didn't have any quoted text included, so there is nothing to show. In the google groups web based news reader, you apparently always see the whole thread, so they hide the quoted text to save space. With other news readers, previously read post and followups are usually not shown to eliminate clutter. Trying to check the new post to groups like the microsoft.public.windowsxp.general news group using the google groups news reader is probably a real treat.

Reply to
Si Ballenger

There seems to be a lot of confusion over this issue. I've been searching for a solution since it became clear that I'd have to switch to XP eventually.

#1 response has been, "can't be done! (and you're an idiot for asking)" Distant second has been, "portio, giveio, winio, directnt, tvicport..." and they're not cheap.

Userport.zip has been around, buried in the zillion Google hits, but it's not been obvious that it is any different from the others. IT IS!!!

It appears that programs like GIVEIO allow you to write a program that loads and calls a driver or whatever to give you port access. That's fine as far as it goes. I expect it provides protection to prevent stomping on other parts of the OS. But it does nothing to help when you have a hardware device connected to the parallel port and have ONLY compiled control programs for the device that expect unrestricted dos-mode access.

userport.zip appears to solve all this by poking a hole in the windowsXP port access prohibition. You just run it once and it FIXES XP. You don't need any more drivers or dlls or ocxs, no nothin'. You just write code and it works.

I've been playing with it for a day. So far, it's run every old dos program I've thrown at it in a dosbox. Accesses the parallel port without a hitch. And NO MODIFICATION to the existing DOS code.

OUT &H378, 220 works just like it should in QuickBasic.

I expect it doesn't play nice with the printer driver. You wouldn't want to use it in a commercial product or put it on someone else's machine, but it's goin' on all mine. It makes my stuff work. I LIKE IT A LOT!!! MIKE

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Reply to
mike

Quite a few around, some commercial, some free. GIVEIO is a thingy you get with a lot of ports of Linux programs to Windumb. TOTALIO is its big brother, that defeats all the IO protection, not just the printer ports. TVICHW is a shareware/ commercial program that you can set up for PCI card address resolution as well. I use AGENTCD that does the same thing, but is commercial and now only available (if at all) as part of Numega's DriverWorks suite.

Paul Burke

Reply to
Paul Burke

I've got a parallel port printer and a parallel port scanner on my XP machine and they don't seem to be impacted by userport (but I don't print/scan while reading/writing to the port or doing bit banging). Older parallel port programs that need precise timing based on the cpu speed, like the CIR IR gizmo, still don't work on XP.

Reply to
Si Ballenger

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