Comments on George's Freeware Review Page: Printing from DOS Programs –– DOSPrint (version 20...

Christ GreeceI think you've done a great job. The ...

2008-06-14T08:40:00.000-05:00

Christ Greece
I think you've done a great job. The problem i have is that i cannot print in Greek (code page 737). Is there a solution for that ?

Hi, George im running DOSPrint in user mode and im...

2007-12-20T23:25:00.000-06:00

Hi, George
im running DOSPrint in user mode and im failed to set printer in step 6. then i tried what you suggest in your post at march 19, but nothing happen. I try to run DOSPrint in command line and i get this message when i typed DOSPrint Install : Cannot Open Service Manager Error[5] Unable to redirect.

Have any ideas?
Please give me some solution

To create a shortcut, just right click on your des...

2007-11-05T21:10:00.000-06:00

To create a shortcut, just right click on your desktop and select "New" and then "shortcut". The location of the item is:

"C:\Program Files\PrintFile\PRFILE32.EXE" /s:c:\spool\dos.txt

Click on "Next"
Enter "PrintFile" into the name field and then click on "Finish".

Once you have it on your desktop, just drag it into your Windows Start menu and drop it into your startup menu option which completes step 14.

hi andreas from greece...I can not understand in p...

2007-11-04T19:38:00.000-06:00

hi andreas from greece...

I can not understand in printfile step 13... please help me

About the only thing I can suggest is to be sure y...

2007-09-08T16:03:00.000-05:00

About the only thing I can suggest is to be sure you have created a folder in C:\spool and to be sure you are creating a new LOCAL port. Other that that, I am afraid I can't help. Sorry.

George

Hi - please helpWhen i tried to create new port in...

2007-09-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

Hi - please help
When i tried to create new port in step 10e enter c:\spool\dos.txt there was an error message "specified port cannot be added. operation could not be completed"
Any ideas?

Thanks

Dosprint problem is because there is a "dosprint" ...

2007-03-29T19:52:00.000-05:00

Dosprint problem is because there is a "dosprint" subfolder that gets created in the windows\system32 directory that the regular users have no access to. A file called spool1.spl needs to have access and cat get to. Change permissions on that folder to everyone, full control.

Hi,I am writing this response to your posting date...

2007-03-19T13:18:00.000-05:00

Hi,

I am writing this response to your posting dated March 19.

I posted a response on January 17 that should correct your problem that uses another program that is included in the DOSPrint download. I described a way to use it by creating a batch file using Notepad (go to your Windows Start>Programs>Accessories>Notepad). The only thing I didn't say was that you could save the batch file to your DOSPrint folder and then create a short cut to it which you would save to your start-up folder. The way I described was to save the batch file to your start up folder (which I think should work also).

Please post a reply as to whether this works or not. I'll post an update to my review if you do.

Hi,I'm getting the access denied message when logg...

2007-03-19T06:31:00.000-05:00

Hi,
I'm getting the access denied message when logged on as a user, the same as anonymous posted on january 17, 2007. I'm using Dosprint.exe running as a service. It works fine when I'm logged in as administrator.

Any ideas ?
Thanks

george, thanks for your quick answer.you were righ...

2007-02-21T13:20:00.000-06:00

george, thanks for your quick answer.

you were right. i am using win 2k3 server but it also has an generic only text printer.

i manage to solve my problem by saving from my dos application a txt file and only PrintFile monitor the folder.

it s funny but it s working and i am half happy. thanks again. you have done an outstanding job with this tips. i was surprised to see that a "dosprint" program is around 14 $ to 90$ (i ve bought my laserjet with 100$ - new samsung :)) ).

thank you once again

Martian,Well I thought I solved Barry's problem bu...

2007-02-20T18:45:00.000-06:00

Martian,

Well I thought I solved Barry's problem but maybe I didn't after all. If everything worked correctly, you should have 2 new icons in your system tray when you boot up. When you hover over one of them with your mouse cursor, it should say "DOSPrint". The other should say "PrintFile Spooler - Default Settings - c:\spool\dos.txt" when you hover over it. But I take it from what you say that these two icons do appear in your system tray when you boot up.

About all I can think of is that maybe you are using a version Windows other than XP. However, it seems that if "Generic / Text Only" option is available, it should work. Since it worked once, I don’t see why it wouldn’t continue to work.

I am afraid all I can do is tell you conceptually what is supposed to happen throughout the process. The first thing that you do is to select something to print in your DOS application. Let's say it prints to LPT1. DOSPrint captures the output of LPT1 and sends it to “DOS Printing” which is the generic printer you set up in Windows. “DOS Printing” doesn't actually print anything but Windows takes the output from DOSPrint and converts it to a text file. It saves the text as a file named "dos.txt" and saves it to the folder "C:\spool". This is where PrintFile takes over. PrintFile continuously monitors the folder "C:\spool" for the file named "dos.txt". If it finds the file, it prints the file to your printer and then deletes it. If you set PrintFile like I show in the screen shots, it also makes some minor changes when it prints (like changing the font to Lucida Console and adds page numbers to the footer etc.)

You might try monitoring the "C:\spool" folder when you print something to verify that the "dos.txt" file appears and then is deleted after it prints. If the file is not deleted, it might cause the problem that you are experiencing. It might also mess up if you try to print several different things in rapid succession. If you want to print in landscape format, you will need to set up PrintFile differently from what I show in the screen shot in the “Text File Settings” screen.

George

thank you very much. very helpful tips. but i have...

2007-02-20T16:22:00.000-06:00

thank you very much. very helpful tips.

but i have the same problems as barry.levitt@careersystemsintl.com.
my dos program just print one job and nothing else until i reboot. i think it does this because printfile delete dos.txt and the generic printer doesn't work anymore.
any ideas what to do?

In response to the questionthat was entered on Jan...

2007-01-17T20:30:00.000-06:00

In response to the questionthat was entered on Jan 17:

I have always used DOSPrint on a computer where I have administrator privileges. If you look at the PDF file that comes in the DOSPrint download, it states that DOSPrintUI will not work for local non-administrators.

You might try using the file DOSPrint.exe instead of DOSPrintUI.exe that is also included in the download. The PDF file does not say anything about requiring administrator privileges (although I not able to test this for sure). The directions say to “Copy DOSPrint.exe to the SYSTEM32 directory”. Then open Notepad (it should be in “Accessories” option in your Windows start menu. Copy the text below that starts with "@echo off" and paste it in Notepad. Then save the file and name it DOSPrint.bat (be sure it has bat as the extension). Then include this in your startup folder or you can start it by double clicking on it with your file manager. This will put the DOSPring icon in your system tray. Then you double click on the icon in your system tray and perform steps 6 and 7 above. That should get it.

@echo off
dosprint install
net start dosprint

Hi George,I have tested your Dosprint and it works...

2007-01-17T00:43:00.000-06:00

Hi George,

I have tested your Dosprint and it works fine in Administrator mode.
But when I switch to power User, I could not get it printing.
Upon checking the dosprint icon where I attached LPT1 to my printer, I got access denied.
Any idea ?
Thanks

Hello George,Thank you very much for your suggesti...

2006-12-06T09:41:00.000-06:00

Hello George,
Thank you very much for your suggestions. Your procedure works fine for me, just need to use dosprint and nothing else and I was able to share a legacy dos program in my LAn and then print from it on any remote windows printer queue.
Thank a lot!

Rattala

Robert, I was able to repeat the same problem that...

2006-11-01T22:22:00.000-06:00

Robert,

I was able to repeat the same problem that you had. I attempted to add a second port when I already had a local port named “C:\spool\dos.txt” and got the error message that you describe. You probably have already added the port without realizing it. Since you already have the port, I modified the procedure a bit for you to add the printer:

a. Go to the Windows control panel and open the printer option. Click on “Add Printer”.
b. Click "Next" on the "Welcome to the Add Printer Wizard" dialog box.
c. Select "Local printer" and uncheck "Automatically detect and install...", click "Next".
d. Select "Use the following port:".
e. From the pull down list to the right of "Use the following port:", select C:\spool\dos.txt (Local Port).
f. Select "Generic" from the "Manufacturers" and "Generic / Text Only" from "Printers", click “Next”. If you get a prompt asking you about the driver, select to use the existing one.
g. The next dialog will prompt you for printer name and enter “DOS Printing”, select "No" to use this printer as default and click "Next".
h. In printer sharing dialog select "Do not share this printer" and click "Next".
i. Select "No" to print a test page and click "Next".
j. Click Finish.

I had no particular reason to use "dos.txt". It worked but there are other ways to make it work. The "printer" I had you set up above doesn't actually print anything. It actually creates a text file of what you are printing from your dos application. It saves the file to C:\spool and names the file "dos.txt". So when I set up PrintFile, I made it look for that specific file name in the folder. I suppose *.txt would work although it would then print any txt file that might get added to the C:\spool folder. Once PrintFile has printed the txt file, it gets deleted automatically. I thought using "dos.txt" might be a little safer in case a txt file gets accidentally added to the folder, so the file won't get printed and deleted unless it is actually named "dos.txt".

Let me know if you get everything working. You might also let me know of ways to improve the procedure. I which I could have made it easier.

George

Hi,when I add C:\spool\dos.txt as the port name, I...

2006-11-01T04:17:00.000-06:00

Hi,
when I add C:\spool\dos.txt as the port name, I get "Specified port cannot be added. The port already exists". Any ideas?
Robert

I suggest that you verify that both DOSPrint and P...

2006-10-23T22:10:00.000-05:00

I suggest that you verify that both DOSPrint and PrintFile are running when you reboot (you should see an icon for each of them in your system tray if they are running). Both programs must be running for this process to work. You need to verify there is a shortcut for each program in your start-up option (Click on your Windows start button, then "All Programs" and then "Startup" to verify the shortcuts are there). If you have both shortcuts in your start-up, make sure each shortcut has the correct path to the executable.

There is a different way to get the shortcuts in your startup. It takes a little dexterity, but you can create the shortcut on your desktop and then drag the shortcut over to your Windoes Start button and hover over it, then hover over "All Programs" and then drop it into "Startup".

George,I followed your instructions for DOSPrint, ...

2006-10-22T20:33:00.000-05:00

George,

I followed your instructions for DOSPrint, rebooted, and lo and behold my ancient DOS application printed -- once. And then it stopped working until I rebooted once more. Any ideas on why this happened?

George, George, George... you are the greatest! I'...

2006-08-28T18:30:00.000-05:00

George, George, George... you are the greatest! I'm in love! If I weren't already a married woman... just kidding!

Yesterday, I pulled out my antique budget program on diskette from 1994 when my husband decided that he wanted us to get control of our budget. It all worked great until I wanted to print. I was able to use the "net use" command for one printer at work (although it had crap formatting). But, for the life of me, I couldn't get it to work from home. Your hard work and detailed instructions enabled me to print a beautifully formatted document of our monthly budget. Tomorrow I will be doing this setup again on my work laptop. Thanks so much!

I'm glad you were able to use my review. This rev...

2005-11-14T20:01:00.000-06:00

I'm glad you were able to use my review. This review represents several months of periodic experimenting. I finally figured out the combination of these two programs. Then after a couple of months, I decided to buy a recipe program. So, I am not using Meal Master anymore which is why I went through all this. I'm glad somebody got some benefit from it.

Hi - this took a little bit of time to make work, ...

2005-11-14T12:50:00.000-06:00

Hi - this took a little bit of time to make work, but finally did. The instructions for DOSPrint weren't a whole lot of help either. Thanks Rod