DOS Printing in Win9x (Lance Jacobs)

The following is an e-mail sent by Lance Jacobs on 10/7/1998.

I do not know if the links are still valid.

TJ:

Here below is my current standard reply on this issue, which also includes a link to a more detailed article in the Microsoft Knowledgebase on this issue.

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Printing from a DOS program like Q&A can be rather tricky under Windows 95. Microsoft has a lot of helpful info in their online knowledgebase that can help with that, however.

You can access the Microsoft knowledgebase at this address:

http://www.microsoft.com/kb/default.asp

Here is the specific address for Microsoft's article that you could find helpful troubleshooting this problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q128/3/45.asp

So click on this link and go over the recommendations in this document, and see if it does not help you solve this printing problem.

A key thing to do in this troubleshooting is to go to START, CONTROL PANEL, PRINTERS, right click on the printer's icon, select the PROPERTIES option, and then select the DETAILS tab. Then click on the PORT button, and clear the CHECK PORT STATUS check box.

Next, still under DETAILS, click on the button to CAPTURE PRINTER PORT. If you normally print to LPT1:, for example, then make sure that LPT1: is being captured to your printer.

Also under the DETAILS tab, click on the SPOOL SETTINGS button. If you want to continue to SPOOL printer data, then change the SPOOL DATA FORMAT to the RAW option. If the printer is connected to your PC through a LAN, then there really would be no need to use SPOOLING in Win 95, as the network's spooler could handle this. So if that is your configuration, take the option to PRINT DIRECTLY TO THE PRINTER instead.

Doing the above will usually solve this problem. But if the above does not help, then another thing you can try is to follow the instructions in the Microsoft document for configuring output to the LPT1.DOS port. So if the above does not correct this, give that a try, as doing that will then give you maximum compatibility with DOS applications.

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I've preferred using the above reply, as Microsoft has continued to update their knowledgebase article. Here below is an earlier document I was using previously, which had more info paraphrased from the Microsoft document:

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There are some basic printer compatibility issues between DOS and Windows 3.x programs printing under Windows 95. These are outlined in Microsoft's Knowledge Base article ID: Q128345 You can get this troubleshooting document from Microsoft either on CompuServe, or from their WEB pages on the Internet. I would definitely recommend that you get this article and read it over.

Here are some of the key things mentioned in the Microsoft article that you can try to get printing to work properly on your computer.

First, clear the Check Port Status option for the printer port under Win 95. Go to the CONTROL PANEL, PRINTERS, right click on the printer's icon, select the PROPERTIES option, and then select the DETAILS tab. Then click on the PORT button, and clear the CHECK PORT STATUS check box.

Next, still under DETAILS, click on the button to CAPTURE PRINTER PORT. If you normally print to LPT1:, for example, then make sure that LPT1: is being captured to your printer.

Also under the DETAILS tab, click on the SPOOL SETTINGS button. If you want to continue to SPOOL printer data, then change the SPOOL DATA FORMAT to the RAW option. If the printer is connected to your PC through a LAN, then there really would be no need to use SPOOLING in Win 95, as the network's spooler could handle this. So if that is your configuration, take the option to PRINT DIRECTLY TO THE PRINTER instead.

When you are done making all of the above changes, click on the OK button to save them.

If problems persist, another thing to set under DETAILS is to also click on the ADD PORT button and select OTHER. In this field, type:

LPT1.DOS

if you normally prints to printer port LPT1 This will provide further compatibility with DOS applications. Make sure that this then shows up as the selected PORT.

Anyway, these are some of the key things to check on to best insure printing compatibility with Win 95.

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This is a common question that many users run into. You have my permission to duplicate and use any of this text I wrote on the QAUG web site.

Best regards,

Lance Jacobs Senior Product Support Analyst [Symantec Corp.]

For Knowledge Base support articles, File Libraries, and FAQs, visit our Q&A support page:

http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/qa.html