OZPC under Windows

[Steve Pimer]

I am a computer consultant in the business 25 plus years. My wife is a court reporter who refuses to upgrade from OZPC 1.0

I have been keeping her software running on an old PC running MS-DOS 6.22

I have been able to get the OZPC software to run under Windows 98 for everything but the print function. If I choose the OZPC spooler option it appears to process the pages but never prints. It simply generates output files in SPL folder under Baron.

If I try to use setup option DOS spooler each time I try to print I get an error message indicating the DOS print services are not loaded. I am told to exit to DOS and type print then reload the software.

Well this process works fine under MS-DOS 6.22 but there is not equivalent print command under anything newer. If I try to run an MS-DOS 6.22 print command I get an error message about incorrect DOS version. I even tried the Setver process available under all Microsoft operating systems to fool the operating system into thinking the print command was correct with no luck.

Has anyone been successful in getting printer output under Windows 98 or newer? If so please lend some help.

PS:
I have actually been able to get OZPC to run on Windows XP if I install Microsoft Virtual PC on the system and then install Windows 98 into Virtual PC. But again, I run into the same printing problem.

Thanks

[Michael Smith]

Hello Steve,

The file PRINT.EXE is not a part of the Windows 98 installation. First, you will need to pull the program off your DOS-based PC and put it on the new computer.

From the DOS-based computer, place a formatted disk in the drive. Type the following command at the prompt:

copy c:\dos\print.exe a:

Once the file is copied, put the disk in your Win98 computer. From the Start menu, click on 'Run' and type the following: command [ENTER]

From the command prompt in Windows, make sure the disk is in the drive and type the following command:

copy a:\print.exe c:\windows\command

This copies the PRINT file to your new computer. Next, from the command prompt, type the following:

setver print.exe 6.22 > nul

This will update your version tables. Type the following to exit the command prompt: exit [ENTER]

Once you are back in Windows, restart the computer. When the computer comes up again, from your Start menu click on 'Run' and type the following: command [ENTER]

From the prompt, type: print [ENTER]

You should see a message that reads: Name of list device [PRN]:

Just press your [ENTER] key and now it should read: Resident part of PRINT installed.
Print queue is empty

Now try to print from OzPC again and see if that helps. I recommend using the DOS spooler.

If you receive a message that reads: "Incorrect DOS Version", then make sure you have Setver loaded (From your Start menu, click on Run and type: msconfig [ENTER]. Click on the 'Config.Sys' tab, and make sure you have the following line: device=c:\windows\setver.exe. If you do not have it, add it and restart the computer.). If you do have Setver loaded, then the PRINT.EXE file you copied in is not from MS Dos 6.22. Either obtain an MS-DOS 6.22 PRINT.EXE file, or change your setver command to read:

setver print.exe [version] > nul

If you receive a message that reads: "Bad command or file name", ensure that you copied PRINT.EXE into your \Windows\Command folder. If you did, try typing the following into a command prompt:

prompt=c:;c:\windows;c:\windows\command [ENTER]
print.exe [ENTER]

If you still get the same message, I would review the steps over again.

Good luck with this. Feel free to drop me an email if you are still having trouble with this.

[Steve Pimer]

This is a followup to my original request for help. Here is a very simple solution that works perfectly for all those out there with the same problem.

Simply install Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 on your Windows XP system. Then create an MS-DOS 6.22 virtual PC. You'll need the original DOS 6.22 diskettes. You can probably purchase a set on Ebay, which is what I had to do since I long ago threw out all mine.

Then copy your old DOS Baron folder from your old DOS PC into the Windows XP system. Also copy the OZPC.BAT file over into the root directory of the XP system.

Start Virtual PC as DOS 6.22. Setup folder sharing under Virtual PC and share the entire C: drive as Z. Check the instructions on setting up folder sharing. Change the OZPC.BAT file to point to drive Z instead of C.

OZPC works perfectly including sensing the parallel port security device. Even printing services work fine.

Good luck.

If you need any help email me at [e-mail] or call me at 610-869-2399