Printing - Port Capture of LPT1

[Nadeem]

I want to run an old dos program that prints directly to LPT1 port. I tried to upgrade an old Windows 2000 system and I have a problem with an old Dos application that writes direct to the LPT1 or LPT2 device. Windows 98 and 2000 had port capture that would intercept the direct printing and allow you to push it to a network printer on another pc. Can anyone tell me any other way to do this on Windows XP? Thanks.

[Hockson]

Can you check in NET USE in help. Below is the full description:

NET USE LPT1 \\servername\printername

[Anywhere]

There are 2 ways to do this. You can get the program Report Program Viewer or something similar. It will require that your old DOS programs be converted to send all their printing to a file in a directory you specify. The RPV is looping looking for any file in that same folder. When RPV finds a file, it does a file to print thing using any printer you want.

[Nadeem]

Thanks for the reply, the net use looks to be working fine for me.

[Big Fish]

You can also try to create a network share for the printer, which can be done even if your computer is the only member of its workgroup, and then use the Net Use command to redirect the DOS output. Check below for example:

NET USE LPT1 \\ComputerName\PrinterShareName /PERSISTENT:YES