Keyboard Not Recognixed by DOS Applications

[Michael R. Copeland]

I'm running XP Home SP1 (fearful of SP2), and several key DOS
applications I've used for years don't respond to any keyboard actions.
Specifically, Borland Pascal 7.0, File Commander for Windows (FCW) 2.20,
and my DOS shell (Directory Scanner) load apparently okay, but none of
their keyboard functions (Function Keys or other) respond in any way. I
have to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to break out of the applications, and of
course nothing works.
Any thoughts? TIA

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Michael,

As they are DOS applications, and there is no real DOS - only an emulator -
in WinXP, I suspect you will find that there is no resolution to this. The
applications are probably trying to directly control the keyboard, and this
sort of access is not allowed in an NT system (of which XP is one).
Applications need to access hardware through the installed system drivers,
not try to directly control the hardware in WinXP.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Don Wiss]

I'm running XP Home SP1 (fearful of SP2), and several key DOS
applications I've used for years don't respond to any keyboard actions.

I have a DOS application. It has a parameter that you can set to force it
to communicate with the keyboard using DOS calls, instead of its default of
communicating directly with it.

Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at home page bottom).