Thanks for the pointers. What I want to do is set a single bit of the
parallel port to a "1" via a batch (*.bat) file and then reset it with
another batch file. The batch files would be run via the scheduler
for control of an external device. The OS involved is actually
Windows 2000 Server.
Pretty simple on XP pro, so should work on 2k server. First you
need to get access to the computer hardware. Use a program called
userport to do that (google for userport.zip). Run userport one
time and you are good to go accessing the hardware from then on.
Below is a link to my page where I have some info on simple
control of the parallel port. The bottom pin2.bat file uses debug
(which is still included in most windows distributions) to
control the parallel port after you have run userport. The below
pin2.bat file sets pin 2 (data 0) on parallel port 378 to +5v.
Using 00 instead of 01 would turn the pin off. To turn all data
pins on, use ff (debug uses hex values). More info on the link
page below.
http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/ppswitcher.htm
:

in2.bat
@echo off
GOTO BEGIN
o 378 01
G
:BEGIN
DEBUG < pin2.bat