Print DOS directly to dot-matrix printer from Win/XP ????

[Douglas Hageman]

We have a compiled FOX 2.6 DOS program with the printer code (24 pin
epson compat.) embedded w/in the 80+ forms and reports the program
does.

After much fooling around we've gotten it to print...sort of...in XP
but
first it waits several seconds then when we've given up that it's not
going
to print it invariably starts. This is a real pain in the neck as many
of
the forms, reports (etc.) have been designed to fill in pre-printed
Dept. of
Motor Vehicle forms and occasionally the user needs to briefly suspend
the
print job and make minor adjustments to the placement of the form.


Further we built in a a printer port reset (LPT1INIT.COM) to reset the
printer prior to initiating any new forms - but that no longer works
at all.
Clearly XP is storing the print job someplace and then printing from
wherever that place is but NOT directly to the printer itself.

How do we turn off whatever spooling (pooling?) is going on here.

This software is always installed with a local printer at LPT1 and is
rarely
installed on a network at all.

The program itself runs fine - but gaining complete control of the
printer port (LPT1) seems impossible! Surely there's some way to
truely "print raw" with WIN/XP


Thanks to anyone who might shed some light on this.

-Doug Hageman
(e-mail address removed)

 

[willit]

Spooler yep, it's spoolersv.exe you can disable it from
services or start > run > type "msconfig" ok on the
services tab , uncheck Print spooler , applt ,ok it will
ask to re-boot.

 

[Douglas Hageman]

Spooler yep, it's spoolersv.exe you can disable it from
services or start > run > type "msconfig" ok on the
services tab , uncheck Print spooler , applt ,ok it will
ask to re-boot.

Thanks - that helped.
The little 17 byte utility we've always used to reset the printer (24
pin dot matrix) between forms still refuses to work though..and I've
no idea why. Even put it in setver, but still........... it's really
quite damning this XP.

Doug Hageman