DOS program cannot open COM1

[John D]

Hello,

I am trying to run a DOS program (for which there is no Windows version)
in XP and receive the following error messages:

"The system cannot open COM1 port requested by the application"
"The system cannot open COM2 port requested by the application"

After choosing "Ignore" instead of "Close" the main program menu appears
and seems to be functional.

Does anyone know how I can "fix" (no more error messages) this ?

Thanks

John D

[Malke]

John D wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am trying to run a DOS program (for which there is no Windows
> version) in XP and receive the following error messages:
>
> "The system cannot open COM1 port requested by the application"
> "The system cannot open COM2 port requested by the application"
>
> After choosing "Ignore" instead of "Close" the main program menu
> appears and seems to be functional.
>
> Does anyone know how I can "fix" (no more error messages) this ?
>
Hi, John. There is no true DOS in Windows XP, only an emulation. It
sounds like your program needs to interact directly with the hardware,
which is forbidden by modern operating systems like XP. You can try
running the program in Compatibility Mode (look in your Help & Support
for instructions). If that doesn't work and there is no upgraded
version of this software, then I'm afraid you have to choice but to 1)
find a different program that is designed for XP and will do what you
want; 2) keep an older computer around running either DOS or Win9x to
enable you to run this program. Since you didn't give us the name of
the program, that's all the specific help you can get. Please repost if
you need more help, and include the name of the program in case anyone
reading this newsgroup uses it successfully.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"