Parallel Port-like access in windows xp

The purpose of an OS is to allow easy access to system resources.
The trend seems to be going the other way.
How can I regain something akin to direct parallel port access in
Windows XP?

I have several programs written in Quickbasic 4.5 that access the
parallel port directly on a DOS only machine. They also run just
fine in a Windows 98SE DOS box. I need to make these run in Windows XP.

Yes, I could rewrite them in Visual Basic and use a third party driver
to access the port, but then they won't run on the DOS only machine.
I need something I can quickly hack to control hardware.

I've tried disabling the port in hardware manager. XP
still blocks access to stuff that (logically) isn't there.

I've read about the possibility to modify the I/O permissions in the OS.
I'd be happy if I could just tell the OS to permanently ignore addresses
0X378-0x37F and let me have my way with them. That would work with
commercial products that directly access the parallel port. I have a
logic analyzer that does this.

Is there a freeware application or registry hack that could let me do this?

A less attractive alternative would be to modify the address decoder on
my parallel port card and move it elsewhere. That would solve much of
my problem. Is there an address space
that XP wouldn't prevent access but still lies in the range of addresses
accessible by inp and out commands?

I don't need protection from myself. If I crash the system, It's my
fault. I just want access to the &*&%^ XP parallel port from a program
that can also run on a DOS6.2 machine. Qucikbasic 4.5 is my development
language for these projects.

Ideas? Did I mention freeware?
Thanks, mike


--
Return address is VALID.
Wanted, Slot 1 Motherboard
500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Make Offer
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/te.html
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/

In a word, "DUALBOOT". You aren't going to "directly access" hardware in NT.

mike wrote:

The purpose of an OS is to allow easy access to system resources.
The trend seems to be going the other way.
How can I regain something akin to direct parallel port access in
Windows XP?

I have several programs written in Quickbasic 4.5 that access the
parallel port directly on a DOS only machine. They also run just
fine in a Windows 98SE DOS box. I need to make these run in Windows XP.

Yes, I could rewrite them in Visual Basic and use a third party driver
to access the port, but then they won't run on the DOS only machine.
I need something I can quickly hack to control hardware.

I've tried disabling the port in hardware manager. XP
still blocks access to stuff that (logically) isn't there.

I've read about the possibility to modify the I/O permissions in the OS.
I'd be happy if I could just tell the OS to permanently ignore addresses
0X378-0x37F and let me have my way with them. That would work with
commercial products that directly access the parallel port. I have a
logic analyzer that does this.

Is there a freeware application or registry hack that could let me do this?

A less attractive alternative would be to modify the address decoder on
my parallel port card and move it elsewhere. That would solve much of
my problem. Is there an address space
that XP wouldn't prevent access but still lies in the range of addresses
accessible by inp and out commands?

I don't need protection from myself. If I crash the system, It's my
fault. I just want access to the &*&%^ XP parallel port from a program
that can also run on a DOS6.2 machine. Qucikbasic 4.5 is my development
language for these projects.

Ideas? Did I mention freeware?
Thanks, mike

Bob I wrote:
In a word, "DUALBOOT". You aren't going to "directly access" hardware in
NT.

Yes, dualboot is what I do now. The good news, so far, is that I rarely
have to boot to XP. It is annoying to have to keep two different
operating systems' applications synchronized.

I'm not giving up on hardware access.
This is a VERY COMMON request. Eventually, someone is gonna be clever
enough to figger it out.
mike


mike wrote:

The purpose of an OS is to allow easy access to system resources.
The trend seems to be going the other way.
How can I regain something akin to direct parallel port access in
Windows XP?

I have several programs written in Quickbasic 4.5 that access the
parallel port directly on a DOS only machine. They also run just
fine in a Windows 98SE DOS box. I need to make these run in Windows XP.

Yes, I could rewrite them in Visual Basic and use a third party driver
to access the port, but then they won't run on the DOS only machine.
I need something I can quickly hack to control hardware.

I've tried disabling the port in hardware manager. XP
still blocks access to stuff that (logically) isn't there.

I've read about the possibility to modify the I/O permissions in the OS.
I'd be happy if I could just tell the OS to permanently ignore addresses
0X378-0x37F and let me have my way with them. That would work with
commercial products that directly access the parallel port. I have a
logic analyzer that does this.

Is there a freeware application or registry hack that could let me do
this?

A less attractive alternative would be to modify the address decoder
on my parallel port card and move it elsewhere. That would solve much
of my problem. Is there an address space
that XP wouldn't prevent access but still lies in the range of addresses
accessible by inp and out commands?

I don't need protection from myself. If I crash the system, It's my
fault. I just want access to the &*&%^ XP parallel port from a
program that can also run on a DOS6.2 machine. Qucikbasic 4.5 is my
development
language for these projects.

Ideas? Did I mention freeware?
Thanks, mike






--
Return address is VALID.
Wanted, Slot 1 Motherboard
500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Make Offer
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/te.html
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/

Either you have to write a VDM type driver for XP
(this is not feasible for non-professional, so I won't elaborate on it),
or run your dos app in VMware or MS virtual PC.
Or keep dual booting.

--PA


"mike" wrote:
Bob I wrote:
In a word, "DUALBOOT". You aren't going to "directly access" hardware in
NT.

Yes, dualboot is what I do now. The good news, so far, is that I rarely
have to boot to XP. It is annoying to have to keep two different
operating systems' applications synchronized.

I'm not giving up on hardware access.
This is a VERY COMMON request. Eventually, someone is gonna be clever
enough to figger it out.
mike


mike wrote:

The purpose of an OS is to allow easy access to system resources.
The trend seems to be going the other way.
How can I regain something akin to direct parallel port access in
Windows XP?

I have several programs written in Quickbasic 4.5 that access the
parallel port directly on a DOS only machine. They also run just
fine in a Windows 98SE DOS box. I need to make these run in Windows XP.

Yes, I could rewrite them in Visual Basic and use a third party driver
to access the port, but then they won't run on the DOS only machine.
I need something I can quickly hack to control hardware.

I've tried disabling the port in hardware manager. XP
still blocks access to stuff that (logically) isn't there.

I've read about the possibility to modify the I/O permissions in the OS.
I'd be happy if I could just tell the OS to permanently ignore addresses
0X378-0x37F and let me have my way with them. That would work with
commercial products that directly access the parallel port. I have a
logic analyzer that does this.

Is there a freeware application or registry hack that could let me do
this?

A less attractive alternative would be to modify the address decoder
on my parallel port card and move it elsewhere. That would solve much
of my problem. Is there an address space
that XP wouldn't prevent access but still lies in the range of addresses
accessible by inp and out commands?

I don't need protection from myself. If I crash the system, It's my
fault. I just want access to the &*&%^ XP parallel port from a
program that can also run on a DOS6.2 machine. Qucikbasic 4.5 is my
development
language for these projects.

Ideas? Did I mention freeware?
Thanks, mike






--
Return address is VALID.
Wanted, Slot 1 Motherboard
500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Make Offer
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/te.html
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 02:16:38 -0800, mike
wrote:

The purpose of an OS is to allow easy access to system resources.
The trend seems to be going the other way.
How can I regain something akin to direct parallel port access in
Windows XP?

I have several programs written in Quickbasic 4.5 that access the
parallel port directly on a DOS only machine. They also run just
fine in a Windows 98SE DOS box. I need to make these run in Windows XP.

Yes, I could rewrite them in Visual Basic and use a third party driver
to access the port, but then they won't run on the DOS only machine.
I need something I can quickly hack to control hardware.

I've tried disabling the port in hardware manager. XP
still blocks access to stuff that (logically) isn't there.

I've read about the possibility to modify the I/O permissions in the OS.
I'd be happy if I could just tell the OS to permanently ignore addresses
0X378-0x37F and let me have my way with them. That would work with
commercial products that directly access the parallel port. I have a
logic analyzer that does this.

Is there a freeware application or registry hack that could let me do this?

A less attractive alternative would be to modify the address decoder on
my parallel port card and move it elsewhere. That would solve much of
my problem. Is there an address space
that XP wouldn't prevent access but still lies in the range of addresses
accessible by inp and out commands?

I don't need protection from myself. If I crash the system, It's my
fault. I just want access to the &*&%^ XP parallel port from a program
that can also run on a DOS6.2 machine. Qucikbasic 4.5 is my development
language for these projects.

Ideas? Did I mention freeware?
Thanks, mike

Do a google search for userport.zip which contains a program
called userport. You only have to run it once on your machine for
it to give you direct access to what ever hardware you need on
NT/2K/XP machines. It is free. I use it on my XP pro machine so I
can bit-bang the data/control lines and read the status lines on
my parallel port. It also allows other older programs to have
access to the hardware. The below two pages show how I do some
parallel port I/O on my XP pro machine. The bottom three links
are demos for writing/reading info to/from the parallel port on
my XP machine via the web.

http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/status.htm
http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/output.htm

qbasic http://zoomkat.d2g.com:88/cgi-bin/status.bat
assembler http://zoomkat.d2g.com:88/cgi-bin/go-in.bat
debug http://zoomkat.d2g.com:88/cgi-bin/go.bat

Bob I wrote:
In a word, "DUALBOOT". You aren't going to "directly access" hardware in
NT.

Welllll....thanks to Si's input, I'm now directly accessing hardware in
XP. And I'm running legacy parallel port hardware with the original DOS
drivers. I'm happy as a clam. I'm startin' to think this XP might be
tolerable after all. I've almost got it back up to the capability I had
with 98.

Thanks again, Si
mike

mike wrote:

The purpose of an OS is to allow easy access to system resources.
The trend seems to be going the other way.
How can I regain something akin to direct parallel port access in
Windows XP?

I have several programs written in Quickbasic 4.5 that access the
parallel port directly on a DOS only machine. They also run just
fine in a Windows 98SE DOS box. I need to make these run in Windows XP.

Yes, I could rewrite them in Visual Basic and use a third party driver
to access the port, but then they won't run on the DOS only machine.
I need something I can quickly hack to control hardware.

I've tried disabling the port in hardware manager. XP
still blocks access to stuff that (logically) isn't there.

I've read about the possibility to modify the I/O permissions in the OS.
I'd be happy if I could just tell the OS to permanently ignore addresses
0X378-0x37F and let me have my way with them. That would work with
commercial products that directly access the parallel port. I have a
logic analyzer that does this.

Is there a freeware application or registry hack that could let me do
this?

A less attractive alternative would be to modify the address decoder
on my parallel port card and move it elsewhere. That would solve much
of my problem. Is there an address space
that XP wouldn't prevent access but still lies in the range of addresses
accessible by inp and out commands?

I don't need protection from myself. If I crash the system, It's my
fault. I just want access to the &*&%^ XP parallel port from a
program that can also run on a DOS6.2 machine. Qucikbasic 4.5 is my
development
language for these projects.

Ideas? Did I mention freeware?
Thanks, mike






--
Return address is VALID.
Wanted, Slot 1 Motherboard
500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Make Offer
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/te.html
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/

Thanks Si! Info is greatly appreciated!

Si Ballenger wrote:



Do a google search for userport.zip which contains a program
called userport. You only have to run it once on your machine for
it to give you direct access to what ever hardware you need on
NT/2K/XP machines. It is free. I use it on my XP pro machine so I
can bit-bang the data/control lines and read the status lines on
my parallel port. It also allows other older programs to have
access to the hardware. The below two pages show how I do some
parallel port I/O on my XP pro machine. The bottom three links
are demos for writing/reading info to/from the parallel port on
my XP machine via the web.

http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/status.htm
http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/output.htm

qbasic http://zoomkat.d2g.com:88/cgi-bin/status.bat
assembler http://zoomkat.d2g.com:88/cgi-bin/go-in.bat
debug http://zoomkat.d2g.com:88/cgi-bin/go.bat