PC help: Old program, new printer

Q I like to use a Dos program called Textra 6, made by a US company called Ann Arbor Software. This is a very old piece of software, but because it is so good, I still like to use it. It works fine on my modern computer, but I cannot get my new printer to work with it.

The program uses something called LPT1 or COM1, but my printer, an HP Deskjet 970 CXI, is connected to the computer using a USB port. Is it possible to connect another lead from my computer to the printer, or output the same program to a different printer?

Michael Danby

A Roughly speaking, LPT1 and COM1 are the names Windows gives to the parallel port and serial port on your computer. If the printer has a parallel port, it might be possible to connect this to the parallel port on the computer (assuming the computer has one, since many modern PCs do not).

An easier way round the problem is to make the old Dos program think there’s something plugged into the parallel port.

The first thing to do is open the printer’s control panel (click Start, then Printers and Faxes). Select your printer from the icons shown and right-click it. Select Sharing or, if that doesn’t appear, click Properties and then the Sharing tab. Select the ‘Share this printer’ option and change the name that appears, if you wish. It doesn’t matter what the name is, but make sure it contains just letters and numbers – no spaces.

Leave that dialogue box open, then right-click the My Computer icon (you can find it on the Desktop or in the Start menu), and select Properties from the menu that appears. Click the Computer Name tab. Now click Start again, click Run, type Command and press Enter.

In the black Command window, type NET USE LPT1: and leave a single space. Now type two backslashes (\\) and type the computer name as shown in the Computer Name dialogue box we just opened. Make sure you type it correctly. Now type another backslash (\) and type the printer’s share name from the other dialogue box. Again, make sure it’s correct.

Now you should have a single line that looks something like NET USE LPT1:\\MYCOMPUTER\MYPRINTER – with your computer and printer name in place of ours. Press Enter, and after a couple of seconds the phrase ‘The command completed successfully’ should appear. You can now print a document from the old program, and it will go straight to the USB printer.