Re: getting an old Win program to print

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RobertVA wrote: 
george2002 wrote:

Hello,

I am trying to restore a friend's computer and I am running into nothing but headaches! He insists on using a very old accounting program. I have gotten the program to work under XP but can configure the printer. The program is called Zebra (however, I doubt anyone remembers it.) I get an error message about the printer in recognizing the fonts. Does anyone know where I could find information about getting such an ancient program to print in XP. Oh it will save the unprinted spread*** to a txt file . . . but the columns come out wrong. I can't convince the guy to get a newer program . . . any ideas?

Thank you, George


Some older programs just WOUN'T get along with newer operating systems. In some cases these applications are designed to comunicate directly with peripherals like modems or printers and by design Windows XP WILL NOT TOLERATE THAT. To coordinate the allocation of peripheral and other resources the OS MUST be givin the oportunity to handle ALL the data transfers between applications and the various hardware resources. Tolerance of applications bypassing the OS was behind many of the problems of earlier operating systems.

While Windows XP has a lot of similarities to Windows 9x/ME it IS a DIFFERENT operating system. There are even more differences between Windows XP and Windows 3.x/WFWG under DOS.

Solutions:

Run the old program on a computer running an earlier OS. Run Windows XP on a seperate computer. As an alternate the hard drives could be mounted in remoavable cartrages than can be swapped, with the computer powered down, to determine which OS is to be booted.

Set up a computer with multiple OS bootups. This may require the removal of ALL information from the hard drive and installing the earlier OS BEFORE installing Windows XP. Some Windows XP instalation CDs produced by computer manufacturers may be unable to accommidate this procedure. Unfortunately some late model printers might not be available when running the earlier OS version. On the other hand ink or toner supplies might not be available for older printers.

Investigate the feasability of resolving the column misalignment issues when exporting to a text file. You may be able to use a comma delimited format that can be imported to a Windows XP compatable spread*** application OR configure the older application to print a fixed width font like Courier with spaces instead of tabs. Of course the Windows XP compatable application you import the text file into must be configured to display and print in a fixed width font as well.

Replace the application with a Windows XP compatable one. Replacing an old application may be complicated by issues involving data file forwarding. Consider the fact that by many accounting standards the old application has probably depreciated to zero financial value. The purchase price of the new application might provide new oportunities for a depreciation expense. 

Hi Robert,

One important fact I left out was that the program WAS PRINTING under XP until I started messing with the system! Now it fails to print and he is upset with me. It doesn't matter to him that his system was never running very well before I started working on it . . . he wants to be able to print with the program as before. I should have NEVER started work on his system! I have been working on it for weeks. I am so thankful for the help that I have gotten from this group.

George
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