USB Printing in DOS mode....is it possible?

[neovan]

At work...I still have some programs that are dos based and I have a HP printer. I don't want to use the parallel cable and was just wondering if its possible for the USB printer to print in DOS mode. If so....how?

TIA

 

[altonb1]

I believe it is possible, but I have no idea how to tell you to do it if you are in true DOS. However, are you in a DOS Window, even if you are running full-screen? If so, what OS? 9x, NT, 2k, XP?

I *THINK* you can setup the system to redirect LPTx to the USB printer. I know if this was a network printer, you could capture a printer port, but since the printer is already on your system, I'm not sure. I don know I have an option for USB in my BIOS that allows me to use USB in DOS, but since you have to direct a print job to a port, I'm not sure how you would do it. You might be able to share the printer to your company's network, and then capture that port, but I will admit that I really don't know what to tell you. Hopefully, this may put you on the right track, anyway.

 

[neovan]

Thanks altonb1 ...I was thinking the same thing but just wanted a second opinion or maybe another solution for this problem. But I just tried it and it works perfectly. We're in a NOVELL environment so it makes things a little easier.

Thanks again

 

[altonb1]

That's funny. I was debating on whether to mention Novell 5 printer sharing in my first message. Novell 5 does make sharing your desktop printer as a network printer very easy.

Once you do that, just capture the port and you're fine. You might want to assign Novell user rights to that printer so that you can limit the users that have access to your printer as well.