Aspect Default Printer

[flatbed]

I'm using Win2000 on a Dell with ProComm 4.8.

The problem seems to be the cmd -
fetch print device S0

It returns a bogus default printer. Yes, the printer
was defined at one time, but it has been deleted.

All other Windows apps seem to be using the printer
set as default in the printers folder. Additionally,
if I set the print device to the proper printer all
is well. Only the query for default seems to be goofy.

 

[knob]

The fetch command keeps returning a null string for me, but I'm on a Win98 machine at the moment and not Win2K (will try that tomorrow morning at work). You might want to try deleting the pw5.prm file in your main Procomm Plus directory. This file contains all of Procomm's settings and it's possible that the incorrect default printer is set there.
aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[flatbed]

Knob,

Thanks for the tip !

Although pw5.prm is not in human readable form, it does
contain a string of text that looks very suspicious.

My approach will be to rename the file and launch ProComm.
Hopefully, I won't spend all day getting the settings
back to normal.

Please let me know if you learn anything from your testing.

Thanks again for the guidance.

 

[knob]

The pw5.prm file is a binary file, so you cannot edit it for the most part. Deleting the file and running Procomm will create a new version of the file, but you may need to change some of the default settings as you noted.

On my Win2K machine, I was getting a blank string as well. I then selected the File | Print Setup menu item (which had my Windows default printer selected), clicked OK to close that dialog, restarted Procomm, and ran the script again. This time the expected printer was reported. I'm not certain if this was my default printer in Windows when I installed Procomm or not (it's a test machine, so software gets installed very frequently).
aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[flatbed]

knob,

Yep that works. I stumbled on to the same conclusion. Apparently, ProComm maintains it's own idea of the
default printer. And as you said, you must use File|
Print Setup at least once to 'register' the default printer with the ProComm application. If not, the fetch returns
an empty string.

Not very cooperative, but once you figure it out it seems to be consistent and very workable.

Thanks for all your effort.

 

[knob]

Speaking as someone who used to support Procomm, printing has always been considered a form of voodoo!
aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com