DOS screen captures in WinXP

[ravashaak]

I have a user at work who uses an older dos-based program. This program runs in full-screen mode and is graphical in nature. Under Windows NT as well as Windows 2000, she could do screen captures from this program with no problems simply by using the built-in screen capture functions. However, under Windows XP, when she attempts ctrl + print scrn or alt + print scrn, there is nothing in the buffer to paste.

I've tried a few things so far. I've attempted to edit the shortcut, thinking that if I could make it run windowed, that she could regain print screen functionality. However, this program runs full-screen regardless of shortcut settings. I've even tried a couple of third party screen capture programs that claim to do full-screen graphical DOS screen captures under winxp. Still, no dice. Even SnagIt (which swears it can do this) failed. It did put something in the buffer, but when I pasted the contents to another program, all I got was a bunch of white nothing.

I plan to continue trying out other third party utilities this weekend. Perhaps I will get lucky. Although, I am not very hopeful on that point. My various web and forum searches have resulted in finding others struggling with this same issue, but no solutions (at least not yet). Maybe someone here at tek-tips can provide an alternate solution or workaround. I'd really like to get this working for her. She's one of my good users. I appreciate good users wherever I run across them.

Thanks!

 

[drmoran]

Wow. Thanks. So what is the nature of the intercourse (access, copying ability) b/w OSes?

For example, if you create a Word doc (using your older version of Word) under W98, can you copy it using Windows Explorer to one of your XP dirs? Can you see VPC directories and files from withou?

Or do you have to email it to yourself...?

 

[bcastner]

All I have done is to create a network session/shared drives between Virtual OS sessions. I am sure there is a better way to do this, but it works fine.

On the machine you create a "virtual" network of connected OS versions, in direct parallel to the case where they are physical machines of different OS versions acting across a physical LAN.

 

[drmoran]

thanks for all your help; I will download trial and see what is up, and post info here (another thread though)

 

[ravashaak]

Well, in spite of the large amount of great suggestions, none have proved successful in my case. However, I'd like to say "thanks" once again to everyone who has provided input to this thread. Even if the problem has yet to be solved, it's not for a lack of effort. And drmoran's mention of text + graphic captures fits my situation perfectly. The captures I am attempting are graphical, with a small amount of text. So our situations appear the same.

My plan of last resort has been to install vmware on her workstation (since she already owns a license). This should be the equivalent of installing MS VirtualPC. I was hoping to avoid adding a layer of complexity like a virtual session. However, I'd rather her use a virtual session to accomplish the captures than for the captures to be impossible. I'd also like to avoid a forced downgrade to Win2K (not that Win2K is that bad...but from the standpoint of an admin, I prefer XP over 2K - RDP rocks!)

I will try to get VMWare installed early next week. I'll keep everyone posted.

And btw: You guys rock!