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This page includes a link to a program that will automatically install and configure a printing system that lets you print from WPDOS to your default Windows printer, even if your printer is a "Windows-only" or "host-based" printer that normally cannot work with WPDOS. You do not need this system if a WP printer driver exists for your printer - and such drivers exist for all PostScript printers, many HP LaserJet printers and HP-LaserJet-compatible printers, and some HP DeskJet and other HP inkjet printers. WP printer drivers may be found elsewhere on this site on separate pages for WPDOS 5.1 drivers and WPDOS 6.x drivers.
This method works only with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7 (and probably with Windows 2003 Server, although I have not tested it with that version of Windows). Before you install this system, you must be able to print from Windows applications (such as your browser) to your default Windows printers, and your WordPerfect for DOS program must function normally. If WPDOS pops up error messages whenever you edit a file, do not attempt to install this system, because the installation will fail. Fix your problems with WPDOS first.
A note on Windows Vista: This system works on both Vista systems that I have tested, but on one system, it once failed to work, but worked again after I uninstalled and reinstalled it. I cannot guarantee success with this system under Windows Vista.
Warning: This method will probably not work if your computer is on a network "domain" instead of a conventional peer-to-peer network. If you don't know what a network "domain" is, then your computer is probably not on one, and this method will work on your system. If your machine is on a domain, you might try the methods shown on another page with alternative methods of printing from WPDOS to any Windows printer.
See a separate page for alternative methods of printing from WPDOS to any Windows printer.
One limitation of this, like all other any-printer methods, is that it does not let you select different paper trays for different pages in your print jobs. All pages will be printed from the default input tray (which is defined by the Windows driver for your printer). You may be able to work around this problem by running a separate print job for the the pages that you want to print on special paper (for example, on an envelope) and feeding the special paper into your printer by hand.
Note: The installation program has been updated frequently, most recently on 29 July 2009.
If you have Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7, and if and only if you have either WordPerfect for DOS 5.1 or 5.1+ or WordPerfect for DOS 6.0c, 6.1, or 6.2, you can run a program that will automatically install all the software and settings that you may need for printing to any Windows printer. Note that this method may not work with versions of WordPerfect 5.1 dated earlier than 29 June 1990 (to find the date of your version, press F3 and note the date in the upper-right corner of the help screen). Also note that this method may not work with WPDOS 6.0, 6.0a, or 6.0b.
The installation program will run under Windows Vista, but the printing method may or may not work, for reasons that I do not entirely understand. When installing under Vista, it is absolutely essential that User Access Control be turned on. (If you do not understand the preceding sentence, then User Access Control is almost certainly running on your system, and you do not have to worry about it.)
This automated installation may not work if your copy of WordPerfect for DOS is stored on a remote network server instead of on your own computer. It will do no harm to try the procedure, however. If it works, then use it. If it does not, then return to this site's list of methods for printing to any Windows printer, and choose a different method.
If you have an earlier version of Windows or a very early version of WordPerfect 5.1, use this site's standard, guaranteed-to-work method instead.
To use this method, download the installation program WPDOSAnyPrinterMethod.exe; save it to any convenient location (for example, your Windows desktop), and run the program. Read and follow the prompts very carefully! If for any reason the program does not seem to work perfectly the first time you run it, simply run it a second time. (For example, if a test file fails to print, simply press Cancel, then run the program again; the test file will probably print. The program will not waste time by downloading Ghostscript a second time after downloading it a first time.)
Before you run this installation program, be absolutely certainly that you can print from a Windows application (for example, your web browser) to your default Windows printer. To test whether you can print from a Windows application, click on this page, type Ctrl-P, make sure that your default Windows printer appears as the target printer, and press Enter. If this page does not print correctly, then install drivers for your printer and continue to test it until your printer is correctly set up and working.
You must be using an "administrative" Windows login account to run this program.
Troubleshooting (note that the current version of the installation program should not encounter this problem): If the installer fails with an "NTVDM error," and if you have Tame 6.0 RC12 or RC14 or some similar version installed, then the problem is the result of a bug in these versions of Tame that prevents the DOS Command.com program from running. To get around this problem, uninstall Tame before running the WPDOSAnyPrinterMethod.exe program, and then install Tame again afterwards. If you do not encounter this problem, you may ignore this message.
Warning: If and only if you use WPDOS 5.1, and if and only if you have manually modified the font settings used by the optional top-line menu, you may need to make a temporary change to your WPDOS settings before running this installation program. Use Shift-F1, 2, 4, and look at options 1, 5, and 6; if any of these say "Normal", then change every "Normal" setting to any other available setting before you run the installation program; then, after the installation program is finished, you may change these settings back to "Normal" again.
The installation program will do the following:
If the program fails at any point, simply run it again (if you are using WPDOS 5.1 and the installer reports that the "Printer file location cannot be determined", see the Warning above). If the installer continues to fail, please send me feedback with the most detailed possible explanation of exactly what went wrong, and at exactly which point in the installation, and exactly what error message appeared, if any. Please specify the name of your printer and the way it is connected to your computer (USB cable, network, etc.).
You can run this program as many times as you choose without doing any harm to your system.
To remove every trace of this printing system from your computer, first run the installation program and choose the option to remove the Directory Monitor service. (If you have deleted the installation program and do not want to download it again, instead enter the following two commands at a command prompt: net stop sDirMon and "c:\Program Files\DirMonitor\dirmonitor.exe" -uninstall.) A prompt from the installation program will tell you that you can now delete the directories "C:\Program Files\DirMonitor" and C:\tempwp (or whatever directory you specified during installation), and will offer to delete C:\tempwp for you.
You may then run WPDOS and use Shift-F7/Select Printer, and delete any Ghostscript printer drivers that are listed there (if you have WPDOS 5.1, you may want to choose Edit before deleting the driver in order to determine the filename of the driver .PRS file so that you can delete the .PRS file by hand). You may then delete the WP51GSCR.ALL or WP60GSCR.ALL files from your WPDOS printer driver directory (as listed in Shift-F1/Location of Files).
Then, if you wish, open the Windows Control Panel and use the Add or Remove Programs applet to remove the Ghostscript program itself.
If you really know what you are doing, you may also use Regedit.exe to remove the Windows registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WPDOS.org, but that key does no harm to your system and may be useful in the future. You should not interfere with the Windows registry unless you have experience doing so, as a damaged registry can prevent a Windows system from running.
The following notes describe in detail all the changes that the installation program makes on your system. Each step is numbered in sequence.
(1) These two registry keys are read and compared to determine the current user's default printer and system default printer:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows", "Device"
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows",
"Device"
If the first is a network printer (tested by looking for "\" in the string), then a message warns that the advanced configuration is required. If the two keys do not match, then the system default printer is set to be the same as the current user's default printer (after an explanatory message appears and the user is given a chance to cancel).
(2) The registry is read to determine whether Ghostscript is installed and, if multiple versions are installed, which version is the most recent. The location of the most recent version is used as a variable in a command file installed in step (4). If Ghostscript is not present, it is automatically downloaded and installed (after the user is given a chance to cancel the procedure).
Note: Versions posted on 24 May 2008 and later attempt to detect the most recent version of Ghostscript for Windows and download it. If this detection fails, you should install Ghostscript manually; search the internet for Ghostscript (for example, here) and download and install the file named GS###W32.EXE, where ### is a number such as 864 or higher.
(3) If this WPDOS printing system has been installed earlier, the temporary printfile directory used by the system is located by reading the registry, and the user is asked whether to continue to use the same directory. If this WPDOS printing system has not been installed earlier, a temporary printfile directory name is suggested to the user; the chosen directory is then created; and its path is stored in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WPDOS.org.
(4) If the Directory Monitor service by the programmer who calls himself "Chicks" is not installed, the required files are installed into the \Program Files\DirMonitor directory. (The original software may be found as DirMonitor.zip at Chicks PDF Tools.) The installed files include a custom Psprint.cmd file that runs Ghostscript when a WPDOS.PS PostScript print file is written (by WPDOS) to the temporary file directory specified in step (3). In this file, the command line that runs Ghostscript uses the path determined in step (2).
(5) The DirMonitor.exe -install program is run in order to install the Directory Monitor service into Windows' list of services.
(6) The Directory Monitor service is set to startup automatically with Windows (this change can be seen by running Services.msc and examining the entry for the Directory Monitor service).
(7) If the user chooses the advanced installation, then the current user is given the Windows privilege that allows the user to "log in as a service" (this change can be seen under Windows 2000, XP Pro, and some Vista versions by running Secpol.msc and examining the entry at Local Policies, User Rights Assignment, Log on as a service).
(8) The command net start sDirMon is run in order to start the Directory Monitor service. The Directory Monitor service now monitors the temporary printfile directory for new files; any new file named WPDOS.PS will be printed by Ghostscript and then deleted.
(9) The installer now installs and configures printer drivers in WPDOS 5.1 or 6.x or both, using similar procedures for each. In each case, if this WPDOS printing system has been installed earlier, the installer queries the registry for the location of WPDOS. If the location is not found in the registry, the installer looks for WPDOS in standard locations; if it does not find it, it asks the user for the location of WPDOS. Using macros (and for WPDOS 5.1, software by David Seidman) to control the next stages, the program copies Ghostscript printer drivers into the WPDOS printer file directory, and runs WPDOS to configure the printer drivers; the directory specified in step (3) is set as the location of the driver's output. The location of WPDOS is then written to the registry in the same key listed in item (3) so that the installer can find it easily if the installer is run again.
This site provides Ghostscript printer drivers for WPDOS; the drivers are slightly modified from standard WordPerfect PostScript drivers, and you can use a standard WordPerfect PostScript driver if you prefer. (I suggest that you do not use HP LaserJet PostScript drivers with Ghostscript, as some special HP printer codes may interfere with smooth operations.) See the section below for information on installing soft fonts for use with these drivers. The installer for this system automatically installs these drivers, but the notes below may be of interest to advanced users.
Notes on WordPerfect for DOS 6.x only: The name of each driver includes "Color" or "Mono" and a resolution in Dots Per Inch. Choose the driver that most closely matches the color and resolution that Ghostscript supports when used with your printer. The resolution of the thirty-five standard PostScript fonts automatically installed by Ghostscript will not be affected by the resolution of the driver. The driver resolution is designed to optimize the output of bitmapped graphics. Because WPDOS 6.x uses bitmapped graphics to output its "graphic fonts" (TrueType, Speedo, and any Type 1 fonts that are not installed as printer fonts) to PostScript printers, you will get better results if you choose the correct resolution. But any of these drivers should give acceptable results with any printer. The drivers support the euro symbol as WP character 4,72. To display the euro symbol when editing, see this site's euro page.
Notes on WordPerfect for DOS 5.x only: The installer asks whether to use the Ghostscript Color or the Ghostscript Mono driver; choose the one the matches the capabilities of your printer and the kind of printing you intend to do.
WordPerfect for DOS 6.x: With WPDOS 6.x, you can use any soft font in any of the formats supported by the program. For the best output quality and print speed when printing to Ghostscript or PostScript, use PostScript Type 1 soft fonts wherever possible. You can install any Type 1 (PostScript) soft font as a "soft font" for PostScript printers using the built-in WPDOS 6.x font installer. With Ghostscript and with any other PostScript printer, a Type 1 soft font that is installed as a "soft font" will produce faster and more reliable output than the same font installed as a "graphic." "Soft fonts" are rasterized (converted to a bitmap) by the printer (in this case, Ghostscript), while "Graphic fonts" are rasterized by WPDOS.
Note that if you intend to convert PostScript output files to PDF format, you should always install Type 1 fonts as "soft fonts"; if you install the fonts as "graphic" fonts, any text that prints in that font will look rough-edged, and you will not be able to search or copy any text printed in that font. However, if you want an accurate representation of your fonts in WPDOS 6.x's graphic view, page view, or print preview mode, you should install each Type 1 font as both a "soft font" and as "graphics." WordPerfect will use the font as a soft font when printing but as a graphic when displaying text on screen.
Technical note: The "soft font" remains on your computer's hard disk until you print; the "graphics" version is stored in the WP.DRS file that WP uses to display its graphics and print preview modes.
If you want to convert TrueType fonts to Type 1 fonts, use the ttf2pt1.exe utility described on this site's separate page on installing Type 1 fonts in WPDOS 5.x PostScript drivers.
For euro-enabled Type 1 soft fonts, see this site's euro page.
WordPerfect for DOS 5.1: You can install any of hundreds of Adobe Type 1 (PostScript) soft fonts for use with these drivers by using the soft font definitions in the WPDOS 5.1 PostScript (Additional) drivers, which may be downloaded from Corel's page for WPDOS 5.1 printer drivers; search for "PostScript (Additional)" and "PostScript (Additional 2)" through "PostScript (Additional 4)." If you have any other Type 1 fonts, or if you want to convert TrueType fonts into Type 1 fonts for use with this method, see this site's separate page on installing Type 1 fonts in WPDOS 5.x PostScript drivers.
For euro-enabled soft Type 1 soft fonts, see this site's euro page.