Re: problems with session restore

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

> Two other questions: now that I am using ethernet or USB instead of
> parallel for printing, I seem to crash Xy4 every now and then when trying
> to print under XP. Is there something different I should be doing?

Bill,

I'm not sure exactly what the deal is with USB (other than the fact it can
designate _other_ port I.D.'s besides the familiar ones like COM1 or LPT1 that
are recognized by legacy DOS app.s.) Whether or not this is handled
transparently by Win, or you have to tweak or redirect Xy output somehow, I
don't know. When you mention ethernet, it sounds like you are referring to
"network printing." This also has newfangled port-output, beyond the ken of
Xy. I decided not to mess with network printing myself, at least for the
forseeable future. However, in the course of learning about it, I was told
about a utility (called LPRMON) that must be turned ON in OS/2 in order to
resolve this issue. It intercepts and redirects network print jobs that
legacy app.s don't know what to do with. At that time, it was my hope that
something equivalent must exist in Win . . . but knowing how committed MS is
to customer support and backwards compatibility {snicker, snicker}, I wouldn't
bet any appreciable sum on this.

> And does anyone know how to make task switching faster in XP? It's almost
> instantaneous in NT 2000, but seems to take forever in XP.

Don't use XP at all. However, at what may be _the last_ Comdex (show has been
drastically shrinking, promoter is bankrupt), I recently learned what can
cause these delays for anyone using a flat panel monitor. Many legacy app.s
like Xy use VGA. If one or more of the tasks you are switching between are
DOS-based, the VGA display must be emulated by the panel circuitry, which
causes the very noticeable delay. It's a hardware thing, sayeth this major
panel mfr. They told me that if I could go to an all-digital input, this
emulation could probably be bypassed. I have noticed the problem on other
people's systems. The video card I use (Matrox G400) is supposed to have a
digital connection module that can be ordered as an option. So, whenever my
ailing CRT finally kicks the bucket, and I move to a flat panel, I'll be able
to test this out.


Jordan