Why is there no LPT port listed under Virtual PC?

Every now and then I get an e-mail from someone who is trying to connect the LPT port under Virtual PC, but is finding that there is no LPT port listed on the LPT port settings page.  Usually the reason for this is because Virtual PC only supports use of the physical LPT port when the physical LPT port is configured to use the 378h-37Fh port range.  If you can't see you LPT port listed on the LPT port settings page, most computers allow you to configure the port range in the bios, and you can correct this issue.

As a side note, the LPT port settings page is my favorite example of bad usability in Virtual PC.  You see, in the old Connectix version of Virtual PC we used to allow you to connect the virtual LPT port to any physical LPT port.  But when we came to Microsoft we had to make a number of changes to the product in order to meet Microsoft coding standards.  One of the results of these changes was that we removed the ability to map arbitrary port ranges for the LPT port.  Unfortunately we did not update the configuration UI for this setting.

Which means we now have two radio buttons and a selection drop down list where the list can only ever have one value.  The reality is that this UI can easily handled with a single check box to indicate whether you want to enable the LPT port or not (which is in fact the UI that we use under Virtual Server).  Hopefully will fix this in the future.

Cheers,
Ben

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2007
  It will not be long before parallel port dongles are dead. PLEASE CAN WE HAVE SOME USB SUPPORT?!!? PLEASE?!?!

• Anonymous
  September 21, 2007
  I second the request for USB support. Microsoft's 'supported' configuration for eMbedded Visual C++ and Visual Studio .NET 2003 on Windows Vista is to install them in an XP VM (eVC does not work at all on Vista). Windows Mobile and Windows CE devices typically only offer desktop connectivity through USB (and debugging over serial is, um, slow). Yes, you can debug over TCP/IP, if you're prepared to put a lot of work into getting the connection going, and if your device actually supports a LAN connection. M Kenyon: why can't you simply use the network print queue from the guest OS?

• Anonymous
  September 21, 2007
  Mike Dimmick, cause when the Guest OS VPN's to our client... it loses local network connection.

• Anonymous
  September 24, 2007
  This is a very interesting article you posted. It just proves to me that Microsoft coding practices have actually limited the usability of this product for the end user. The Connectix product had more functionality in the LPT implementation, even though the amount of people that had more than one LTP port was probably very small it was probably more flexible with the port mappings. Has Microsoft coding practices also prevented Virtual PC from gaining essential USB support that every other virtualisation product has nowadays. Virtual PC is stagnating under microsoft control.

• Anonymous
  September 27, 2007
  If i have 2 LPT ports on my computer in hardware, will Virtual PC/Server allow me to have 2 LPT ports on the virtual machine? So, what I mean is, does the software add another virtual port if it notices 2 LPT ports exist? Will it do this in the new Virtual server ('08)? Thanks.

• Anonymous
  October 09, 2007
  interesting note: If hardware virtualization is turned on, I can't reach the parallel port, but if hardware virtualization is turned off, it works just fine.

• Anonymous
  October 11, 2007
  Are there plans in the near future to add USB support to VPC?

• Anonymous
  October 16, 2007
  I installed my VM in windows 2003 server. And it seems like my VM can not recognize the physical COM port (since I connected a modem to the physical COM port) and my VM can't recognize the modem. I wanted to test the COM port communication in VM but Hyperterminal was not there (even though I have Hyperterminal in my host computer). Couldn't find the setup to install Hyperterminal. Any suggestions on how I could get my COM port in VM tested and to know if it is actually the same as my physical COM port?

• Anonymous
  October 17, 2007
  Of course, if Virtual PC were truly innovative, it would allow for a virtual printer that generated PDFs or another output format for use with pretty much any ultimate destination.  Heck, this is what some builds of DosBox do and DosBox is about games, not printing!

• Anonymous
  January 16, 2012
  where can I get a version that will work with W7 64bit

• Anonymous
  December 29, 2013
  Hi, does this work with Virtual PC on x64 Windows 7? I configured my parallel port to the correct address, but it does not appear in the settings. Thanks

• Anonymous
  January 09, 2014
  I'm having similar issue.  LPT1 is at 378h.  I've tried configuring it (in BIOS) as PS/2 Mode, AT Mode, and ECP mode.... none of them seem to put LPT1 on the settings list like above - although I notice the heading in above says "Settings for DOS" whereas mine says "Windows XP Mode - Windows Virtual PC Settings".  Mine goes straight from COM2 to Networking, no LPT1 in between.  Any hints?

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2015
  The comment has been removed