[Mldxcc] WriteLog v10, Windows 2000 and USERPORT.ZIP Freeware

[Ron]

WriteLog v10, Windows 2000 and using LPT port for CW keying.
I'm posting this as a warning to all concerned. I installed Writelog v10.00
on my Windows 2000 notebook. When starting up a new contest and using
the SETUP > PORTS menu selection the option to select using LPT ports is
grayed out. For those of you that use the common LPT port cable (same as
TRLog) to key your radio for CW, this is an important feature to go without.
Now the support info on the WriteLog SUPPORT page warns you that this is
not supported because of the additional port address protection used by
Windows 2000 (and XP). They give you two options, one is to use a Freeware
program called USERPORT.zip The other is a commercial product you can
(gulp) purchase.

Documentation for this program is fair at best. It installs easy enough and
it looks like your able to manipulate protection on your LPT port addresses
just fine but after rebooting, the accompanying BLUE SCREEN quickly
reminds you that you get what you pay for. Documentation for backing out
your changes is not accurate at all. Doing a SAFE boot, and hacking  my
W2K registry got me back to where I could boot, but I quickly ended up with
a list of things that no longer worked.

Being a fairly organized person I didn't hesitate to partition my 
notebook's hard
drive and it was a breeze to install Windows 98 (for radio apps) on the 1st 
partition,
then install Windows 2000 for my other work needs on the 2nd partition. 
Everything
runs much faster than before on my W2k o/s and my two "old" logging programs
(TRLog and WriteLog) have a nice home, running on Windows 98.

Recommendation: If you have time on your hands, feel free to hack. On the other
if you are a member of the "I HATE COMPUTERS CLUB", it's a time saver to use
a DUAL BOOT system and avoid problems. I'd recommend sending email to the
creators of WriteLog asking them to bring their software up to date by 
porting it to
Windows 2000 and Windows XP. They ought to be able to recover any new
development costs in new subscriptions (opinion). Can it be done? I'd think so.
The reason I say that is because I am currently running DX4WIN logging program
on both Windows 2000 and XP and I have that application key my radio using the
LPT1 port and cable.

Have fun,
Ron - KG6CMS