Printing in Windows10

Hello everyone,

I was hoping we could revive the discussion on known printing issues in recent version of Windows 10. Has anyone made any progress on isolating a particular windows update that is causing you problems or come up with any sort of fix or workaround?

I am running Paradox 9. I CAN print from Windows 10 machines that have been recently restored and are running Windows10 OS build 17134.168. I CANNOT print from build 17763.379. For now my workaround is to have two computers that I will maintain on build 17134.168 with no windows updates (not an easy thing to accomplish anymore). Users will have to physically relocate to those workstations to perform tasks that require printing. I may resurrect a Windows 7 machine for this role.

It's like the 90's all over agiain. Back when the whole office had to share that one autocad license or something. Except now we have lost Luke Perry. time to move on. 

Is anyone using Paradox 11, are you able to print using up-to-date windows 10? 

I own one copy of Paradox 11 but unfornutately my custom app will need some significant recompiling to run on x11. If x11 is stable with Windows 10 then that may be worth the effort. I would love to hear your experiences. 

-Steve

Sorry about the version naming confusion there at the end. I guess Paradox version 11 is part of Word Perfect Suite X9.

Either way Version 11.0.0.676 does seem to be printing in my limited testing. I will explore recompiling. 

Please weigh in with your experiences with Win10 possitive or negative.

I have dozens of users on Pdox 11 and Windows 10. The only issues I have found are:

1.Some users have issues changing printers (system locks up), These seem to be people with low end devices plugged into a USB port (not saying that is the cause). The problem is intermittent.

2. report paper sizes and orientations for reports that were converted from PDOX8 are fouled up. Once each report was touched and the settings re-selected. That problem went away.

3. The right margin on reports is a little funky, I had to move everything an extra 1/8 off the edge of the defined page to keep extra pages from printing. What I mean is, If I set the page width to 8 x 11, leaving .25 for the left and right margins. I also had to move all of the controls off of the last 1/8 of an inch of the defined page. Meaning I could only use 7 7/8 inches on the paper. One would think this is a printer issue, but since I have 250 distinct customers using the app and it was a problem for everyone, I would say it is a bug.

For me, Paradox 9 crashes instantly as soon as a user tries to print. The faulting windows module is MSVCRT.dll, FWIW. It does not appear to be related to any actual printers. For example, remove all physical printers, still creashes. Set acrobat as default, let windows manage default, don't let windows manage default...all still crash Paradox9. 

Thanks for the encouraging experience of Paradox11. It sounds like a possible solution. 

getting in a little bit late, sorry

first off, why would your app need a rewrite to go from 9 to 11? 9, 10, and 11 are essentially the same thing.. 10 is 9 with a few more OPAL functions.. 11 is 10 with the sp's.. 11 has been the same 11 for 15 years, and will always be the same 11.. windows, of course, could throw us a curve ball and end the game, at any time, like they did for p7 and p8 (sigh)

the only thing I can add to Jeff's list is non-existent printers, and that problem was around long before win10

my only questions.. same problem with local printer vs network printer? same problem with "virgin" install? do you have p9 sp3 (9.0.738)?

Steven Green
Senior Software Engineer
Paradox Support Specialist DOS/WIN

Thanks for the response Steven,

I saw your post on ProcessExplorer and the bad dell printer. That's what got me thinking about looking for a bad printer. But no such luck. My pdx crashes occur even if I only have the virtual printers such as XPS writer and PDF printers. 

I am running pdox 9.00.883. I have a call into corel support, I will inquire whether they can still issue me a service pack installer for version 9. 

When I installed 11 all but 2 of my database objects opened fine but two crucial forms had OPAL syntax errors. When I say recompile I just mean that is what I have been using to try and hunt down this syntax error. I open events and use check syntax or compile and next error. Not being a developer it has gotten me nowhere so far but the original project developer is going to take a look at it. 

In PDOX8, I had a similar issue, some reports would crash paradox when sent to the printer.

I used a service pack to fix that,  Not much help I know....But I recall in some instances I was able to display reports on the screen (as opposed to running/printing directly to the default printer) then use the built in print functionaly,, just a thought.

one more(thought). Is the version number of the MSVCRT.dll  the same?   This was one of the DLLs that caused the DLL Hell problems in old windows systems.   If you search the machines,  you are likely to find   
msvcrt, msvcrt20, msvcrt40, .... these are all versions of the same dll.   Maybe there is one missing?

And yet another thought,   Does a C++ library need to be registered?  (I cant remember)

Jeff

the community settled on sp3 many years ago.. sp4 was discontinued, so yeah, that's definitely a possibility.. again, I suggest a "virgin install" and step thru sp1,2,3 to eliminate that.. here are the ftp links, in theory, and I'm sure I have a copy here, if necessary

http://www.oasistradingpost.com/cartpages/morelinks.htm

and yeah, what Jeff said :-)

Steven Green
Senior Software Engineer
Paradox Support Specialist DOS/WIN

Thanks so much guys, the software download repository is a great asset. I have started going around and building a more robust catalog of windows build versions and MSVCRT.dll versions.

I do have one question on updating to later versions of Paradox. It looks like my problem going from 9 straight to 11 lies in the paradox library that is referenced in the csutom OPAL code. I am unfamiliar with Paradox libraries as db objects, sorry to ask for so much hand holding but is there a proceedure for updating code libraries when you move to a new paradox version? 

I can see we have old libraries for paradox 8 as well as 16 and 95 ( which I take to be 16 bit and Win95 Libraries). 

I do have one question on updating to later versions of Paradox. It looks like my problem going from 9 straight to 11 lies in the paradox library that is referenced in the csutom OPAL code. I am unfamiliar with Paradox libraries as db objects, sorry to ask for so much hand holding but is there a proceedure for updating code libraries when you move to a new paradox version? 

I can see we have old libraries for paradox 8 as well as 16 and 95 ( which I take to be 16 bit and Win95 Libraries). 

file/open the library

program/compile

file/save

simple, and nothing will change.. but.. if the forms scripts and reports are all delivered (fdl not fsl, rdl not rsl, etc), you have to recompile EVERYTHING

Steven Green
Senior Software Engineer
Paradox Support Specialist DOS/WIN