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I have a device that needs to be plugged in to LPT1 to run a legacy software.

I am trying to find a workaround to get it running in a latptop (without parallel port, obviously). I have HL-340 USB-to-Serial cable plugged in and running, but Windows XP uses it as COM3.

Is there a way to use an arbitrary serial port as LPT1?

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I'm assuming you mean a copy-protection dongle. It's very unlikely that you'll be able to get that to work through a serial to parallel convert much less one of those plus a USB to serial converter. –  Dennis Williamson Mar 18 '11 at 14:46
It's very unlikely that anything using parallel port which is not a printer would work well on windows xp. As a last possible alternative, try getting a USB to parralel port cable. –  AndrejaKo Mar 18 '11 at 16:18
Check if there is a port replicator or dock for your laptop. Sometimes they have real serial and parallel ports. –  ultrasawblade Aug 28 '13 at 20:15
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up vote 2 down vote accepted

That'll be the MODE command (took me a while to recall that from my DOS days).


You can also use the MODE command to set up the baud rate of the serial connection:

C:\> MODE COM3:9600,N,8,1

This page has all the usages of the MODE command.

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Thanks,@MattJenkins, this would probably work for printers, but as @DennisWilliamson pointed out, my device can't work using this. –  edwinbs Mar 19 '11 at 0:58
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If your system has a PCMCIA or PC Card Express slot, they make parallel adapters for these slots.

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