I have just purchased Canon USB printer S200SP. it works fine in windows, however, when i'm trying to run DOS program and print from DOS - it shows error message, and doesn't print. any ideas about solving this problem will be most appreciated. Thanks.

DOS applications cannot print directly to a printer that is connected to your computer via a USB port. There are possible workarounds depending on the DOS software that you are running.

Even if you got your USB Printer recognized by DOS, there is another hurdle to overcome - the DOS printer driver. Back in the day, there was a DOS printer driver for EACH APPLICATION installed on a computer. For example, suppose you had an HP DeskJet 560C. You'd need the WordPerfect Driver for the HP DJ560C to print from WordPerfect, the Quattro Pro Driver for the HP DJ560 to print from Quattro, the AutoDesk Driver for HP Printers to plot from AutoCAD... THe list goes on. It is likely there is no DOS driver for your software which supports your printer. Even if you could get the OS (DOS) to talk to the printer, you'd be printing jibberish. -Doug

Doug, I agree with what you say about USB printers not working with DOS drivers but as I said in my earlier post there are workarounds that are possible. For example, a detailed description of a solution I use for printing from Wordperfect (DOS) to a USB printer can be found here: http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/winprint.html#usbprint