I have an old DOS Financial program to track clients investment accounts based on DBase. It was originally set up for 3 different dot matrix printers. When I bought a HP LaserJet printer the programmer sent me a disk to add this printer. It is in a file called HP>PRT and we can't open it. It has a .bat file for each printer and is set up now to use the HP printer. I just replaced the HP printer because of mechanical problems with a Brother LaserJet HL-5200DN. It will printer the reports but can't send a form feed to print the report as individual pages. It prints the report as one continuous document and the sections of the report are shown in parts on different pages. You don't select a printer when you want to print something; you just need to have the appropriate bat file loaded. The file for the HP printer is named HP2.PRT. I can't open this file to replicate for the Brother printer. Edwin Srebnik

XP has no MS-DOS sub-system and does not allow direct port access, you need a specifically written driver for each ptinter, therefore you need to go back to the original programmer to obtain.

"The file for the HP printer is named HP2.PRT.I can't open this file to replicate for the Brother printer." If you no longer have the HP printer you don't need it. I found no HL-5200DN - the closest I found was HL-5250DN See this, a Brother FAQ: Can I print from DOS applications? http://welcome.solutions.brother.co...

Yes T&W, but he is printing from XP not Pure DOS, therefore he needs a driver, maybe something like DOSPRN ?

Remember in DOS all the print formatting was done by the application. What was given to you was either a file that contained printer commands for the application or a command file to be sent to the printer to set attributes like lines per page, characters per inch, fonts, and orientation (applicable to laser printers using HP PCL). The files you can't read are probably printer command strings in plain readable ascii (PCL for the HP Laserjet and ESC/P if you had an Epson matrix printer). I created a few command files to use a HP Laser with DOS accounting software.

Ed didn't specifically say he was trying to print from XP - he merely lists XP as the operating system of whatever computer in the first post - that may not be the computer and operating system he has the Dos program on. Despite XP having no MS-Dos subsystem, if he is trying to do this in XP, you can get most Dos programs to work and to print in XP one way or another. All he may need to do is to set his printer in the Dos program itself to one of the printer emulations suggested at the Brother FAQ link.