2 Problems with W7 Virtual PC

[Art Todesco]

I've been using the Virtual PC for an older program that I use to draw
diagrams, etc. It's Micrografx Designer 7. I've tried the newer
version and all I can say is "Bloat-ware!" Anyway, I have 2 problems.

1. When running this program in the "Windows Virtual XP" mode, I get,
on the W7 task bar, printer jobs, when I haven't really done any print
commands. I can go to the W7 desktop and delete them, no problem, but
the longer I am in the program, it seems, the more phantom print jobs
appear. In this case, I open the Windows Virtual XP mode, which give an
XP desktop and then I launch Designer 7. BTW, if I want, I can print a
picture from Designer 7 with no problem.

2. If I launch Designer 7 from "Windows XP Mode Applications" it opens
Designer 7 in its own W7 window .... no XP desktop is visible. This
too, leaves phantom print jobs in W7. The program again works well
here, however, if I try to print a picture, it just never prints. I get
a message that the printer is not available.

Any ideas??

Thanks.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I've been using the Virtual PC for an older program that I use to draw
diagrams, etc. It's Micrografx Designer 7. I've tried the newer version
and all I can say is "Bloat-ware!" Anyway, I have 2 problems.

1. When running this program in the "Windows Virtual XP" mode, I get, on
the W7 task bar, printer jobs, when I haven't really done any print
commands. I can go to the W7 desktop and delete them, no problem, but
the longer I am in the program, it seems, the more phantom print jobs
appear. In this case, I open the Windows Virtual XP mode, which give an
XP desktop and then I launch Designer 7. BTW, if I want, I can print a
picture from Designer 7 with no problem.

2. If I launch Designer 7 from "Windows XP Mode Applications" it opens
Designer 7 in its own W7 window .... no XP desktop is visible. This too,
leaves phantom print jobs in W7. The program again works well here,
however, if I try to print a picture, it just never prints. I get a
message that the printer is not available.

Any ideas??

Thanks.

Have you tried printing from another program in XP Mode (such as
Notepad) and see if that works? If so, then it might be your printer
settings causing the problem.

The XP Mode operates through your Windows 7 host by emulating a Remote
Desktop Protocol (RDP) session. Yes, even though the virtual XP is
sitting right there inside the same computer as your Windows 7, it is
treated like a remote session. That means that all of the features and
limitations of RDP apply to your XP mode that would on a true remote
desktop.

One of the features of RDP is the ability to use the host's printers
through the remote desktop's interface. You'll have to make sure that
the host and the remote desktops agree on the default printers.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Art Todesco]

Have you tried printing from another program in XP Mode (such as
Notepad) and see if that works? If so, then it might be your printer
settings causing the problem.

The XP Mode operates through your Windows 7 host by emulating a Remote
Desktop Protocol (RDP) session. Yes, even though the virtual XP is
sitting right there inside the same computer as your Windows 7, it is
treated like a remote session. That means that all of the features and
limitations of RDP apply to your XP mode that would on a true remote
desktop.

One of the features of RDP is the ability to use the host's printers
through the remote desktop's interface. You'll have to make sure that
the host and the remote desktops agree on the default printers.

Yousuf Khan

Thanks, you pointed me to the place to fix one of the problems. It
turned out that if you launched the Virtual XP from an application, i.e.
click on a Micrografx file, xxx.dsf in W7, it open a window in W7 of
only that application ... of course using the virtual XP. Its printer
settings are different than if you 1st open a virtual XP desktop and
then launch the Micrografx application. Once I changed to printer
setting in the former, printing works correctly. BTW, there were
several printer settings listed for the same printer and apparently some
don't work. On says 'printer name' on W7 name. One just says 'printer
name' ... that one doesn't work and can't seem to be deleted from the
virtual XP desktop. Not a real problem .... just have to always select
the right printer. Sometimes it reverts back to the non working printer
setting, sometimes not ... haven't figured out when and why.

The 2nd problem still exists. Well, not really a problem, but another
irritation. Whenever I open any virtual XP, it leaved a "print job" on
the W7 desktop tool bar on the right hand side. Right now, after doing
some of the playing around as described above, there are 11 such "jobs"
and I deleted 2 of them earlier. If you right click on any of them, and
select Properties, you get a window titled "Remote Desktop Redirected
Printer Doc Document Properties" from 2nd printer, an HP deskjet (for
color), which is also connected to the W7 machine. The 1st printer is a
Samsung Laser. I don't know why these are collecting, however, they are
easily deleted.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Thanks, you pointed me to the place to fix one of the problems. It
turned out that if you launched the Virtual XP from an application, i.e.
click on a Micrografx file, xxx.dsf in W7, it open a window in W7 of
only that application ... of course using the virtual XP. Its printer
settings are different than if you 1st open a virtual XP desktop and
then launch the Micrografx application. Once I changed to printer
setting in the former, printing works correctly. BTW, there were several
printer settings listed for the same printer and apparently some don't
work. On says 'printer name' on W7 name. One just says 'printer name'
... that one doesn't work and can't seem to be deleted from the virtual
XP desktop. Not a real problem .... just have to always select the right
printer. Sometimes it reverts back to the non working printer setting,
sometimes not ... haven't figured out when and why.

Yeah, these are problems associated with the RDP session features, not
really the virtual machine. RDP offers up the same printers that may
already be offered up through regular Windows network sharing, so you
get these duplications sometimes.

The 2nd problem still exists. Well, not really a problem, but another
irritation. Whenever I open any virtual XP, it leaved a "print job" on
the W7 desktop tool bar on the right hand side. Right now, after doing
some of the playing around as described above, there are 11 such "jobs"
and I deleted 2 of them earlier. If you right click on any of them, and
select Properties, you get a window titled "Remote Desktop Redirected
Printer Doc Document Properties" from 2nd printer, an HP deskjet (for
color), which is also connected to the W7 machine. The 1st printer is a
Samsung Laser. I don't know why these are collecting, however, they are
easily deleted.

You might want to see if the printer being presented is through RDP, or
through Print & File Sharing, and see which ones are more reliable.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Art Todesco]

Yeah, these are problems associated with the RDP session features, not
really the virtual machine. RDP offers up the same printers that may
already be offered up through regular Windows network sharing, so you
get these duplications sometimes.


You might want to see if the printer being presented is through RDP, or
through Print & File Sharing, and see which ones are more reliable.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf,
Thanks again for the info. I don't know how to tell if the printer is
through RDP or Print & File Sharing, however, I deleted some of the
"unused" or un-neaded printers in Control Panel, Printer thing on the
virtual XP. The still say "deleting" and I don't know if that will ever
change ... you know how XP is for deleting print jobs, etc. But I guess
XP thinks their gone. Now, when I open up either the XP desktop, or
just open the application in it's own W7 window (of course under VXP),
it still opens a printer job icon in the W7 task bar, however, it now
says "0 Documents to print". Before it said anything but 0 and the
longer it was open, the more jobs it stacked up. The good part is that
now when you exit the VXP desktop or the application, it still says 0
and in a few minutes, the icon goes away by itself. I assume the icon
appears as an indication that the pipeline is ready if you decide to
print.
Art