need shareware or freeware mailing program

For Avery brand lables I use Microsoft Word. Does Word list you lable brand type?

 

What is operating system (dos, win3.1, win95) of your old computer that your printer and software worked under? What is make and model of printer? What is name of software you successfully used on old computer? Are you having problems getting this printer to work at all under win98 or are you just looking for label printing software that works under win98?

 

Ok, you do realize that win98 is just a sophisticated graphic window manager on top of good ole DOS. DOS can be accessed two ways. First by whats called a dos-box. Get to it by clicking start button, then programs, then click dos prompt. Your program could be installed this way, not sure about its rights of access to printer port when done this way. Some dos programs work fine this way, some dont.

Second, when booting your computer, you press F8 . This will get you to a dos command prompt where you can install and run your dos program, just like on your old computer. You should be able to be able to run any dos program in this manner with full access to any port on computer that dos supports. Also in general any newer version of DOS should support any DOS software written for an older version. Since win98 contains last version of MS DOS, it should run any dos program. I say this and then something nagging at me that some very early dos software may not run properly.

Try this first. In meantime I will give a look for free program that will handle labels directly under win98. Shouldnt be a problem since win98 has a driver for your printer. I was worried perhaps your printer wouldnt work under win98. Long time ago I bought an old okidata dot matrix printer at thrift store that I never could get to work properly under win98. No driver specifically for it and I tried lots of other drivers looking for one that worked.

By way do you know company that put out PC Mail. A google search for pc mail brings up loads of non relavent information.

 

Goto http://freeware.intrastar.net/printing.htm and look for Senware labeling program. Looks like a good one. I tried downloading and it started downloading. One caveat, you might want to download here, as the Senware site I went to read about it says its no longer freeware, but now for sale. The download at freeware site probably is still the old freeware version.

Here is another free one. Goto http://www.atomkey.com/freeware/freeware_list.asp?catid=34 and look at top of page for program called "address labels". Have to say finding freeware is hassle anymore. The people pushing their shareware, title their site 'freeware and shareware', with most being shareware of course. Google then picks up on the freeware and whatever subject you are looking for thus there may not in actuallity be a freeware program for that subject. Sneaky. Also some links to freeware are dead and authors webpages gone. I hate seeing truly good freeware disappear even if its a bit old for modern computers.

Here is on with free 15 day trial. http://drn.digitalriver.com/product.php?id=57200&cid=97&SiteID=driverguide

Here is another freeone. The sight is partially in english and partially something else. Says its freeware labeling program. Just have to download to see if program is in English. http://www.centromedia.com/it/products/addressoffice/

 

www.driverguide.com

whenever you are in need of an older driver for some outdated piece of hardware, then you might look there.

www.tucows.com is my favorite download site for freeware and shareware, however i also use www.majorgeeks.com , and www.download.com , and a couple others but most of the proggys i get are from tucows, unless it be from a "pirette" which has not taken place in awhile.

aprogram that you might wanna check into is Corel Wordperfect, ver 11 can be had on the net [CD included] for $14.00 and the whole suite can be had for a whopping $25.00

If all else fails you, then i suggest installing Linux 9.x and using the window lookingside of it, it will install on any compute that is a 486 or newer and work wonderfully..... and it is a free download, CD's cost a little. andit installs in a short time, not the 2 hours that good ole windows does, and its security is so much greater as not many virii are directed towards it.

Just a thought or three.

William

 

The word processor is good idea and Corel is good one although as you mention not free. He posted down on computer forum also and its headed in word processor direction down there. If computer has enough memory, say around 256k then Open Office is free and good choice. On older computers I gave him a link to several free small word processing programs for windows. He'll just have to sort out which if any meet his needs.

As to linux, he is looking for a quick solution and linux is more of a long term thing with a learning curve involved.

By "Linux 9.x" I assume you mean Mandrake although I think 10.x is out now isnt it?. (I actually liked the 8.x series the best) It will include linux version of Open Office and Kword. The thing about Mandrake is it is large and you really want at least a 2gb hardrive or hardrive partition to install it and at least 64mb ram and 300mhz processor to run it. He may or may not have those sort of minimums. There are tricks around that by using less resource hungry desktops, etc but then that is more to get used to. Also its faily straight forward to use but there is a learning curve with any linux, if you are used to windows only. And you have to usually have a hardware modem although some software modem drivers are available for linux. Most computers that came with win95 and newer came with software modems (winmodems). Hardware modems can be had pretty cheap on ebay though.

Anybody wanting to try linux first time, I always suggest Knoppix which can run from cdrom and ram memory without installing anything. Remove cd and shut down computer and not a trace of it left. Knoppix is just simply a beautiful creation that shows linux in best light as a desktop system. There are minimum requirements there, especially if you want to use larger programs like Open Office. However playing with it, I got it to run on minimum of a 75mhz pentium with like 40mb ram. Had to use cheat code for alternate desktop, and could only get it to surf with Konqueror browser. It was slow, but then again never intended to run on such an old system. There is always DamnSmallLinux which also can run off cd. It takes bit more linux knowledge, but in contrast to Knoppix, it runs very well on older computers. I'd suggest at least an early pentium, but guess some have it running on minimal 486's. Nice thing is its pretty modern and graphical interface. Go to www.damnsmalllinux.org Look around the website and the forums. Only like a 50mb download which is still doable on a slow dialup connectionl.


Linux is more secure than windows and firewalls are available, but big reason it has less problems is that all spyware and virii out there are mainly written to affect windows. They are in other words windows programs although of a dark nature. They just cant run on non windows operating systems and non windows file systems. I for example purposely like to surf using BeOS just because first its small, simple, boots very fast, good graphical interface, and it has its own file system, making it immune to windows adware/virii, and also should any be written, Linux virii too. Neither windows nor linux can see Beos file system, although Beos can see fat32 and native linux systems. Since Beos is used by so few people, if somebody actually wrote a harmful program to affect it, very unlikely it would spread effectively.l

 

Put your 5" drive in your new computer. It should work. Might take a little but should work.

mikell

 

No guarentee that your floppies are still useable even if you had an old style floppy drive. Couple years ago, I went to trouble to temporarily install a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive, then found couple of disks for program I was installing were no good. I only use floppies for short term storage anymore. I burn anything important to cdr including my old copies of dos6.22, win3.1, win3.11, and win95original that were on floppy. I can then copy files back to floppies if I ever need them.

If you ever want to try using your disks, you can install an old style floppy drive in newer computer that provides for floppy drives. Installs just like 3 1/2 inch floppy drive. You can even have both. Motherboards allow a floppy drive A and a floppy drive B. You will need a cable with two connectors. Also a tip. Before trying to install the program, try copying the individual disks so you have a backup. Sometimes they only have one more read in them. And to make it even worse, some floppy drives are more sensitive than others. I've had the small floppies that wouldnt read in one floppy drive but would in another. Usually a sign that particular floppy is on its last legs.

 

found a mailing program in one of the freeware sites you guys told me abut that works perfectly. It even has a template page for the brand of labels I have. Thanks guys