This page contains answers to common questions handled by our support staff, along with some tips and tricks that we have found useful and presented here as questions.

Note: In these answers we will follow a few shorthand conventions for describing user-interface procedures. Key combinations will be presented like this: Ctrl+Alt+Delete, which means that you should press and hold down the Control key, the Alt key, and the Delete key at the same time. Menu selections will be presented like this: File->Open, which means that you should open the File menu, and then make the Open selection.

Install and uninstall questions

	I installed Direct I/O and can't find any part of it.
	Go to Start->Settings->Control Panel. There you will find a new icon named Direct I/O. Double-click it and you're done.
	At the very first invocation of the Direct I/O Control Panel I received a message: "Cannot find active resource set. Creating new set named 'Resource'".
	This behavior is by design. A new resource set has to be created at the very first startup of the control panel.
	The uninstaller hangs while trying to stop the Direct I/O driver.
	This can happen if there are processes which still access the driver. Often this is NTVDM.EXE. Please go to the task manager and end these processes.

Licensing questions

	After I have entered the license key I still get the the shareware reminder dialog.
	Check for the correct user name and company name. These two entries together with the license key are used to check the license. You must enter the values exactly as shown in your license e-mail. More info can be found at Q200003.
	But I want to change my user name or company name (I have mis-spelled it, my company has been renamed, ...).
	No way! For each name there is a unique license key. We would have to issue another key for your new name but we are not able to check the legality of this action.
	I want to sell Direct I/O with my software.
	Please read our Knowledge Base article Q200005.

16 bit related questions

	How do I have to change my old 16 bit software to use it with Direct I/O?.
	You do not have to change anything. Just setup your resources and you're done.

32 bit related questions

	I tried to access Direct I/O from my own 32bit application but the CreateFile() call fails.
	Check the Security tab of Direct I/O control panel for your application in the list of allowed programs. The error message usually results from this entry missing. See the online help or Q400001 for further information.

Operating system questions

	Will Direct I/O work on Windows 7 or Windows 8?
	No, Direct I/O won't install or run under any operating system newer than Windows Server 2003. This limitation is due to the many changes Microsoft made to the internals of the operating systems. These changes also affect the ability to run some legacy applications. But there is a workaround for this limitation: Run your application and Direct I/O within a virtual machine. There are lots of (even free) virtualization products which could be used for this purpose, like: - VMware Player - Microsoft Virtual PC (aka Windows7 XP mode) - etc. (for experts: All type-2 hypervisor products can be used) Depending on the product used you might even run your legacy application as a normal window on your desktop. Furthermore this will allow you to utilize virtualized devices like USB2Serial adapters or Ethernet attached serial adapters. These adapters must have been installed on the host system and provide "standard" ports like COM or LPT. The virtualization product allows you to add a virtual COM or LPT port and attach this virtual port to the real host port.
	Can Direct I/O be used with my 64bit operating system?
	No, Direct I/O is only usable with 32bit operating systems. Most of the legacy applications (16bit or 32bit) either won't run well under 64bit operating systems. For a solution see the paragraph above.

Miscellaneous questions

	I tried to hook an IRQ but my software still doesn't work. It seems that I'm losing interrupts.
	Yes, maybe your specific configuration is too time-critical. As stated in the help file the IRQ simulation is slow. We have noticed that the performance drawback can be as large as 95% depending to the application.
	I have a question not answered above.
	You're welcome to contact us.