There are many programs written to interface to BPQCODE in the days of DOS and Windows 3.1 that are still widely used. A number of users want to carry on running some of these programs, whilst at the same time wanting to use features and programs only available with BPQ32. So I've written some routines that allow many of these older programs to use BPQ32 rather than BPQCODE. So far most of these only work on NT/2K/XP systems. Some will work on Win98, and I am hoping to extend this. Those that work with XP will probably work with Server 2003, but I have not tried this.
The following classes of programs have been tried:
DOS Programs. (2K/XP only).
All that I have tried seem to work. These include PAC4, FASTCHAT, Dos DxNet, AK1A cluster, G8PZT's BBS, AA4RE bbs (a very old version!).
16 Bit Windows Programs that use the bpqdll.dll interface (Both 98 and 2K/XP).
The only example I have is PAC4W. Others may well work, but I don't know of many programs that use this interface.
16 Bit Windows Programs that use the bpqcode.vxd interface.
These don't work, and probably never will in XP/2K. I hope to find a way of using then with Win98.
16 Bit Windows Programs that use the bpqhtnc2 interface (2K/XP only).
The only one I've found (Winlink Classic) works fine.
Overview.
Please note that you need at least Version 409u of BPQ32. Download the latest version from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BPQ32/files/
For programs that use bpqdll.dll you simply replace the existing bpqdll.dll with the enclosed.
For DOS, the system consists of a TSR BPQ1632.exe, and a 32bit DLL BPQ1632.dll. Simply copy to where you have BPQCODE.exe, and put BPQ1632.dll in the same directory as bpq32.dll (probably WINDOWS/SYSTEM or SYSTEM32)
Run bpq1632 instead of bpqcode, then whatever application you use. If you needed bpqhtnc2, or dedhost, you still need them. New versions of these are included - they fix bugs in the originals, which have been highlighted by running in a protected environment.
If you want to run Windows programs that use the TNC2 interface, such as Winlink, you will need to modify the AUTOEXEC.NT file to include the lines:
cd \bpq409 Or whereever your 16bit BPQ programs ar bpq1632 Or loadhigh bpq1632 if you have an HMA bpqhtnc2 Include whatever parameters you used before
You will either have to reboot, or kill the ntvdm process that is running wowexec. I suggest, initially at least, you don't run Winlink from your windows startup folder. There can be timing problems if bpq32 is loaded very early in the boot sequence.
The drivers write debugging information to the Kernel debug log. You can use the Freeware program DebugVIew from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx to view the info.
This code is very new, but does seem pretty stable here. Please let me know how you get on.
John Wiseman, G8BPQ
Updated Novemer 2006