I am writing some programs in basic and need to send the escape code to the
printer to have it switch from portrait to landscape and then back again
from within the program. I have several Epson and Panasonic printers but non
of the documentation shows the escape control codes for landscape and
portrait. One Epson is C40UX and a panasonic is KX-P2123.

The printers will print landscape if it is selected from print setup within
a Windows program, by checking the appropriate box, but I need to do it from
within a dos basic program using control codes.

If there are no codes, is there perhaps a utility that can be called from
within the basic program. I suspect this problem also occurs when writing
from visual basic which I am just starting to learn.

Thanks in advance

Tom Glab











At 08:25 AM 7/15/03 -0500, you wrote:
>You have a pretty good understanding of Windows Product Activation.
>The MS article gives instruction on how to change the product KEY in
>a Windows XP release.  MS came out with this to help those customers
>who have Volume Licensing Agreements (i.e. business, govts depts,
>etc who purchase large numbers of licenses at a discount).  In  this
>case the company has one product activation key to use on all their
>computers and once installed the do not need to be "Activated."  Can
>you imagine some agency or company that wants to upgrade 500
>computers to XP and would need 500 different product keys and the
>nightmare of trying to keep track of that?
>
>A number of these keys were "leaked" out so Microsoft built into
>SP1 a routine to check the product key and if it is a leaked key it
>will not update that system.  As for the difference between the
>product key and product ID - I'll leave that for another
>discussion.
>
>- Wayne Copeland
>
>>>> [log in to unmask] 7/14/03 7:10:07 PM >>>
>A customer asked me to explain the XP 'Product Key' as opposed to
>the 'Product ID' and how the XP activation process actually works
>and this aroused my curiousity.
>
>When I started to look into it, I found a tremendous amount of
>gobbledygook on the subject, but nothing I could get my head around.
> Could somebody please check out the following and comment in clear
>terms that even a simple person like me can understand?
>
>Here's what I know so far:
>
>1. You install your copy of XP using the 25 (5 x 5) digit string of
>characters that comes with the CD.  I assume this
>string is the 'Product Key'?
>
>2. After the installation is complete, you have 30 days to
>'activate' your install of XP, otherwise your system may become
>unusable.
>
> 3. Once you decide to 'activate', you have 2 choices.
>(a) Activate by phone (in which case I understand you get to talk
>to a live operator) or....
>(b) Activate over the net, as I did, so I'll only refer to that
>mode from here on.
>
>4. In either case, once your system realises what you intend to do,
>it examines your hardware, and your 'Product Key', and it creates a
>unique 8-byte number, called a 'hardware hash', which it supplies to
>Microsoft.
>
>5. I understand that, all going well, the Microsoft server pats
>your computer on the head and blesses it.
>
>6. I also understand that this process is anonymous, and that once
>the blessing has taken place, the Microsoft robot discards the
>information (well, Microsoft would like us to think so, anyway)
>
>So far, so good.  But here's where I start to lose the plot.  If
>the 25 digit string is the 'Product Key', what is the 'Product ID'?
>
>
>And why would Microsoft provide the means to change the Product ID?
> See here:
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q328874#2
>
>Another profound mystery is this: I can see how the 25 digit string
>of characters supplied ON THE LABEL with your CD can be unique, but
>I can't see how the CD itself is unique, or contains a unique
>number.  Surely these CD's are stamped in large numbers from glass
>masters?
>
>Succinct comments would be much appreciated rather than links to
>more gobbledygook.
>
>Ian Porter
>Computer Guys Inc.
>Arrowtown
>New Zealand
>[log in to unmask]
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