You know, back in time, when a computer had things like Parallel and Serial
ports, yes there was a workaround. I even managed to use it a couple of
times myself, hooking up my Braille printer to the hardware port, and making
frequent use of the PrintScreen key on the keyboard. Have even managed to do
some BIOS activity that way. But that was in the old days.
Not sure how much of it would work now aday, and definitely would be
doubtful when comes to laptops, as hardly any of them do have Serial and
Parallel ports any longer. And as for the USB, it is not activated until a
driver has been loaded, and to have a driver loaded, you will need at least
a certain amount of some Operative System. Not necessarily Windows,and not
even necessary to have all the OS loaded. There is, for instance, several
software on the market, that is known under the term of "rescue software".
These are - well let's call them - stand-alone software, that will hold the
minimum of an Operative System, just enough to let you have access to the
different pieces of hardware, that you can perform the needed maintainence,
to get your main system up running.
Unfortunately, I have never seen any of these rescue softtwares, with the
slightest kind of audible feedback. Agreed, it would have been a wonderful
thing, if - say - GW could have provided such a software, that would at
least give us some kind of speech. Like a CD, that you inserted, it loaded
the minimalistic operative system, along with some simple speech
synthesizer. All you would need, was some lightweight stuff, that would give
you the chance of operating the basics of your computer. It definitely
should be possible, but it would take a bit of technicals and skills, and
whether any of such is around in this community, I have no clue. But I
guess, if such a product came out, there would be a few of us, who would
agree to pay a sum. Still, this is off-topic when comes to an app, since
this would be a totally stand-alone software, that would not even really be
Windows related either. Smile.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Louis" <[email protected]>
To: "'David'" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 4:40 PM
Subject: RE: MY Dream App?
I fully realize all you have said, Dave, but what if you could monitor the
boot
process through a second computer monitoring the booting computer's port
of some
kind? Are any of the ports on a computer active at the very beginning of
the
boot process?
Louis Gosselin
-----Original Message-----
From: David [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 9:45 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: MY Dream App?
Well, the Booting idea, would be great but totally impossible. At least as
an
app. Simply due to the fact, that without the OS (Windows) loaded, how
would any
app run. You would need a quite more complicated piece of software, that
would
access both the graphics and the sound card of your computer. I wish such
a
software had been around, but it definitely falls outside the scope of an
app.
When comes to the BIOS thing, you might dream. Basically, this could have
been
performed. Problem is, that the coding languages used to write apps,
usually
would not be granted access to this vital part of your computer.
Windows itself - if you want - will not permit an app to get to the BIOS.
Well, that was the basics of it. But my HP computer, for one, comes with a
software that can be loaded, that will give you some access to the BIOS.
Problem is, that speech does not work in that software. Apping such
software to
work with speech, would have been great. And this, is why I said you could
be
dreaming. It might be possible, but would depend on someone building an
app for
each manufacturer's software. And, there would be many computers out
there, that
has no such software either. Not even sure, if the software grants you
full
access to the BIOS, or only a few features. In the old DOS days, I wrote a
small
program myself, that did access the more important parts of the BIOS, and
that
worked for a period. Then came Windows, and it tends to rule the computer
a bit
more due to its own mind.
:D
----- Original Message -----
From: "Louis" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 2:45 PM
Subject: MY Dream App?
Probably impossible, but How about an app that gives you speech access to
the
operating system while it boots?
Or
How about an app that lets you peek at, and edit the BIOS content?
See, impossible, huh?
Louis Gosselin
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