Installing PC Prevue
NOTE: This page is still a fairly heavy work in progress! Expect changes to occur to this over time.
If you're using a virtual machine..
First of all, start by setting up your virtual machine. You can either:
- Download a virtual machine image from the internet, you can find some for Win9x operating systems and Windows 2000 over at WinWorldPC. You can also look elsewhere for one.
- Create a virtual machine from scratch and install the operating system yourself. WinWorld also offers CD-ROM images for Win9x all the way to 2000, along with a few betas. If you're looking to emulate Windows XP or later, look elsewhere.
- If you're using VMware, install Guest Additions. This'll make it easier when you copy the installer over.
- If you want to use DOSBox, follow this guide.
Once you're done, power off the virtual machine (do not suspend!) and navigate to its folder. If you're using VMware, it should be in the C:\Users\%user%\Documents\Virtual Machines\ directory (unless you downloaded from WinWorld.) Then, open the .vmx file with your text editor of choice. Next, add the following lines to the file:
EDIT: Temporarily removing the code as it does not work on Windows hosts. Please use the DOSBox method in the meantime.
Now save the file and close the text editor. Now try powering on the VM again.
If you're using a physical computer..
Just insert one end of the null-modem cable into the target computer of choice and the other into your main computer. Use an adapter if neither or one of your computers (target or main) have RS232 ports.
Installing PC Prevue
Now that we've got the computer (or VM) set up, it's finally time to install the software.
By default, the archive AriX made from his floppy requires it to install from the A drive. Fortunately, considering the installer is just a batch file and the 16-bit EXE is just a ZIP archive, I extracted the EXE's contents to a folder and modified the batch file to copy files from said folder over to it (if you're using a WINNT host like 2000/XP). You can find the links to them here:
Now, onto installing it.
- If you're using a physical machine...
- ..and you have a USB port, extract the contents of the archive to a USB and insert it into your target computer.
- ..and you have an internet connection, download the files on the previous page onto your target machine. You might need a copy of 7-Zip if you're running Win9x.
- If you're using a virtual machine, you can either
- use a shared folder to transfer the contents to the VM
- drag-and-drop the extracted folder into the VM (only if Guest Additions supports your guest OS)
Now open the install.bat file. This will copy the necessary files to the hard drive.
NOTE: If you are running Windows Vista and higher, a few files will not be copied to the Windows directory because of permissions. To get around this, copy pcepg.ini, pcepgsys.ini, prevue.ini, pintfull.bmp into the Windows directory manually. You will also need to copy wingdng3.ttf into your Fonts folder, unless you already have Wingdings 3 installed.
Running PC Prevue
At this point, you should have PC Prevue on your hard drive. To launch it, navigate to C:\prevue and double-click on PREVUE.EXE.
NOTE: If you encounter an error about the baseband port cannot be opened, please try checking the port number in the PCEPGSYS.INI file located in the Windows directory and changing it to whatever your COM port is on your computer (you can find this in the Device Manager.)
NOTE #2: If the resolution looks too big, exit the program with ALT+F4 and change your screen resolution to 640x480.
There might not be a lot to do here, however there's more if you hit ESC.
I plan to write a tutorial guiding you through this section in the future, but for now, why not add in some listings?