Details
Last Updated: Tuesday, 18 August 2020 03:40
Win 10

Windows 10

Running KeyPay on..

KeyPay will function on Windows 10, however, new and somewhat experimental features have been added to the Windows 10 console that KeyPay does not support. In particular, the console window is now resizeable, has line wrapping, and the number of rows and columns change when resized rather than scaling the font size as previously. This causes some strange effects in KeyPay which expects a fixed 80 columns and 25 rows. (KeyPay Ver 6 uses the windows GUI.)

Recent updates to Windows 10 added options that can prevent KeyPay from even starting, (it appears and then closes again) unless the correct console window sizing is applied first. Also, from Windows build 14295.1, the unicode 8 standard for raster fonts is not applied correctly and it defaults to the USA characters and changes the line drawing characters to diamonds. The solution is to select a true-type font and window size in the window's system menu properties.

The following instructions describe the steps required to fix these issues and we recommend that you print a copy using the icon button near the top of this article and read them through first.

These instructions will likely vary a little depending on what version of Windows 10 is currently installed on your PC. An upgrade from Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 will be different from a new PC or after a fresh install. Also the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows differ significantly, with only 32 bit supporting legacy 16 bit applications such as those built for DOS and Windows 3.1. The 64 bit versions only support device drivers digitally signed by Microsoft. Microsoft also updates Windows 10 with new features about every six months and there have been considerable changes at these times, but it should be easy to get KeyPay working again.

(To create a new short-cut, if you don't now have one, find the KeyPay program name of epcsl5.exe in Windows file explorer inside the C:\KeyPay folder and right-click, then choose Send to->Desktop - create shortcut. Then edit the properties of the shortcut as described below.)

On a new Windows 10 installation it can sometimes be difficult to get KeyPay running at all as it closes shortly after starting. If creating a shortcut as above doesn't configure the defaults correctly, open a standard command prompt window and change its system menu Defaults as described below.

To create a command window, right click the Windows start button and choose Command Prompt from the menu or type and run CMD.EXE. Next left click the icon in the top left corner of the command window, choose Defaults and change the options.
Note: changes to the defaults are not applied until the window is closed and re-opened. Property editing changes tend to be applied immediately.

On the shortcut properties select the Options tab. At the left under Edit Options there are check-boxes that change old and new features.
Untick:- Quick Edit, Filter clipboard, Enable line wrapping and Extended text. This should leave just Insert mode and Ctrl key ticked. Next select the Layout tab and set the Window size to 80 wide and 25 high and also set the buffer size to match if allowed. Untick Wrap text here also if available. Finally, click OK and then start KeyPay with the shortcut. On re-starting, KeyPay should again work as normal.

Once KeyPay is working, its own system menu defaults, properties, or the startup short-cut can be refined to suit your personal preferences. Changing the font and point size can make the window larger and more readable with different aspect ratios and is worth experimenting with. The old raster fonts may no longer be available with Consolas now the default instead, but do try other fonts for readability to suit yourself as the differences can be quite significant.

If you find these settings to still be a problem, or have other related and unexpected issues, all these new behaviours can be reversed by changing Windows 10 console back to legacy mode. To switch back, left-click a command prompt window icon as above, and choose defaults. The legacy option is located at the bottom of the options tab as a checkbox named Use legacy console which can be re-enabled and windows restarted.

N.B. It has always been possible in previous versions of Windows to resize the KeyPay window and alter it's aspect ratio by using the window's system menu to change the font and size. Raster fonts are traditional and stored as tiny pictures each with a fixed size and aspect. True-Type fonts describe how to draw themselves in any point size. Scaling the window to suit the font size can make KeyPay's text much larger along with different aspect ratios. The Font tab of the short-cut properties also allows the same changes.

Finally, if on a new PC its likely that some folders previously used to save various files no longer exist or perhaps didn't get copied across from your previous PC. You can check and alter these if necessary using KeyPay's menu options: 0-Configuration settings,  Installation and then #4 Export / Backup paths.  Generally these must be created manually in Windows although KeyPay will create some itself where the date is involved. Also, Windows dialog boxes try to use these as initial locations when saving or loading, and if incorrect or missing will likely just default to the My Documents folder, which is a pain if you have to then navigate back to where you expect or want them.