Delaying WinWedge Startup when using with TCP-Com

Occasionally someone may need to use WinWedge with TCP-Com where TCP-Com is creating a Virtual COM port that is opened by WinWedge. In this situation, TCP-Com must be launched and activated first before WinWedge is run and activated. In most cases, it takes a second or so before TCP-Com can create the virtual COM ports that WinWedge will be opening therefore if you just launch both programs one after the other, the virtual COM ports will not be created when WinWedge tries to activate itself. The solution is to put a small time delay between the launching of TCP-Com and WinWedge.

This can be accomplished using a small batch file with a special delay function in it. The batch command that is easiest to use for introducing delays is the “Chioce” statement. The Choice command is normally used to pause a batch file to allow the user to select from one of two options by pressing a key on the keyboard. It also has a “timeout” feature that causes one of the two choices to be automatically selected if no key is pressed within a specified time. It is this feature that allows you to use the Choice command to pause a batch file. For details on the Choice command or any other batch file command, open a command prompt window and type the name of the command followed by a space and a forward slash and question mark – i.e.: Choice /?

The following batch file example demonstrates how to launch TCP-Com, wait 10 seconds and then launch WinWedge.

 cd C:Program FilesTCP-Com
START TCP-Com.exe
REM | CHOICE /C:AB /T:A,10 > NUL
cd C:Program FilesWinWedge
START YourWinWedgeConfigFile.SW3

The Start command is used to both launch TCP-Com.exe and also launch a WinWedge configuration file.

When you launch a WinWedge configuration file, WinWedge automatically launches and loads the configuration file and also activates itself with the specified configuration file all in one step.

Another way that you might do things would be to configure TCP-Com to run as a Service so that it starts up before any user logs on.

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