>> We have some equipment in our lab. It needs a computer to control it. 
>> Unfortunately, the control software requires somebody to be logged in. 
>> As soon as you log out, it quits the control program, halting the 
>> machine.
> 
> Can't you just lock the machine instead of logging off?

The issue being that it is then impossible for anyone except the person 
logged on to discover if the machine is still running OK, how far it's 
got, etc.

If we used the other software, this problem would be 100% solved. The 
other software runs as a service, multiple people can access it, you can 
set up access controls and auditing... the whole nine yards. But the 
people at the top can't be bothered to put in the effort to test it, so 
we can't use it.

>> Except that the control software stubbornly, repeatedly *refuses* to 
>> believe me that the USB serial port actually exists. Every other piece 
>> of software I've tried can access it without issue. But not the one 
>> piece of software that we *need* to access it. No sir. Not interested. 
>> It can "see" the port, but it refuses to *select* that port. And 
>> nothing I've done so far seems to convince it to work.
> 
> OOC what COM port number is assigned to the USB COM port?  If it's 
> higher than 4 then you might try changing it to 4 or below (you can 
> usually do it from device manager under the properties of the USB-COM 
> adapter).  Some older programs don't like working with things like COM7 
> which those USB converters typically come up as.

Defaults to COM3. I've tried changing it to COM2 also. (COM1 is the 
built-in modem.)

However, today I obtained the latest version of the control software, 
and it now works perfectly with the USB adaptor. Go figure...

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