Virtual Serial Port Tools Version History

New virtual serial port type: Script Port

This release adds a new virtual serial port type: Virtual Script Port. This unique device type is driven by custom scripts written in TypeScript or JavaScript.

Powerful yet straightforward Device Script API offers serial port emulation, file system access, network connectivity, and the ability to make HTTP requests. This makes the Virtual Script Port an invaluable tool for developers in their daily work.

Pending read not getting completed

With certain serial port timeout settings, a pending read request could hang until new data arrives to the port, even if there is already data in the input buffer.

Remote port may hang on close

A race that could lead to remote port hang (and driver restart) on port close has been fixed.

Remote Serial Ports Server crash

Remote Serial Ports server could crash on connection close.

Remote bridges are absent in UI configuration utility

Fixed a bug that prevented UI Configuration Utility from showing created remote bridges.

Error connecting to remote ports

This release fixes a possible connection error for remote virtual serial ports. They may fail authentication on a remote server.

Device name override

It is now possible to override the default device name for created virtual serial devices (device name is displayed, for example, in Windows Device Manager).

Localization support

Virtual Serial Port Tools is now available in several languages, including English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

TCP buffer size configuration

Internal data buffer size for both TCP virtual serial ports and TCP Server may now be configured. The default buffer size has also been increased, allowing for much higher transfer rates.

API to get port opening information

It is now possible to retrieve serial port parameters from a virtual serial device, including port speed, configuration and openening process name and ID.

Override of default COM parameters in TCP server

It is now possible to set default COM port parameters for ports shared by TCP server. They will be applied if the opening application does not configure serial ports (for example, when it connects in raw mode).

Added an option to disable check for updates

The user may now choose not to check for new product versions.

Unable to install on Windows Server 2016 and old Windows 10 versions

The product could not be installed on Windows Server 2016 as well as on unsupported versions of Windows 10.

Locked shared port after closing

In certain situations, a shared serial port could lock after being closed.

Fixed race condition in shared port

Shared port driver may crash when it is quickly opened and closed from multiple threads.

New compatibility option

A new compatibility option that forces ignoring of TX CLEAR purge commands has been added.

Bridge baud rate emulation is now OFF by default

This release changes the default behavior: now by default local bridges do not provide baud rate emulation. To turn baud rate emulation ON, a corresponding option needs to be set on a virtual serial port.

Port lock on concurrent requests

Fixed a bug that could cause a virtual port lock if several concurrent requests were executed. Affects all kind of virtual ports.

Reported bugs fixed

A number of reported bugs have been fixed.

Reported bugs fixed

A number of reported bugs have been fixed.

Invalid handling of some COM timeout configurations

Certain specific serial port timeout configurations were not handled correctly.

Invalid processing of purge request

Virtual serial port handled some combination of purge request flags incorrectly.

ARM64 Support

This release adds native support for Windows on ARM64.

Reported bugs fixed

This release fixes a number of reported and internally discovered bugs.

Reported bugs fixed

This release fixes a number of reported and internally discovered bugs.

Several bug fixes

A number of reported and internally discovered bugs have been fixed.

Error deleting devices from 32-bit processes on 64-bit OS

Fixed a bug when IDevice.deleteDevice method failed if called from 32-bit process on 64-bit OS.

Fixed IPv6 name resolution on Windows 7

This release fixes name resolution on Windows 7 when destination host only resolves to IPv6 address (affects TCP/IP serial ports).

This is a new major version release. The following features are new or have been significantly improved compared with the previous version:

TCP/IP Ports

This update introduces new type of virtual serial port configuration. Now it is possible to create a virtual serial port that will work in one of the following modes:

Connecting mode

The virtual port device is configured with remote host name or address and TCP port. All data sent to the virtual COM port will be redirected to a given remote TCP/IP endpoint. Responses sent by the remote host are provided as incoming virtual port data.

Listening mode

The virtual port device is configured with a local address and TCP port. It will open a listening TCP/IP socket and wait for incoming network connections. After the connection is established, it will continue to work as described in the previous paragraph.

The user may select the data transfer protocol. RFC2217 and RAW protocols are implemented by the Virtual Serial Port Tools. A pair of virtual TCP/IP serial ports may be used to create a serial bridge, which communicates over TCP/IP network. This adds one more bridge configuration, in addition to previous Local Bridge and Remote Bridge modes.

Sharing of Local COM Ports over TCP/IP Network

This update also includes the new component that is capable of sharing any local COM port (no matter if it is a physical, PnP or virtual serial port) over the TCP/IP network. The same RFC2217 and RAW protocols are supported.

Inclusion of Sharing Server Components

Virtual Serial Port Tools installer now integrates the following components: a virtual serial port driver, API, configuration utilities, documentation and language bindings as well as Remote Serial Port and TCP/IP Serial Port servers. It provides seamless “all-in-one” experience, while supporting separate component installations. This allows, for example, the user to install only sharing servers on designated computers.

Also, a separate “redistributable” version installer is provided.

As before, both Remote Serial Port Server and TCP/IP Serial Port Server components support simple “copy&paste” deployment scenarios.

Configuration Utility Improvements

Configuration utility has been updated with a new visual look, better user experience and improved support for:

Port sharing components integration

Remote Serial Port and TCP/IP Serial Port server configuration utilities are now integrated in the VSPT configuration utility.

High-DPI displays

All user elements, including fonts, graphics, icons and commands are automatically scaled on modern high-DPI and retina displays. Scaling is always smooth and crisp-free on any screen resolution.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 “Dark Mode” and accessibility improvements

Configuration utility automatically recognizes if the user has configured a “dark mode” in his environment and switches to the dark theme. In addition, accessibility high-contrast themes are now fully supported.

Support for various input methods

In addition to mouse, full keyboard and touch support is now provided. User interface items are now automatically adjusted if being used with touch.

IMPORTANT: Upgrading to this release will require the license upgrade as well. Existing users with Lifetime Upgrades will need to download new license file.

Unable to install the product on Windows 11

This release fixes installer incompatibility with Windows 11.

Command-line utility is unable to delete devices

A bug that prevented the command-line utility from successfully deleting virtual serial port devices has been fixed.

Security descriptor for pipe-connected ports

It is now possible to specify security descriptor for pipe-connected port.

Reported bugs fixed

This release fixes a number of reported and internally discovered bugs.

Unable to create ports in free edition

A regression in previous build made impossible creation of shared, alias or split ports in free edition.

Improved compatibility with Windows 7

VSPT API can now be used on all Windows 7 installations. Previously API calls could fail depending on OS configuration.

Improved support for legacy applications

This release introduces the concept of compatibility flags. Setting various flags will enable non-standard virtual serial port behavior to suit legacy applications. This version adds a flag that disables check for valid special serial port characters.

Fixed a crash in API methods

Fixed a crash when calling several API methods.

Serial timeouts override

The user may now specify serial timeout overrides for shared, alias and split ports, in addition to previously supported overrides of baud rate, line parameters and flow control.

Incorrect port operation

Shared port did not function properly under some conditions.

Serial timeouts support

This release improves compatibility and proper serial port timeout emulation.

Reported bugs fixed

This release fixes a number of reported and internally discovered bugs.

Fixed pipe port operation

A bug that sometimes prevented writing data to the pipe-connected port has been fixed.

Pipe-connected ports are powered by new driver

We have ported pipe-connected ports to the new universal virtual serial port driver. In addition, full flow control emulation, serial timeouts as well as wait masks are now supported for these kind of virtual ports. This is a breaking change as the API to create pipe-connected ports has also changed.

Fixed ISerialPortLibrary.getPorts API

ISerialPortLibrary.getPorts returned incorrect data. This has been fixed.

Fixed memory leaks

This release also fixes a number of memory leaks in library.

Local bridges are powered by new driver

We have ported local bridges to the new universal virtual serial port driver. Remote bridges are still currently powered by a legacy driver and will be migrated in the future releases.

Failure to handle Purge requests

Shared and splitted serial ports failed to properly handle serial purge requests.

Read timeout processing failed

Read requests that ended with a timeout were incorrectly handled.

Reported bugs fixed

This release fixes a number of reported and internally discovered bugs.