If you’ve recently upgraded to Windows 7 and are wondering what happened to HyperTerminal, you’re not alone! HyperTerminal was a sweet little program that let you connect to other computers, Telnet sites, host computers, BBSs, etc using your modem or Ethernet connection.
In Windows 7 and Vista, you will no longer find the HyperTer minal program. If you need HyperTerminal to control serial devices, there is a way to get it back! Also, there are several new alternatives to HyperTerminal that are probably better for secure shell access and troubleshooting modems.
Windows Remote Shell
Firstly, if you only need remote shell access, you can use the new Windows Remote Shell command line option in Windows 7 and Vista. To learn more about using WRS, simply open a command prompt and type in winrs /?.
It’s basically a SSH replacement that allows remote command line access over an encrypted connection. It also uses the SOAP protocol.
Phone and Modem Options
If you were using HyperTerminal to troubleshoot modems, you can now use Phone and Modem Options to do this. Go to Control Panel, click on Hardware and Sounds and then click on Phone and Modem Options.
All you have to do is provide information about the Country/Region, Area Code, Carrier Code, and Outside Dial Number to access the dialog box. Once you do that, you can troubleshoot your modem in Windows 7 or Vista.
HyperTerminal Alternatives
If you don’t want to use all these alternative methods, you can still use alternative programs for HyperTerminal. Here are some of my favorites.
HyperTerminal Private Edition – This is a commercial terminal emulation program that you can use to communicate with serial COM ports, dial-up modems, and TCP/IP networks.
TeraTerm – TeraTerm is an open-source terminal emulator and SSH module that supports IPv6, SSH1, SSH2, Telnet, serial ports, and file transfer protocols (XMODEM, Kermit, ZMODEM, B-PLUS, etc).
Putty – Another free Telnet and SSH implementation for Windows. It also is an xterm terminal emulator. This is probably my favorite alternative to HyperTerminal.
Original XP HyperTerminal
If you just can’t live without the original HyperTerminal in Windows XP, you can actually extract two files from your XP installation and copy them over to Windows 7 or Vista.
The two files you will need are hypertrm.dll and hypertrm.exe. Simply copy those files into any directory on your machine and it will work. You should be able to find hypertrm.exe in C:\Program Files\Windows NT and hypertrm.dll in C:\Windows\System32.
If you have the Windows XP CD, you should be able to find both of these files in the i386 directory on the CD.
So that’s about it! Even though HyperTerminal is no longer in Windows 7, it’s really not needed since you have a lot of great alternatives like Putty, etc. If you want it simply because you’ve been using it for a long time, either download the Private Edition or copy the files from XP. Enjoy!
Honestly I don't understand why they took it out in the first place. They should have left it. Especially if so many people miss it. Nonetheless this was a good article I didn't know about the winrs command.
Will I be able to use any of these alternative options without an external modem??
Thank you sir. Copying XP32 hyperterminal files to a directory in W7-64 worked for me. Copying to system32 didn't for some reason. Just made a hyperterminal folder on c: and all good!
Is there a way to use AT commands on Hyper Terminal to send MMS?
There are 2 other DLLs that should be included for full functionality, that most of the sites with articles about this neglect to mention.
C:Program FilesWindows NThtrn_jis.dll
C:WindowsSystem32hticons.dll
And if you want the help files, they are:
C:WINDOWSHelphypertrm.chm
C:WINDOWSHelphypertrm.hlp
Great article, thanks.
Really useful. Many thanks.
Really helpful! Thanks very much; that is very good of you to provide this great information, with several good options, for free. You are a good man!
Thanks a lot!
I've copied all the files. I use a serial connection. In XP, I was able to set up my connection and save it to my desktop. Then, when I needed it, it was ready to go and I was able to download the data and save the text file. I can't do that anymore. I get a message that it can't find the file. I click OK and hyperterminal comes up, but none of my settings were saved.
What is the missing link?
I created an HT file and saved it in the same folder as the exe. On my desktop I created a shortcut to "C:Program Files(x86)WindowsNTHypertrm.exe" <Session>
Where session is the name of the HT file and inside the quotes is the exact path to the exe.
I am using a Belkin F5U257 USB to Serial adapter. If you just click on the HT you get the error and no saved settings but if you run the exe with the name of the HT as an argument, it works. I am working on how to fix the HT registration so you can just click the session, but one thing at a time.
Great post. Thanks a lot! It really helped me when I was desperately seeking help over this issue.
Thanks. It works. :)
Hi Team,
I just copied all the .dll and .exe. It is working with my Windows 7.
Normally when I was using XP, I used to access hyperterminal by typing 'hypertrm' in 'run' ,but in WINDOWS 7 I need to go to the folder where I kept Hyperterminal. Is There any work around for this…? Ur help would be appreciated.
Mahesh M
TEAM -T ogether E verybody can A chieve M ore
I found on my Windows 7 64bit system this did not work. When I put both the EXE and the DLL in the C:Program FilesWindows NT directory it worked fine. But for some reason it did not want to find the DLL in the System32 directory.
Thanks so much for the free advice. It's hard to find these days!
However, my only connection option when loaded onto Windows 7 was TCP/IP. I have an adaptor which I had hoped would allow me to use a USB port as a Com port. Will this not be available because of Win7?
Wondering if we just cant buy the download from Hilgrave for Hyperterminal for windows 7? Should work, yes?