I have been having a sort out of my diagnostic kits. I usually use a Fautmate on the car as I am familiar with it and can find my way around it, but I have also have an RSW EASunlock and an Allcomms, plus the free version for EAS.
I bought the EASunlock directly from Storey Wilson years ago. It was originally on a Toughbook running XP and I had to get it activated just now by RSW again to run on a new windows 11 laptop. No problem, no cost, and it updated to v4 automatically. I think his software is locked to one computer.

Allcomms is a different matter. I bought it on Ebay over 10 years ago and I don't have the activation code. There isn't even a public link to download the software. Not surprising as there are a load of Chinese clones. Storey must be well pissed off after all his hard work.
I believe my Allcomms is genuine. The case and the lead are identical to my known geniune EASunlock.
I think a separate licence can be purchased but it dosn't say so on the RSW website. A new Allcomms is $227.
Before I contact him again, anyone have an Allcomms? it is mainly for the L322 I think.

It goes to show what a decent guy Storey is. He “sells” the EAS for free, and doesn’t charge a huge amount for the full V4. A LR/RR enthusiast who is trying to help out other enthusiasts.

Fully agree with Storey is a great guy! His software must helped many of us to keep our cars on the road. I have the EAS freeware and the V4 suite and very happy, except he cancelled support for XP ;-)

No XP support? That’s a shame as the only Windows thing I’ve got (just used for other car diagnostic stuff) is still on XP. Back to the drawing board…

My Easunlock was v3 running on XP and Storey sent me a link to reactivate it for a W11 laptop. It the course of doing that, it automatically upgraded to v4 all at no cost so I am happy with that.
Microsoft actually ended support for XP over 10 years ago. My Faultmate is however still on XP. It needs 9 pin serial port, so not sure what the solution is to that. A usb to serial adapter ? and run the Faultmate software with W11 in compatibility mode ?
What I really want at the moment is the Allcomms software so I can test mine out.

W11 does not allow access directly to hardware, therefore older applications can have problem accessing the serial port. Usually not a problem if the user can configure the port correctly (since the application can not access the port to configure it).

Lack of serial port in most modern computers is another issue, in some cases serial port can be added (difficult in laptops though), in other cases usb to serial can work, sometimes depending on if it supports the communication settings properly.

th.

If you are going to use a USB to serial adapter, make sure it is one with the FTDI chipset and not any other Chinese version. The cheap ones have all sorts of problems connecting and keeping the connection. I've got all my serial stuff on an ancient Panasonic Toughbook, which has a 9 pin serial connection, running Windows 2000. Never had a problem connection to anything with that.

Since my post I have been back on the Blackbox website. The Software for the Faultmate is Vehicle Explorer v1.33. The blurb says it runs under W10 with the caveat that it has not been fully tested. I assume W10/W11 are the same more or less.
I have also ordered a usb to serial adapter that uses a PL2303 Chipset (FTDI chipset? made in Scotland ?). Keep watching this space.

update: I ordered a usb to RS232 cable on Amazon which was a PL2303 chipset. I ordered it before Richards comment and before I knew much about it.
It would not connect to the Faultmate despite trying all sorts of settings. The comm port and baud rate can be configured though in device manager. The PL2303 drivers were on a mini CD disc. I also downloaded Backbox systems PL2303 drivers from their website. Other people obviously have problems.

I ordered another on Amazon with an FTDI chipset. It would not connect or recognise the Faultmate at first. I thought here we go again.
I checked device manager. It recognised the device and I updated the drivers. It automatically went on the Windows upgrade website and downloaded W11 FTDI drivers.
No reboot and Faultmate recognised the comm port right away. No configuring required. Works well and a lot faster than XP.