IBM Personal Communications Version 16.0 Readme
Read Me - Please!
First Edition
This document contains information supplementary to the online help and the publications, it includes newly added functions, hints, tips, restrictions, and corrections. Refer the Personal Communications Documentation for other considerations when using Version 16.0, and for complete product documentation.
For information on installing IBM Personal Communications, refer to the Installation Guide. Refer to Quick Beginnings for information about the new features and functionality of Version 16.0.
Names and license terms for third-party components are referenced in license.txt, which is located in the Personal Communications installation directory or in the product installation image.
Thank you for choosing Personal Communications Version 16.0.
Table of Contents
What's New in Personal Communications
Personal Communications Documentation
Personal Communications Version 16.0
Personal Communications Version 16.0.1
What's New in Personal Communications Version 16.0
Personal Communications Version 16.0 is based on the popular Personal Communications Version 5.9. If users are familiar with Personal Communications Version 5.9, they might want to review the following new functions and enhancements.
Personal Communications Documentation
You can find documentation and links to other resources at the IBM Documentation for Personal Communications Version 16.0.
Support Considerations
Subscribing to Support News
To receive Personal Communications support news flashes, complete the following steps:
-
Go to the IBM support page, at the following address:
https://www.ibm.com/mysupport
- If you already have an IBM Registration ID, you can sign in. If not, you must register.
- Under Personal Support, click My Support. If you already have an IBM Registration ID, you can sign in. If not, you must register.
- After you sign in, click on Notification Settings under Support Basics.
- Search for the products you wish to receive news flashes for, then click the Subscribe link next to the product name.
- Click Submit. Your selected product will appear under the Product Subscriptions table.
- Click Sign out to end the session.
Support Assistant
The IBM Support Assistant enables you to easily resolve software questions. The Support Assistant provides the following components:
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Search: Enable search of the software information database.
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Service: Assists customers who choose to submit a PMR by providing access to the Electronic Service Request Web site.
- Support Links: A consolidated list of IBM web links, organized by brand and product.
Help desk personnel and Personal Communications administrators might want to install Support Assistant in order to better support end users. The Support Assistant can be downloaded from the following address: http://www.ibm.com/software/support/isa/index.html
Other Considerations
Installing or migrating Personal Communications with Communications Server
If you have both Personal Communications and IBM Communications Server for Windows installed on a system, you should not use automatic migration when installing a newer version of Personal Communications. First, remove both Personal Communications and Communications Server for Windows from the system. You should then reinstall Communications Server, before installing the new version of Personal Communications.
Displaying Arabic data in the VBHLLAPI sample program
For proper display of Arabic data in the VBHLLAPI sample program, you should do the following:
- Edit the VBHLLAPI sample program source code. For each form, change the default font property to a Windows True Type font that supports Arabic script (for example, Courier New).
- Recompile the VBHLLAPI sample program.
Refer to Emulator Programming for information about the API sample programs.
Personal Communications Version 16.0 Readme
Import Configuration Files Using Drag and Drop Method
Users can now open a session or modify configurations by simply dragging and dropping a profile or configuration file onto a running session. This improves the user experience by allowing seamless application of configuration files.
Enhanced Printer Setup Dialog UI
The Printer Setup dialog has been redesigned with a simplified layout, featuring repositioned and grouped fields for better usability.
Session Manager UI Enhancement
The enhanced Session Manager UI features a clean icon-based layout with tooltips for button descriptions. It supports responsive resizing, ensuring buttons and elements remain properly aligned and easy to use across various window sizes.
Group Policy to Restrict Maximum Emulator Sessions
A new group policy allows administrators to set session limits between 26 and 52 in the "Preferences" utility. Users cannot modify or exceed the assigned limit.
New Keyboard Shortcuts for Basic Operations
Keyboard shortcuts have been introduced for common emulator operations, improving efficiency and reducing reliance on mouse clicks.
Data Masking Enhancements
Administrators can now restrict users from configuring Data Masking settings via group policy. Additionally, any masked data displayed on the screen will remain masked in printed output, ensuring data security.
IPv6 Support for Personal Communications FTP Client
This enhancement extends the functionality of the existing Personal Communications FTP client by introducing support for IPv6 addresses. With this update, the client can now connect to FTP servers over both IPv6 and the traditional IPv4 protocols.
OneDrive Support Enhancements
- Single Sign-On
The Preference Utility Manager now includes a OneDrive checkbox that, when selected, prompts users to sign in if they aren’t already. If signed in, it sets the %OneDrive% path as the Profile Directory for the application.
- Synchronization Status of Session Files
A new Status column has been added to the Session Manager dialog box to indicate whether session files in the OneDrive location are synced or not, using appropriate icons.
Unicode Support for CHS HCP-1388 (Chinese Unicode)
This feature enables Personal Communications to support CHS HCP-1388 by converting EBCDIC values to Unicode for accurate screen rendering and entering using IME editor.
Backup Configuration for Secure to Non-Secure Failover
This feature introduces the ability to enable or disable security settings individually for both the Primary and Backup hosts.
The objective is to ensure that a successful connection can still be established with Backup 1 or Backup 2 hosts, even if the secure connection to the Primary host fails.
Command line Option for Creating a New Session
IBM Personal Communications supports command-line functionality that enables users to easily launch a new non-secure session by specifying parameters such as host type, hostname, and port number—allowing quick and efficient connections.
Menu-Bar Customization Utility Enhancement
The Menu-Bar customization utility has been upgraded to support the configuration of
menu items across all existing profile files. This enhancement also applies to newly
created sessions, enabling seamless customization through the
pcswin.ini file.
Fixes for APARs and Internal Defects
Release 16.0 contains fixes for APARs and internal defects.
Personal Communications Version 16.0.1 Readme
Enhanced Host Connectivity with TLS 1.3
Personal Communications now supports TLS 1.3 for host connections, improving security by replacing older encryption methods with stronger, modern ciphers. This enhancement is supported on Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, and later versions.
New Code Signer Certificate
The code signer certificate used to sign the previous versions of IBM Personal Communications software will expire on Feb 26, 2026. In the current version, the Personal Communications software is signed with a new code signer certificate that is valid up to February xx, xxxx.
This certificate is issued to "International Business Machines Corporation" by "DigiCert Trusted G4 Code Signing RSA4096 SHA384 2021 CA1".
Shortcut Keys for Switching LTR/RTL Copy-Paste Direction
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Ctrl + L — Sets the copy-paste direction to Left-to-Right (LTR)
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Ctrl + R — Sets the copy-paste direction to Right-to-Left (RTL)
Date and Time in Status bar
The Personal Communications now displays the system date and time in the status bar. Users can enable or disable this option from the Window Setup menu.
Security Enhancement
In this release, the legacy redistributable binaries are removed from the package that might cause security risk.
Refresh-Pack Update Installer Enhancement
The Refresh-Pack Update Installer UI now supports all languages available in Personal Communications, allowing the installation process to be displayed in the operating system’s locale language.
Native Intune Support – Installer Enhancement
Now, Personal Communications supports deployment through "Microsoft Intune". By using a custom ".ini" file, administrators can perform silent installations across selected device groups or organizational units simultaneously.
Fixes for APARs and Internal Defects
This Refresh Pack contains fixes for APARS and internal defects.
Personal Communications Version 16.0.2 Readme
Auto-Reconnect Time Interval
This enhancement to the auto-reconnect feature allows users to configure the wait interval between reconnection attempts, as well as the total number of retries for each host. This helps prevent the emulator from retrying indefinitely.
A new keyword, “AutoReconnectInterval”, has been introduced under the [Session] section of the profile file. Users can define the wait interval by adding this keyword, as shown in the example below (for 2000 milliseconds).
Example:
The following keyword must be set in the session (.ws) file:
[Session]
AutoReconnectRetries=3
AutoReconnectInterval=2000
SwitchToNextHostOnAutoReconnect=Y
Tab Session Manager
The Session Manager has been enhanced to support a tabbed interface. Instead of opening each session in a separate window, sessions are now launched within individual tabs in a single window.
To enable this feature, set the “Tabsessionwindow” configuration keyword to ‘Y’ under the [Session] section of the pcswin.ini file, as shown below:
[Session]
Tabsessionwindow=Y
Copy Data only from User Input Fields
This feature allows copying data only from unprotected fields, while replacing protected field data with spaces to preserve the original layout.
To enable this functionality, add the “CopyOnlyUnprotected” keyword under the [Edit] section of the WS profile file, as shown below:
[Edit]
CopyOnlyUnprotected=Y
[Session]
Tabsessionwindow=Y
Paste Overwrite Trailing Data with Spaces
This feature ensures that any remaining characters on a line are cleared during an edit-paste operation by overwriting the existing data with spaces.
Add New Display Dimensions
The “Screen Size” field in Z-Series session parameters has been enhanced to include two additional resolution options: “51x133” and “62x142”.
Support for the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) in PDT Mode Enhancement
This enhancement removes the requirement to set the IPP printer as the system default. It also eliminates the dependency on a PDF reader for printing, provided the IPP printer is configured directly from the discovered printers list.
Redesign of Kerberos Authentication, Migration and Sounds Registration
The “pcsnp” module has been deprecated and replaced with the new “pcskerb” module. This enhancement improves the Kerberos authentication process, enabling seamless logon bypass when connecting to I-Series hosts.
Additionally, during installation, the installer handles the migration of profile files and registers default system sounds upon the user’s first re-login.
Thai HCP-838 Support for English Windows Regional Format
Support for Thai HCP-838 is now available on systems configured with the English Windows regional format.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Print Functionality
Keyboard shortcuts have been introduced to enhance printing operations:
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Ctrl + Shift + P to open the Printer Setup dialog
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Ctrl + P to directly print the current emulator screen
Unicode Support Enhancement for Simplified Chinese (HCP-1388 China)
This enhancement improves Unicode support for HCP-1388 China by enabling seamless copy-paste functionality, introducing a new font that supports all HCP-1388 and UDC code points, and ensuring accurate printing of DBCS characters.
Fixes for APARs and Internal Defects
This Refresh Pack contains fixes for APARS and internal defects.
Personal Communications V16.0.3 Readme
Trim Trailing Spaces on Edit-Paste
This enhancement allows users to automatically remove trailing spaces from every line of multi-line clipboard data during a paste operation, preventing accidental overwrites of existing screen data.
To enable this feature, the new keyword “TrimTrailingSpacesOnPaste” has been introduced under the [Edit] section of the workstation profile (.ws) file.
Example:
[Edit]
TrimTrailingSpacesOnPaste=Y
Margin Space in Restored Window
This enhancement introduces adjustable left and right screen margin spaces, creating a dedicated space between the application window borders and text rows when the user connects the session in restore window mode. By ensuring proper spacing along the outer text columns, it significantly improves visual clarity and makes text selection for copy-paste operations much easier.
Simsun (新宋体) Font support for HCP CHS 1388 China Unicode
Starting with this release, Personal Communications supports the SimSun (新宋体) font for CHS HCP 1388 China Unicode. This support ensures that EBCDIC code ranges, Unicode characters, and User-Defined Characters (UDC) are rendered correctly as well as copy-paste and printing of DBCS.
Disable Auto Start Macro by Group Policy
Administrators can now use Group Policy to stop users from setting up or running auto-start macros. When this is disabled, the auto-start macros are blocked, and users will see a warning message.
Jaws Screen Reader Support
zMFA Authentication Support
This feature introduces support for IBM zMFA, enabling secure, modernized authentication to z/OS host environments. Users can now authenticate directly through their enterprise Identity Provider (IdP) using the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol. Following successful verification, the zMFA server issues a short-lived Compound Token Credential (CTC) that PCOM uses to establish the terminal connection, significantly strengthening access security by removing reliance on traditional, static passwords.
Support for the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) in PDT Mode Enhancement
This enhancement eliminates the need for an IPP URL or hostname. The print feature uses only the printer name to execute the print job on IPP printer with PDT enabled case.
Print-to-Disk Support for “.pdf” File Format
For Print to Disk setup configuration, the browse dialog has been enhanced to support “.pdf” file format. Users can perform all “Print to Disk” operations for “.pdf” file type as well.
PDT Support on Printer Configured with XPS Based Drivers
This feature allows printing on a printer configured with XPS based driver for PDT enabled case by using the “XPS_PASS” data flag.
Fixes for APARs and Internal Defects
This Refresh Pack contains fixes for APARS and internal defects.