I needed to get access to the Parallel/Seial Ports on my new XP. But it seemed crazy with almost nothing working.
Here's a simple way to access the same.

First get Userport
http://www.embeddedtronics.com:80/public/Electronics/minidaq/userport/UserPort.zip 

http://booksbybibin.14.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=74

http://neil.fraser.name/software/lpt/

Now get Active Python 2.6.7 and import Inpout 32.dll
logix4u.net/parallel-port/16-inpout32dll-for-windows-982000ntxp

http://blog.wensheng.com/2008/10/python-parallel-port-on-windows.html

from ctypes import windll
p = windll.inpout32
p.Inp32(0x378) #default 255(all high) on my pc 
p.Out32(0x378, 0) #put all low on port 2-9

his tutorial is taken from the book 
MY EXPERIENCE IN PARALLEL PORT INTERFACING. 
you can download it free from the files
section(file:-parallelport(3 files) of
yahoo group-booksbybibin 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/booksbybibin/ 

comments about this book on 
www.booksbybibin.blogspot.com 

SOFTWARES USED IN WINDOWS 
All operating systems of Windows upto Window 
ME(included) requires no driver software for parallel port. You can interface it by a 
simple program in Turbo C. But operating systems after Windows ME have a security 
to parallel port. So we have to break it inorder to interface with outside circuits. This 
is done by using USERPORT. 
Installing USERPORT: 
 

You can get userport.zip with this file or from yahoo group-parallelport. 
http://www.embeddedtronics.com:80/public/Electronics/minidaq/userport/UserPort.zip 
Download this file and unzip it 
then copy Userport.sys to WINDOWSSYSTEM32DRIVERS 
then run USERPORT.EXE 
u will get a message driver started. Click Start two times then you will get the 
following message. This is the next step after BIOS Settings. 
Now u do programming in C/C++/JAVA and interface in XP or other version of 
Windows. USERPORT is necessary software you should install. If you are using VB or 
VC then you can get DLL's from 
www.logix4u.net 

USING LPT.EXE: 
This is a small VB program which shows the status of the parallel port registers 
You can get it with this book or yahoo group-parallelport or from the link 
http://neil.fraser.name/software/lpt/ 
After BIOS settings and userport installation next step is to check whether your 
parallel port will work or not and which ports will work well. 
Run lpt.exe 
 

select your port address first as you set on the BIOS. The following diagram shows 
how to check port. You 'tick' indicates high on that port. So change tick on the port. 
Make it low and high. If it is changing for data register and control register then your 
parallel port is working fine and will work fine. But if the 'tick' is not changing then 
you won't be able to use it. You won't be able to use the ports in which 'ticks' are not 
changing. In the above diagram we can see that Pin1 (strobe C0) is not having tick(i.e 
is low), but if you connect an LED then it will glow because C0' is there and the port get's HIGH. Suppose if you input LOW on pin1 then the Strobe will get HIGH in the software. So remember this when you do troubleshooting circuits with lpt.