Is it possible to emulate LPT registers on a laptop

Say that the laptop has no LPT port. Can you use the normal register addresses for anything else or don't they exist? Say, &H378 to 37F. Normally with an LPT port, the &H379 status register is read only. Can I write to it without a parallel port?

I already made a program in VB to read and write to any of 3 LPT ports, but 2 are not available on my PC. I gather that Windows must be configured to allow access to them or the port itself has the registers.

 I looked for emulation software, but the descriptions were too vague. Seems that this has become a growing problem with legacy software and the disappearing parallel port.

Ted