Windows 7 being lame

[Fader209]

My scanner won't work on my new PC running on Windows 7 as the drivers aren't supported on anything past Vista. Super lame as I really like my scanner - easy to use and does exactly want I ask of it.
I read somewhere I can download a program that can basically make my PC run like Windows XP temporarily, is that worthwhile? I don't do a lot of scanning but it would be a hassle to run this thing everytime I need to scan.

I'm open to any other ideas that you techy people know of

[briareos_kerensky]

Starting from Win7 Home (IIRC) you can download for free MicroSoft's WinXP virtual machine. I use it (along Virtual Box) for non-unicode programs, and though it's not the fastest virtual environment around, it gets the job done.
Though you should be able to force Vista drivers on a Win7 machine, the two OSes aren't that different.

[Fader209]

Is it fairly simple to use the WinXP virtual machine? I had read about Virtual Box too on my travels of trying to work this out but wussed out to both programs in fear of breaking something >.<
Yeah I already tried a Vista driver from the Canon website and it still didn't work which is a pain.

[briareos_kerensky]

The MS virtual machine is very easy to use, it auto-configures itself and adds all available drives (floppies, opticals, HDDs and even network drives) as network drives in the virtualized WinXP.
Virtual Box requires more work when setting up but it's a bit faster...and you need a license, Virtual Box gives only the environment and not the operating system.

Have you tried installing the drivers by hand, feeding Win7 the required files under device management?

[charlesr]

I gave up and sold my scanner on ebay and bought the new version which was pretty much identical but just worked. Just saying like...

[EvilBoris]

I was sure that any vista driver would work fine on windows 7? I used vista drivers on win7 beta and for odd older hardware I've always just installed vista drivers.

What model of scanner have you got?

Some driver installation software refuse to extract in windows 7 because the installer doesn't recognise win7.

I would just extract the main inf files and point windows 7 to those.

[Brad]

Buy vuescan. Once. Works on all os and free upgrades forever. If it works with your scanner now then it always will. Not sure how much it costs, I bought my copy about 10 years ago.

[Fader209]

**** it, I keep hitting roadblocks with this thing at the moment!

I can't download the WinXP machine as I have Win7 Home as opposed to Pro. Looked into getting VMware player but that still needs a WinXP disc to set up initially and mine is buried somewhere.

Spoke to FSW earlier about this but Vuescan is $40 to buy - too much for me when that money could go towards a new scanner/printer.

Boris - my scanner is a Canon Lide 35. I got the Vista drivers off their site but when I run the exe it seems to do all the right things and set up only when I plug the scanner in there are still no drivers. How can I manually add a driver so it can be found?

Also tried the missus' printer/scanner on her PC and after setting it up it couldn't find a program to use so now I have to dig around for a Lexmark disc to get that working. Graaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!

[EvilBoris]

There are actual windows 7 drivers here

http://www.canon.co.uk/Support/Consumer_Products/products/scanners/LiDE_series/CanoScan_LiDE_35.aspx?DLtcmuri=tcm:14-740086&page=1&type=download

extract that file using winrar then extract the file inside that.

Goto your driver in the pc device manager and choose update driver, choose your own driver and get it to search the folder with the extracted files in it. It should pick out a driver there

It's not 64 bit drivers you are after is it?