I needed to scan in some pictures for a lady doing a magazine article…and then do a bit of enhancing and retouching since they are historic B&W photos or limited quality. I decided it is finally time to connect my HP 2100C scanner to the new computer. Guess what? Windows 7 does not support it (or vice versa).
A search of the internet reveals that no one has found a new driver. My scanner works fine in Windows XP and I previously upgraded to Windows 7 Professional ($100) which allowed the free download of an emulator called a virtual XP machine. The process was not easy. Once in the virtual machine, I had to manually attach the scanner with a click to the USB menu item. Presto, the driver comes up (not sure if it is a feature of XP or if the driver came across when I set up the XP machine from the old computer). Now I am on familiar ground with the same screen I remember including the preview and the choice of color, B&W, grayscale, and custom. I can squeeze out 600 dpi, so the scan will hold just about everything to be found in the original.
The final problem is finding the resulting file! It got saved in the virtual area, I think. I then discovered I can pre-select the destination and choose a recognizable place on the C: drive. Then the scans go to a known place, making it easy to find them and open them in Photoshop. From there I can improve contrast and do some unsharp mask edge improvement. Finally, if the application justifies the effort, the clone stamp can be used to take out the dust specks and any tears or folds which have become dramatically more obvious with the contrast inprovement.
Would it be worthwhile to buy a new scanner to get compatibility? Not at this point, given the relatively few scans I usually do.