[Athen] Canon scanner question

[Susan Kelmer via athen-list]

Scanner technology has come a long way, and some older Canon scanners (that are not horribly pricey) are working just fine with updated Windows version.

I still use and absolutely swear by the Canon ImageFormula series of scanners.  Sheet feed, have OCR built in, and run just seamlessly for me.  These scanners are now 10 years old or so, but have survived every operating system upgrade I've gone through with them.  I'm using a Canon DRM160.

Those older Canon 5080s were so picky about operating systems and just did not upgrade well to new operating systems, but I'm here to tell you that Canon does indeed make scanners that will.  Bonus: they have a smaller footprint so don't take up hardly any room on my desk.

Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
Health and Wellness Services
T 303 735 4836
www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices<http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices>


[cid:image001.png at 01DBB8EC.68899000]

Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you've received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message.

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2025 9:46 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Canon scanner question

[External email - use caution]

The answer is probably no, but here's the situation. A long time ago I had a Canon high speed scanner, DR 50 something. I think it was a DR5090, but I'm not entirely sure. When Windows 7 came out, there were no longer drivers that worked with it, though the scanner itself worked fine.
So I convinced my department to spend another $7,000 on a DR 8090  scanner which is still working fine.
But Windows 10 came out, again, no drivers supported it.
So I hid my Windows 7 PC under my desk, even though we had strict rules to surplus all our old computers due to Windows 7 no longer being updated.
Five years later, and if I still want a high-speed scanner that works with modern Windows 11, I'm going to have to beg again. And it is silly, because this scanner still works just fine. Also the college wants to avoid spending money it does not need to spend.
So I continue to hide the PC controlling this scanner and wonder if anyone has a better solution.
I did try running the scanners in a VM, both when Windows XP became deprecated and after that Windows 7, but the drivers would not communicate with the virtual machine. If anyone has had luck doing this, let me know.
With such an expensive scanner, I'm disappointed that Canon has refused twice to keep its drivers updated for modern operating systems. I know it is in their best interest to sell new models, but they could have sold new drivers for a few bucks and kept cash flow going that way as well.
I worry a little about continuing to run Windows 7 just so I can use this scanner, but I also don't want to explain why I want a new one when this one works fine.

--Debee

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman22.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20250429/d617a4d1/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 8916 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman22.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20250429/d617a4d1/attachment.png>