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Having recently upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 my Canon D1250D2 no longer works as there aren't any Windows 7 drivers for it. Apart from that it's in perfect working order.

Before I spend some hard earned cash on a new scanner is there anything I can do to get it working? Are there any 3rd party drivers that would work? Could I get it working through a virtual machine?

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How about a XP virtual machine? – Keltari Aug 21 '11 at 19:53
@Keltari - that's what I was thinking - how would I go about setting one up? – ChrisF Aug 21 '11 at 20:25
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XP mode on Windows 7 @ChrisF? What version of Win 7 do you have? Check this page for more info – Ivo Flipse♦ Aug 21 '11 at 20:29
@Ivo - Windows 7 Pro. – ChrisF Aug 21 '11 at 21:32
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4 Answers

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Perhaps check out Microsoft's Windows 7 compatibility webpage to see if there are any work-arounds or drivers available, and since you say you have Windows 7 Professional, you are eligible for 7's XP Mode (as Ivo Flipse mentioned), which is intended to help this kind of problem. :)

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The first thing I did was check the compatibility pages of both Microsoft and Canon. Am downloading XP Mode now. – ChrisF Aug 21 '11 at 20:52
The XP Mode is actually very slick. If you place program shortcuts in specific places in the XP, then the apps show up in Windows 7's start menu. As well task-tray icons get transfered into the Windows 7 task-tray, it's pretty seamless. – techie007 Aug 21 '11 at 20:54
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XP Mode works a treat (once I worked out what the cryptic error message about unlocking the scanner meant). – ChrisF Aug 27 '11 at 14:44
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up vote 4 down vote

A virtual operating system will solve this problem. You simply need a virtualization platform that will allow you to redirect a USB device from the physical machine to the virtual machine.

VMware Workstation 7 will do this, for example. It will list your USB devices in Windows 7, your Canon Scanner will be in that list. Select it and tell VMware to redirect that USB device to the virtual machine. If you have drivers that work for Windows XP, just run a Windows XP virtual machine. Installation of drivers will go exactly like they do on a 'real' machine.

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Interesting, but the cost is about 3 times that of a new scanner :( If there were other things I needed to have working then this would be the solution. – ChrisF Aug 21 '11 at 20:24
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up vote 4 down vote

You could consider trying VirtualBox.

From the VirtualBox manual:

VirtualBox can allow virtual machines to access the USB devices on your host directly.

So if you still have a license for Windows XP laying around, VirtualBox is available for free.

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I do have an XP license, and I'd seen the ads here on SU but not made the connection. – ChrisF Aug 21 '11 at 20:58
I've been using VMware products for years, but since I tried VirtualBox (as a result of said community ad), it quickly became my first choice. @ChrisF – oKtosiTe Aug 21 '11 at 21:02
Although in this case, XP mode would be the more obvious choice. :-) – oKtosiTe Aug 21 '11 at 23:41
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up vote -2 down vote

It seems hard unless you find compatible drivers. Virtual OSes can't help either. Consider dual boot.

Another option was SANE, a kind of universal scanner driver archive, but your model is not supported:

SANE Canon link

D1250 link

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Why can't virtual operating systems work? As long as you can pass through USB devices I don't see any issues. – oKtosiTe Aug 21 '11 at 20:49
A dual-boot is by far a more complicated a solution than what needs to be solved here. – KronoS Aug 22 '11 at 17:38
It won't be solved until you find the necessary drivers at host OS level. You cannot use the device with guest OS drivers, since it still needs to communicate with the PC through host OS. In short; if host OS can't recognize the device, it won't work. – Nime Cloud Aug 22 '11 at 19:39
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