- Oct 9, 2002
- 28,298
- 1,235
- 136
I've had this problem ever since Win95, but it made me particularly angry today.
I spent the *entire* day reinstalling and configuring Windows XP Professional on my laptop with my new slipstreamed SP2 installation CD. Just when everything was perfectly configured, the last thing I tried to install was my Canon CanoScan LiDE20 USB scanner. I marveled that I was able to get all of the manufacturer's drivers so far from Windows Update, keeping the manufacturer's bloatware to a minimum. However, Windows Update had nothing for the scanner, so I went to Canon's Web site and downloaded the driver package. To avoid the installation of bloatware, I used a feature of WinRAR's to extract the contents of the executable without actually running it. Inside, I found another self-extracting executable and did the same thing rather than running it. I was presented with all of the driver files and Windows was happy to find the drivers and automatically install the scanner. Windows reported that the scanner was "ready to use", but the Scanner/Camera Wizard never appeared in My Computer. I tested the scanner with the Control Panel applet, and it said that all was well. I still had no way to get an image from the scanner. So I restarted the computer...nothing. I was willing to run Canon's installer at this point, but I wanted to be sure that the currently installed drivers did not persist. I uninstalled the scanner from the device manager, and then removed/reinserted the USB plug. It automatically detected and installed the scanner again, even though I had deleted the directory where it found the extracted drivers before. Windows reported that the scanner was "ready to use", but the utility was still not there. I uninstalled again, then searched for each on of the driver files and deleted them from Windows' system directories. Now Windows asks me to direct it to the specific files when I plug in the scanner, rather than prompting for a new driver. I cancelled the prompt, then returned to the Device Manager to try to reinstall the driver. The "Update Driver" button would not work, probably related to the botched installation with missing files. The Device Manager will no longer allow me to choose "uninstall", saying that the device is probably required to boot the system (Windows is confused). I finally unplugged the scanner without using the "uninstall" option and ran the Canon installer, which apparently did nothing besides extracting itself. When I plug the scanner in, it's STILL trying to automatically copy the previously existing driver files.
It really is unexcusable that Microsoft has made such a mess of an operating system. When you uninstall a device, there should be some way to completely purge your system of all related drivers and software such that you can reconnect the device and have Windows behave as it did the very first time. Now my fresh installation and an entire day is wasted. I may have to reinstall Windows again if I can't get my scanner to work.
Any help would be appreciated.
I spent the *entire* day reinstalling and configuring Windows XP Professional on my laptop with my new slipstreamed SP2 installation CD. Just when everything was perfectly configured, the last thing I tried to install was my Canon CanoScan LiDE20 USB scanner. I marveled that I was able to get all of the manufacturer's drivers so far from Windows Update, keeping the manufacturer's bloatware to a minimum. However, Windows Update had nothing for the scanner, so I went to Canon's Web site and downloaded the driver package. To avoid the installation of bloatware, I used a feature of WinRAR's to extract the contents of the executable without actually running it. Inside, I found another self-extracting executable and did the same thing rather than running it. I was presented with all of the driver files and Windows was happy to find the drivers and automatically install the scanner. Windows reported that the scanner was "ready to use", but the Scanner/Camera Wizard never appeared in My Computer. I tested the scanner with the Control Panel applet, and it said that all was well. I still had no way to get an image from the scanner. So I restarted the computer...nothing. I was willing to run Canon's installer at this point, but I wanted to be sure that the currently installed drivers did not persist. I uninstalled the scanner from the device manager, and then removed/reinserted the USB plug. It automatically detected and installed the scanner again, even though I had deleted the directory where it found the extracted drivers before. Windows reported that the scanner was "ready to use", but the utility was still not there. I uninstalled again, then searched for each on of the driver files and deleted them from Windows' system directories. Now Windows asks me to direct it to the specific files when I plug in the scanner, rather than prompting for a new driver. I cancelled the prompt, then returned to the Device Manager to try to reinstall the driver. The "Update Driver" button would not work, probably related to the botched installation with missing files. The Device Manager will no longer allow me to choose "uninstall", saying that the device is probably required to boot the system (Windows is confused). I finally unplugged the scanner without using the "uninstall" option and ran the Canon installer, which apparently did nothing besides extracting itself. When I plug the scanner in, it's STILL trying to automatically copy the previously existing driver files.
It really is unexcusable that Microsoft has made such a mess of an operating system. When you uninstall a device, there should be some way to completely purge your system of all related drivers and software such that you can reconnect the device and have Windows behave as it did the very first time. Now my fresh installation and an entire day is wasted. I may have to reinstall Windows again if I can't get my scanner to work.
Any help would be appreciated.
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