Windows 7 scanner management

[ZippyDan]

windows has a nice simple control panel that allows me to add printers, by IP or port, choose drivers, check properties, and remove printers if necessary

many printers these days are multifunction devices that also scan, but there seems to be no corresponding simple method to manage scanners

i'm in a work environment with several multifunction devices on the network and thus many networked scanners. i can easily add the printer portions to my many workstations by entering IPs and choosing drivers... but to get scanner functionality on my workstations i generally have to install bloated manufacturer software packages.

once the scanners are installed... they appear in device manager in their own section. why not have a management window like printers have?

is there any way to do this more elegantly?

 

[ZippyDan]

:-(

 

[corkyg]

Good thought. I run my scanner using nothing but the TWAIN driver through Irfanview. That works in any OS.

 

[ZippyDan]

say you have a scanner at 192.168.2.10

you say you use the TWAIN driver in Irfanview... but how do you even FIND the scanner at that address much less tell the OS to use said driver for said scanner?

this is super easy with a printer: there should be a similar method for scanners