I
Ichinisan
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 bloated software 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 to extract the contents of the executable without
actually 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 and
nothing had changed. 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 one 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, Windows is STILL trying to
automatically copy the previously existing driver files.
It really is unexcusable that this problem has been
around since Windows 95. When you uninstall a device,
there should be a way to completely purge the system of
all related driver 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.
Thanks
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 bloated software 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 to extract the contents of the executable without
actually 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 and
nothing had changed. 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 one 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, Windows is STILL trying to
automatically copy the previously existing driver files.
It really is unexcusable that this problem has been
around since Windows 95. When you uninstall a device,
there should be a way to completely purge the system of
all related driver 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.
Thanks