Microtek ScanWizard 5 - run in background?

[Abigail363]

Is there a way to get the Microtek ScanWizard program to run in the
background? The scanner has a sheet feeder and when I'm scanning
multiple pages the software keeps displaying a status box in the middle
of the screen that takes the focus away from what I'm doing.

Needless to say, that is very annoying! I guess they designed the
software for someone who was just scanning one page at a time and was
not trying to do anything else when the scanning was going on.

If the answer is no, is there some scanning software that you'd
recommend to use in place of ScanWizard?

Thanks!

Abigail

 

[Edward Kroeze]

Is there a way to get the Microtek ScanWizard program to run in the
background? The scanner has a sheet feeder and when I'm scanning
multiple pages the software keeps displaying a status box in the middle
of the screen that takes the focus away from what I'm doing.

Needless to say, that is very annoying! I guess they designed the
software for someone who was just scanning one page at a time and was
not trying to do anything else when the scanning was going on.

If the answer is no, is there some scanning software that you'd
recommend to use in place of ScanWizard?

If the software itself runs ok, it might be cheaper to
buy a low-end/cheap 2nd(-hand) computer which
you dedicate to the scanning job.
Put the results on an external USB-drive (or stick for that matter)
and take them over to the 1st (primary) computer when done.
Or if you want to get funky you can network them
and write to a shared drive.

Thanks!

Abigail

Hope this helps,

Edward

 

[Dances With Crows]

If the software itself runs ok, it might be cheaper to buy a
low-end/cheap 2nd(-hand) computer which you dedicate to the scanning

....no problem can't be solved by throwing enough hardware at it. This
sounds inelegant and wasteful, though.

Or if you want to get funky you can network [the computers]

That's "funky"? If a computer isn't on a LAN of some type, it's pretty
useless in this day and age.

The program almost certainly has that dialog hard-coded to
"always-on-top, steal focus". You could find that part of the binary
and patch it, but that'd take a while and be annoying.

What might work better is to install and use something that provides
virtual desktops. Find a virtual desktop program for Windows that
doesn't suck (there might be one out there, maybe). Run this problem
app on desktop 2, run your other apps on the other virtual desktops.
Unfortunately, MFC/Win32 and Windows's default window manager weren't
set up with virtual desktops in mind, and certain types of windows will
appear on all virtual desktops even when they shouldn't. BTDT. HTH
anyway,

 

[Edward Kroeze]

...no problem can't be solved by throwing enough hardware at it. This
sounds inelegant and wasteful, though.

I merely tried to present another than just the obvious solutions.
Some sheetfedscanner I used could be rather noisy, so putting
it (like the then-used matrix-printer) in the other room might make sense.

Or if you want to get funky you can network [the computers]

That's "funky"? If a computer isn't on a LAN of some type, it's pretty
useless in this day and age.

Abigail did not mention anything about a LAN in her environment.
Could be just a single cable/adsl-connected system, just like this
one I am writing this post on.
But, yes, I should have quoted 'funky' or put a smiley behind it.

The program almost certainly has that dialog hard-coded to
"always-on-top, steal focus". You could find that part of the binary
and patch it, but that'd take a while and be annoying.

'take a while'... as in: more time than buying and connecting
a cheap 2nd-hand computer ?

[snip]
Of course, the rest of your suggestions are prefectly valid
in any decent computing enviroment (Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.)
but for the moment I assume (yes, I know, the mother of all f__kups)
some version of MS-Windows is the OS being used by Abigail.

Or you could replace the video-card with a double-headed
(supported by your OS of course) one...
Put an extra monitor on your desk, and presto...

Regards,

Edward

 

[CSM1]

Is there a way to get the Microtek ScanWizard program to run in the
background? The scanner has a sheet feeder and when I'm scanning
multiple pages the software keeps displaying a status box in the middle
of the screen that takes the focus away from what I'm doing.

Needless to say, that is very annoying! I guess they designed the
software for someone who was just scanning one page at a time and was
not trying to do anything else when the scanning was going on.

If the answer is no, is there some scanning software that you'd
recommend to use in place of ScanWizard?

Thanks!

Abigail

There is some software such as Omnipage Pro 15 that can scan multiple pages
without displaying the native scanner interface.

So it may depend on the software you are using to scan with.

 

[Dances With Crows]

I merely tried to present another than just the obvious solutions.
Some sheetfedscanner I used could be rather noisy, so putting it (like
the then-used matrix-printer) in the other room might make sense.

Yep, if you have another machine sitting around and don't mind paying
the extra electric bills, it might work. It'd lead to additional hassle
if you needed to work on the spare machine and the original machine
at the same time though.

Abigail did not mention anything about a LAN in her environment.
Could be just a single cable/adsl-connected system, just like this one
I am writing this post on. But, yes, I should have quoted 'funky' or
put a smiley behind it.

NIC: $10. 5-port switch: $30. Setting up IP-Masqing: half an hour if
you've never done it before. With that and the proliferation of 802.11b
gear, it's pretty reasonable to assume that there are LANs everywhere.
(4 or 5 unencrypted, unsecured 802.11 networks visible from my
apartment's living room, natch. Guys, encrypt your 802.11, or The
Terrorists can surf pr0n using your cablemodem!)

'take a while'... as in: more time than buying and connecting a cheap
2nd-hand computer ?

More time, less $. Maybe too much time, considering I haven't been able
to do it yet on a tiny program. That and window styles are stored as
tons of bit flags all jammed together in obscure places within the
..exe....

[virtual desktops]
Of course, the rest of your suggestions are prefectly valid in any
decent computing enviroment but for the moment I assume some version
of MS-Windows is the OS being used by Abigail.

Based on Abigail's HTTP-UserAgent: , it's 'DozeXP.

Or you could replace the video-card with a double-headed (supported by
your OS of course) one...

So far, virtual desktop programs seem to be the least expensive and
least time-consuming thing that anyone's suggested. Dang. I was
expecting that I'd missed something obvious that somebody would pick up
on....

 

[Edward Kroeze]

[snip]

Dang. I was
expecting that I'd missed something obvious that somebody would pick up
on....

Once you made something idiotproof, somebody invents a better idiot....

Anyway, hope that Abigail lets us know which option
from the plethora of presented solutions she chooses.

Regards,

Edward