Windows 6 can see UMAX Astra 1220U flatbed scanner, but programs can't find it

[rgm]

I asked this as part of replies to another post, but I decided it should probably be put in a separate one.  For years, I had to run Virtual XP when Windows 7 came out and UMAX chose not to provide an updated driver, and I've periodically looked for one from some other source.  Last week, I found one that claimed it would work on Windows 7 and up, I think, not sure about the up part.  But I tried installing it on my Windows 8 32-bit laptop, which, I discovered, could run several programs W7 couldn't and that I had thought I could only run in Virtual XP.  (It turned out to be a 32-bit/64-bit problem, not a W7 problem.)

Microsoft safety said there was a problem with the installation program, but Norton Security said it was safe, so I installed it, anyhow.  Amazingly, Devices and Printers can now see the scanner, and it says everything is working correctly.  Also, Device Manager can find the scanner and says it is working.  However, programs like Paint and Photoshop Essentials still can't find the scanner.  A program, Magic Scan, I think, that I think came with the driver crashes Windows 8 when I install it, and I have had to restore W8 a couple of times in trying.

If "Devices and Printers" and "Device Manager" both see the scanner and identify it by name, shouldn't there be a way to get programs that scan to see it, too?  The scanner is a USB scanner and uses Twain.  I have various Twain files in W8 folders where they were in Virtual XP.  Does something have to be run and installed to get the programs to use Twain to see the scanner that W8 can see without Twain?

If I can get this problem resolved, it will mean I can dump Virtual XP and update my W7 main computer to W10.

Thanks.

Additional info: I have also installed Silverfast for both Photoshop (in Plug-ins for Photoshop Essentials) and Twain.  Photoshop sees PL180, and Libre Writer sees it as Silverfast UMAX PL180, but neither will find my UMAX Astra 1200U.  Paint has "From scanner or camera" grayed out (there is no built-in camera on that laptop!).  Also, Scanners and Cameras' Add Device finds the UMAX Astra 1220U, and the Finish button doesn't produce any error messages, but Refresh doesn't show the Scanner.  I unplugged it from a 4-USB hub, and Windows made the disconnect sound; I plugged it into a direct USB port, and Windows made the connect sound.  There were no searching for drivers windows or can't install drivers, as sometimes happens when one moves a device from one USB port to another.

[Shane]

The reason it is showing up in the device manage is because those drivers, the ones needed for Windows to know how to use it are installed correctly. Then you have a Twain driver that should have been installed. The Twain driver is the driver or dll that 3rd party programs call and use to work with the scanner.

So even though Windows has its drivers, the twain driver is missing or not working. I havent had to mess with twain in a long time. But I remember a while back that there are some universal twain drivers out there. Twain acts as the middle man for a program to work with the scanner instead of trying to talk to Windows and the scanner directly.

As for problems with 64bit and 32 bit this is because on a 64bit system there is folder and registry redirection. That and on a 64bit system you can only use 64bit drivers and of course 32 bit only 32 bit.

So there is also a trick with drivers, most of the time the driver will work for other devices. There have been plenty of times where a old driver wouldnt cut it,but for a close model its drivers would, I would just have to force Windows to use it and it worked fine. (In drivers there is a inf file that has the hardware IDs that the driver supports, normally they dont list all they can support)

So like I found this page
http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/umax.html

This program was written to work with these scanners, while your model isnt listed a lot of the closer modesl to it are, so chances are it might work.

Shane

[rgm]

The vuescan list doesn't seem to install the driver; it seems to install vuescan that would work *with* that driver.  My Windows 8 laptop crashed so much since I wrote this initial question that I finally couldn't even get it to run repairs, safe mode, or anything.  I even had trouble getting it to do a new reinstall.  The result is that I now don't have the driver I found; I'm not sure if *it* was causing the crashes or the scanner program that came with it.  But now W8 no longer sees the scanner.  Only one install of vuescan asked if I wanted to install a driver and supposedly did, but it couldn't find the scanner, and subsequent installs using a different "driver" link didn't ask to install a driver.  Maybe I need to uninstall vuescan before trying a new install from a different driver link?

Also, before, I took every twain file I could find and copied them into the three twain folders that were on my laptop, I think TWAIN32, twain_32, and TWAIN (or some combination like that); when W8 was finding the scanner, it apparently couldn't find a twain to go with it.  You mentioned a "universal twain"; do you know where I might find that?

Thanks.

[Shane]

Windows 8 may not see the driver to use because the hardware ID isnt in the inf file with the driver. Which tells windows what hardware ids that driver works with. So the trick is to go to update driver in device manager and manually fore windows to use one of the other drivers and see if it works. Sometimes it will, if you use a model as close to yours as possible.

Shane