# HP Scanner hardware-software question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-scanner-hardware-software-question/387616>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 11, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-scanner-hardware-software-question/387616 "2007-01-11T22:17:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-scanner-hardware-software-question/387616/1 "2007-01-11T22:17:02Z")

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I do a lot of scanning. My 3-4 yr. old HP flatbed scanner sadly died. I don’t remember the model number (Scanjet 3300C?). What I loved about it was the dumb software interface - HP Precisionscan Pro 3.1.

I bought a new HP scanner (Scanjet 4850), naively assuming I could continue to use the old software. No dice, apparently. HP Precisionscan Pro 3.1 doesn’t recognize the new scanner. The new software, of course, is totally bloated with a thousand features I don’t want and so I hate it.

I probably haven’t given enough info, but any ideas how to use the old software with the new scanner?

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**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-scanner-hardware-software-question/387616/2 "2007-01-11T22:27:14Z")

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Dunno about the old software but you might want to try imaging.exe which you may already have loaded in Windows. It’s a simple app that will do TWAIN input (the common language for scanners).

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**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-scanner-hardware-software-question/387616/3 "2007-01-12T00:07:01Z")

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You may want to give something like [VueScan](http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html) a try.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-scanner-hardware-software-question/387616/4 "2007-01-12T00:16:37Z")

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Have a dig around on the installation CD - it may be that there’s a folder named \drivers from which you can just install the bare essentials, without the rest of the bundled software.