I have an older scanner, that is actually a very good device.  Unfortunately there are no Windows Vista drivers for this device, so I have been using it on my old Windows XP laptop – which has now become our bedroom Netflix player.

So I set about trying to figure this out.  How can I continue to use my nice scanner on my Windows Vista Laptop?

Here is a step-by-step list of what to do:

  1. Go to Canon Australia and download the device drives for Canon CanoScan N650U
    For win2000, win98, winme, winxp
    sgcsu570d_n650u.exe at 3.21 MB
  2. Run the downloaded file, which will extract the device driver files to “c:\canonscanner\n650u”
  3. Start the Device Manager in either Windows Vista
  4. Locate the “CanoScan” device that will have the warning icon imposed on it
  5. Right-click and select “Update Driver Software…”
  6. Pick the second option, “Browse my computer for driver software”
  7. Follow the on-screen wizard to the end
  8. Complete – your CanoScan N650U should now function on Windows Vista

I have made this article as reminder to me in the future if I need to do this again, but if this helps somebody else that is great!