I bought an Innovative Technology ITNS-500 film, slide, and photo converter from a thrift store, hoping to digitize my physical photos. After getting it home, I discovered that its original software officially supports Windows 7 and older versions of Windows. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop running Windows 10. Is there a driver, compatibility setting, virtual machine, or other practical solution that could get the scanner working?
4 Answers
First, look for the exact ITNS-500 Windows driver and software rather than trying to write code. You can also try installing the Windows 7 software in Compatibility Mode: right-click the installer, open Properties, choose the Compatibility tab, and run it as Windows 7. That may help the program install, but it cannot fix missing hardware drivers by itself.
The model number is important because Windows 10 may not recognize this device as a standard scanner. If the manufacturer never released a Windows 10 driver, a third-party scanning application such as VueScan may be worth checking, since it supports many older scanners. Confirm that the ITNS-500 is supported before buying anything.
Another workaround is to run Windows 7 in a virtual machine, assuming the scanner can be passed through to the virtual machine over USB. This can be fiddly, and Windows 7 should be isolated from the internet because it is no longer supported. A cheap older laptop that already runs Windows 7 may be simpler.
Before giving up, test the scanner on another operating system, such as Linux, to see whether it is detected. If it is not recognized anywhere, the device may use a proprietary chipset or simply be faulty. In that case, writing a new driver would be a major software-development project, not a small compatibility tweak.
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