Scanners and Cameras Applet in Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10

With the demise of Windows XP and Windows Vista support, you may be a new convert to Windows 7 or Windows 8. Or perhaps you've been on W7 or W8 for a while, but just recently acquired your first scanner for the new OS. In either case, you are likely to be very surprised by an omission in the W7 and W8 Control Panel — Scanners and Cameras.

Note: I originally wrote this article for just Windows 7 and Windows 8, but it also applies to Windows 10, which was released after the initial publication of the article. Please see the Update sections at the end of the article regarding W10.

In XP and Vista, Control Panel has the Scanners and Cameras applet:

It is an extremely useful utility for setting the Properties of a scanner, including Events (such as the Scan/Image button and which program to start), Network Setting (such as a fixed IP address), and Scan To Button (with or without Pin).

In W7 and W8 (and now W10), the Scanners and Cameras applet is missing in Control Panel:

This article explains how to run Scanners and Cameras in W7 and W8 (and W10). Turns out that the app is here:

C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer\ImagingDevices.exe

Strange as it seems, this is Scanners and Cameras in W7 and W8 (and W10)! That is its location even on 64-bit W7 and W8 (and W10), i.e., it is not in \Program Files (x86). I use it often enough in my document imaging work that I decided to make a shortcut for it:

You may add it to the Start menu, place it on the desktop, pin it to the taskbar, or whatever you prefer. When clicking the shortcut, you'll get the Scanners and Cameras applet that you were familiar with in XP and Vista — here's a W7 screenshot (it is the same in W8 and W10):

Selecting the device of interest and clicking Properties does the trick:

You will now have the same dialog box in W7 and W8 (and W10) that you're familiar with in XP and Vista, including all of the same tabs — General, Events, Color Management, Network Setting, and Scan To Button.

Update on 25-May-2015: I just tested this in the Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview, Build 10122 (the latest Build at the time of this comment). The app is still at the same location in W10 and it works perfectly:

Update on 6-Aug-2015 for the official release of Windows 10: The bad news is that Control Panel is still missing Scanners and Cameras. The good news is that the technique presented in this article for W7, W8, and the W10 Technical Preview also works in the official release of W10.

Update on 5-Feb-2020: Just a quick note to document that this method still works with the current W10 Version 1909.

Update on 21-Sep-2020: Another quick note to document that this method still works with W10 Version 2004. Here's a screenshot showing the Network Setting tab on a W10 V2004 system:

I hope this helps some EE members who were confounded, as I was, by not finding Scanners and Cameras in the Control Panel of W7 and W8 (and now, W10).

If you find this article to be helpful, please click the thumbs-up icon below. This lets me know what is valuable for EE members and provides direction for future articles. Thanks very much! Regards, Joe