In message , Paul in Houston TX
writes:
micky wrote:

Are color printers and a separate scanner, designed for win98, I think,
likely to still work with XP or later versions of Windows?

If so I would give them to a hamfest that could give them away at the
sponsor's table, or as part of the door prizes.

They are new, in the box.

(I know I could look each of them up for a specific answer, but not time
right now and the hamfest is in 8 days.)

XP, maybe.
W7, probably not.

As others have said, unfortunately you'd have to check each one
individually. Unless you're talking of a vast number of different
models, it shouldn't take 8 days to check the manufacturer's website,
except in a few cases where the manufacturer has got out of that type of
product altogether (like BenQ for scanners).

Scanners that don't work under 7 can sometimes be made to do so using (I
think it's called) VueScan, but that costs more ($20-$25 IIRR) than a
cheap new scanner. Irritating that the manufacturers don't do this
support, since obviously the hardware does work under 7, but I suppose
they have no incentive to, and I can't blame VueScan for charging for
their product. (They do do a free version you can use to find out if the
scanner will work with a given scanner, but it places overprints on the
image.)

Another point is that, unless towards the end of the '9x period, they
probably connect via the parallel port: virtually all more recent
laptops/netbooks don't have those, and I've been told even some desktops
don't. (You can get USB-to-parallel adapters - "cables", but there is
some electronics in them - but they vary, and may not work with all old
hardware.)

One attraction of old printers is (I'm assuming they're inkjet) the
cartridges won't have quite such insane levels of chipping, though!

Why do you have a pile of new (as in in the box) old printers and
scanner?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

They are public servants, so we will threat them rather as Flashman treats
servants. - Stephen Fry on some people's attitudo to the BBC, in Radio Times,
3-9 July 2010