rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

A round fifteen years ago I purchased a Plustek scanner with "Silverfast" software, which I installed on our WinXP computer. Since then we moved from Mass to Indiana, then I got a Linux desktop computer, and I got "VueScan" software to run that scanner.

Recently, I purchased a Win11 laptop computer. I could have run it on a Win version of the "VueScan" software, but I wanted to go back to the "Silverfast" software. I was able to locate the CD that had come with the scanner, but my new laptop lacks a CD reader, and I hadn't written down the 'user id' that went with it ...... so I contacted Plustek, who put me in touch with "Silverfast". {from here on, all "conversations' were via text message}.

Both "VueScan" and "Silverfast" are based in Germany, but "Silverfast" has an office in Florida. Apparently, registration was part of the initialzation process, so they were able to confirm my ownership in minutes. When I had purchased the package, CD readers were a part of nearly every computer, but that turned out to be a short-lived "fad", so they now had a method of doing the whole process over the Internet, and in less than a day, I was up-and-running on "Silverfast" again.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

They are a good company! 20 years ago when I was running digital departments of a film/digital photo lab, I had an Epson flatbed that ran SilverFast. It was great software then. We were scanning the center sections of 8x10 inch Kodak Portra film negatives, so we could print large panoramas on our Epson 9600, a 44" wide printer. Silverfast was the only driver we found for that scanner that could be set up to work correctly with color negative films.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Both Silverfast and Vuescan can work for various scanners, but Silverfast apparently looks for a particular scanner, while Vuescan looks for any scanner, then works from there. In my case, that makes a difference because Silverfast has a driver for my Plustek scanner, while Vuescan seems to find our HP printer/scanner first, so I have to turn off the HP printer/scanner {which irritates my wife} in order to make Vuescan “forget about” it {it has a WiFi connection which seems to make it hard to “forget about”}.

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

How could you run the scanner on your computer? I have an old scanner, but I can't get it to operate on my Win 10

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Silverfast has a ‘Win10’ version {which also runs on Win11} of their “Silverfast8” software {the version I’m on record of having paid for}. The software connects to the scanner via USB. They also have a ‘modern’ version of their ‘Silverfast9’ software, but that was after I purchased the scanner package. Likewise, I purchased Vuescan something like 20 months ago; they allow me to upgrade for 12 months, so I had to look through their inventory to find something that was covered by their agreement. I blurred some of the details in my first description. I might purchase “Silverfast9” - even “Silverfast10” - some time in the future.

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

I don't think that they will help me. I have an old scanner with Silverfast 6. I think that is way past.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I forget their price list, but “Silverfast9” is only something like $100; you can download a trial version - like “VueScan” it puts a ‘watermark’ on downloads, but it gives you a chance to see if that version will work with your system before you spend money on it.