Nikon Scan 4.0.3 is considered by them to be Vista compatible. The scan software itself installs and opens fine, but when I power on the scanner, I get the message that the driver was found but that the install failed because "the specified file was not found".

The drivers are present on the disk, and Nikon says they do work with Vista. The only thing they believe is the issue now is that when they are installed, the are written to the wrong place. On their working Vista system, the driver itself (supplied by Nikon) can be found in \windows\system32, and that it requires usbscan.sys to be in \windows\system\drivers. On my system, they were placed in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\sti .inf_727905e0 and C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository respectively.

There latest suggestion to me was to reboot in safe mode, move the files to the "required" locations and then try again. I was loathe to move usbscan.sys, not knowing what else might be relying on it (I did have another scanner installed and would like to reinstall it at some point; removed at their suggestion thinking it might be causing a conflict), so I copied it. I also copied a few other files: the Nikon supplied INF notably, as well as two or three other files in the C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nks usb.inf_1439cd60 directory, and the STI.INF file I found in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\sti .inf_727905e0, since the INF file from Nikon includes STI.INF.

The end result was the same "specified file not found" error. I haven't heard back from Nikon as yet on this as it was late Friday when I tried it. They have pointed me to a few Vista-oriented forums on the internet they Googled which seem to indicate this is a "common" issue with Vista Ultimate, and at least in one case, it was reported that when browsing for the location of the drivers when prompted, to point to the FileRepository subdirectory where the driver was. This also failed for me in the same way (I did this BEFORE moving the files).

So, while I wait for Nikon, I was wondering if anyone here could shed any light I could pass on to them or even have a solution? For one thing, how can I tell WHAT the "specified file" is? I did find errors in the event log when the driver install fails, but the files there, which I have passed along to Nikon, don't tell me what that file is either. Is there something in those files I should highlight to them?

Thanks much!

Among its many design flaws Vista retains the registry.
Hence it is possible that an entry in the registry points to the wrong file location.
This kind of install problem can happen in early versions of Windows as well, but added to all the other problems with Vista is just too much.
When this happened with a high end Epson scanner in XP they suggested I do this, which I now do whenever similar problems arise.
If you have not tried it then delete the driver the usual way. Then manually delete all entries related to the Nikon drivers in My Programs and anything left behind in Windows (the locations you mention).
Make a backup copy of the registry or create a system restore point (unless you dual boot to XP in which case Vista cheerfully deletes your restore point, another great thing about Vista) and then manually comb the registry and delete every reference to Nikon you can find. If you have other Nikon programs, e.g. NX, you may have to reinstall these.
Reboot and then reinstall the Nikon driver.
If it makes you feel any better I have a Monaco Optixx color calibrator that absolutely refuses to work with the manufacturer's supplied Vista drivers. They no longer respond to my E-mails.

Sorry, but that doesn't make me feel better.

I have several other Nikon products installed, so I'm not too inclined to remove EVERYTHING in the registry related to Nikon. And since these particular drivers had not been present on my system prior to this, then after doing this, wouldn't the driver installation process try to put them back in the same place anyway?

Any other suggestions? Thanks.
"flaming-o" wrote in message news Among its many design flaws Vista retains the registry.
Hence it is possible that an entry in the registry points to the wrong file location.
This kind of install problem can happen in early versions of Windows as well, but added to all the other problems with Vista is just too much.
When this happened with a high end Epson scanner in XP they suggested I do this, which I now do whenever similar problems arise.
If you have not tried it then delete the driver the usual way. Then manually delete all entries related to the Nikon drivers in My Programs and anything left behind in Windows (the locations you mention).
Make a backup copy of the registry or create a system restore point (unless you dual boot to XP in which case Vista cheerfully deletes your restore point, another great thing about Vista) and then manually comb the registry and delete every reference to Nikon you can find. If you have other Nikon programs, e.g. NX, you may have to reinstall these.
Reboot and then reinstall the Nikon driver.
If it makes you feel any better I have a Monaco Optixx color calibrator that absolutely refuses to work with the manufacturer's supplied Vista drivers. They no longer respond to my E-mails.