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+--- Thread: Driver breaking (/showthread.php?tid=3374)
Driver breaking - F2d5thCav - 02-17-2026
Had a weird one with the PCs.
Suddenly, the scan function for my Brother printer stopped working ... on more than one PC at my residence. Could still print
Had to reinstall the drivers for the Brother. I -think- this was a side effect of a Windows update, but annoying.
Or maybe BIG Brother wants to record what I'm scanning
RE: Driver breaking - Ninurta - 02-17-2026
Brother printer... Big Brother... Big Brother scanner...
I usually used the Twain source for my scanners instead of the scanner software, but they do sometimes behave oddly. I've had scanners that refused to connect to the network, and I've had scanners that automatically were found by my computers without me doing anything at all - I never even connected them to the network, yet there they were, showing up on the computers.
It's the ghost in the machines, I tell ya!
If you're on Windows 11, it was probably an update. Win11 updates are known to regularly break stuff, or uninstall stuff that Microsoft thinks you ought not to be using. With Windows 11, Microsoft appears to have gone fully into "this is not YOUR computer, it's OUR computer, and you'll only use it in ways we approve for you to use it" mode.
According to YouTube, Windows 11 users are jumping ship in droves and moving to Linux, mostly Linux Mint I think. At least with Linux, you get to use the computer YOU paid for in the way YOU want to use it, without having to kiss the ring and seek some corporation's approval.
I just saw a video this evening claiming that Linux has shot up in the market share to around 14%. Last time I checked, it was around 6%. They are predicting Linux to have 18-20% of the market by the end of this year, with Windows dropping to below 50% for the first time in over 30 years.
I don't currently have a printer or a scanner in my home network, so I'm sort of at a loss to explain what you're experiencing with yours... but I'm betting on The Ghost in the Machine.
ETA: A few years ago, I had a Dell desktop box that had WiFi built in to the motherboard, and I had no idea. Windows never even hinted that there was a WiFi connection available to that box. I got a wild hair and installed Linux on it in a dual-boot configuration (Zorin OS, because that's my favorite) and all of the sudden, the box was on the WiFi and internetting it's ass off before I ever connected the internet cable to it. That was how I found out it had WIFI capability - nothing in the manual or Windows even hinted at it.
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RE: Driver breaking - F2d5thCav - 02-17-2026
Pretty sure my next machine will run a Linux of some kind. Only thing holding me back now is there is one Windows program I would like to run and I'm not sure if WINE will run it. Have to get off my backside and look into that.
RE: Driver breaking - Ninurta - 02-17-2026
WINE is sort of hit and miss. It will run some surprisingly complex programs, but at other times will choke on much simpler programs. Depending on what the program is, you may need to run it in WINE, or there may be a Linux alternative, or, as a last resort, there are always virtual machines to consider.
That's one of the things I like about Zorin. It will suggest Linux equivalent programs, and the version I have came with a virtual machine program already installed (Virtualbox).
If I try to install a Windows program in this version of Linux, it will first suggest a Linux equivalent if there is one, and if I insist, it will automatically open WINE and install it to WINE.
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RE: Driver breaking - Ninurta - 02-18-2026
This looks interesting as a solution for Windows-only programs on Linux.
If I understand it correctly, it runs Windows programs inside a virtual machine container on Linux. The major difference seems to be that you don't get the virtual machine when you open a program, you just get the program window as if it were running directly under Linux. So, if that's the case, it would be pretty seamless, and it will use the Linux filesystem rather than having to sandbox everything, and all your files, inside the virtual machine.
That would eliminate most of my objections to virtual machines. You wouldn't have to constantly reconfigure it, you wouldn't have to figure out how to get that dinky VM window to full screen, and you wouldn't have to come up with workarounds to get the files you produce out of your virtual machine.
That would leave my virtual machines to be used just when I'm running questionable software, or visiting questionable websites, stuff that might bork my whole computer with a virus or trojan or something - I could just use them when I needed to test a new OS, or when I needed to sandbox programs or sites to keep my computer safe. I've used them a long time now for those situation. IF I brick a virtual machine, all I have to do is delete the container file and create a new one, rather than having to re-do my entire computer.
So, yeah, something worth checking into.
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