Strange driver install problem

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Very weird problem on my Windows 11 Home, V21H2 PC.  I have an Epson V/30 scanner that uses the file epson13534.exe to install its driver. This is for the driver only, one needs a separate program like Windows Fax and Scan to do the scanning.  The driver is certified for Windows 11. Recently I had trouble running a scan. I got the error message in WFS:

No scanners were detected. If a scanner is installed, make sure that it is powered on and connected to the computer,
and then try again.

I got similar messages with other scanner programs. I attempted to solve this problem  by uninstalling the Epson driver and then reinstalling it. The uninstall went fine, but I was thwarted in the reinstall by the weird problem described below. (I finally solved the scanner problem by restoring a recent image of my SSD which both restored the driver as well as fix the scanner function.)

The problem occurs when I attempted to run the epson13534.exe file. I got the screen asking if I wanted to install the driver, but when I clicked on YES, instead of the driver installation screen, I got an installer screen for AutoHotKey, an app I have on my system. What’s more, the install query was for an earlier version of AHK than I currently have on my computer. When I dragged the AHK window out of the way, the installer screen for the Epson driver was revealed behind it, but its Setup button was grayed out and clicking on it did nothing. Note that I don’t have the install program for that earlier version of AHK anywhere on my computer. I do have a copy of the installer for the current version in my Downloads folder.

I have done about everything I could think to fix this issue. I have downloaded a fresh copy of the scanner driver (it was identical to the version I had on my computer).  It had the same issue. I uninstalled AutoHotkey and then searched for and moved every file and folder that had AutoHotKey in its name to an external drive for safekeeping and then deleted every trace of them on my computer. I searched the registry for any keys with AutoHotKey in its Name or Data and deleted them. And both manually and using CCleaner, I deleted all deletable temp files on the PC. Yet, no matter what I did, I still got the setup window for AHK. I even installed that earlier version just in case the problem was caused by an incomplete install of that version.  (I have since reinstalled the current iteration of AHK and moved back its associated data files.)

Since the scanner (and AHK) are currently working properly. I no longer have any need to run the Epson driver installer. But given the effort I have put into this very strange occurrence, I would still like to know how these two installers could get intertwined. Anyone have an idea?

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Seems like the GUID for the driver’s install program isn’t as random as it should be.

Epson usually have an extract option on their software. If not you’re going to need to find the extracted driver files (in your %temp% folder if extract isn’t an option? ).

Then you might be able to sidestep the installer once you have the location with the following in an administrative CMD prompt. No promises and one way to find out.. obviously set %temp%\where_ever_the_files_are to the location..

pnputil /add-driver %temp%\where_ever_the_files_are\*.inf

Maybe do a backup or restore point (or whatever you do)  first, just in case, though you can undo the action given through PNPUTIL as well.. it’s just an installer program is easier for everyone then the manual install route.

 

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WSbobjbkln

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Thank you for the (probable) explanation.  It gave me an idea.  I mounted an image I had from January 2020 soon after I bought this computer.  In its Downloads folder, it had the Epson installer (epson13534.exe) program along with an installer for an earlier version of AutoHotKey  (which presumably generates a different, non- conflicting GUID) .   I  installed the scanner driver from that mounted image.  It seems to have done the trick!   The scanner is working now.  Let’s hope it continues to do so.

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