How to get the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 to Work in Windows 11

 23 June 2022

How to get the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 to Work in Windows 11

Introduction

I have had my Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 since, probably, 2009.  It does two-sided black-and-white or color scans with amazing speed.  It requires a bit of dusting sometimes, but has otherwise never given me any trouble.

After upgrading to Windows 11, I noticed that my scanner no longer worked.  It still works on my old Win 10 laptop, but not under Windows 11.  Sure enough–The Fujitsu ScanSnap Website confirms, in its laconic fashion, that the software that runs the ScanSnap S1500 is not compatible with Windows 11; No plans to upgrade their drivers at Fujitsu.  Their only recommendation– Get a brand new Fujitsu ScanSnap iX 1600 Versatile Cloud Enabled Document Scanner for Mac or PC, for only $599.95!

I am sure I would enjoy a new iX 1600, and since it is being sold for the price of 2 gallons of gas, why not?  But I thought I would try to get Win 11 to run the old scanner anyway.  

Finding the Programs

The ScanSnap Manager program seems to have several EXE’s with cryptic, though logical, names.  In my Windows 11 Home version, these are located in the following directory:

C:\Program Files (x86)\PFU\ScanSnap\Driver\

Here are the program files I upgraded:

PfuSsMFThumbnail.exe

PfuSsMon.exe

PfuSsOcr.exe

PfuSsQuickMenu.exe

PfuSsQuickMenuManager.exe

Changing Compatibility Mode Settings

If you can find the program files, it is possible to tell Windows 11 to run them in a compatibility mode for an earlier version of Windows.  I did the following procedure for all of the above files.  Could be that you don’t really need to do all of them, but I don’t have the patience to undo compatibility one at a time until the scanner doesn’t work–

Procedure:

Highlight Program

Right-click Program name

Left-click Show More Options

Left-click Troubleshoot Compatibility

Program says “Detecting Issues” and gives two selections;

Left-click Selection 2, [Manually] Troubleshoot Program.  

(Auto gives you Vista compatibility.)

Left-click Selection 1, This program worked in Earlier versions of Windows

Left-click [Next] button

Left-click Selection 1 Windows 8 Compatibility 

(or Windows 10 if that gets on the list someday)

Left-click [Next]

Left-click [Test the Program]

The program may or may not seem to work.  Whether it seems to work or not–

Left-click [Next]

Left-click [Yes] to save these settings.

Left-click [Close]

Do this for all the EXE files listed above, then try scanning something with your Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500.  

Hopefully, your ScanSnap 1500 will start working again!