i recently got from a friend a primascan colorada 2400u scanner unopened in box . Problem is it came with win98 driver disk.After searching i found a driver for xp but no vista driver for this scanner it is no longer supported.I would like to use it but i need vista driver is there any workaround so that i could get it to work on vista?maybe 3rd party driver?any help appreciated

Nope...99.999999999999999999999999% of the time a device that has no Vista driver, like a scanner, means that most or more of its features are actually 'software' and not something that the physical hardware of the item does. This functionality is totally dependent upon the operating system. This class of hardware is commonly referred to as a Win<insert device type here>, often with some 'colorful' language attached.

On the Linux side of things, that whole series of scanners is listed as "unsupported", which basically means "paperweight", although some models do have limited, basic functions...namely the parport models. And by limited, it usually means they can get the scan head to move and pick up an image...

Vista 'broke' a number of things, many of them on purpose. The typical way this type of device works actually depended upon some of the things Vista broke...one of which, relying on unlimited, 'superuser' access privileges in order to do anything is probably the biggest reason that a driver for said device is never going to happen...

ok thanks for the reply.GUESS THE KIDS GET A SCANNER FOR THEIR XP.

how about running XP as a "Virtual Machine" within Vista and using the scanner within that environment?

See VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/).