Lets talk about scanning for a moment. Most people use the software that came with the scanner to scan. That software is usually bloated and not the most appropriate, but if everything is configured it should do the job.

Users who like to speed up things use third party software instead, and WinScan2PDF is such a software.

The free portable program offers one feature: It turns one or multiple sheets of paper into a pdf document. Usage is dead simple and should not pose troubles for anyone.

The program displays three buttons and two options in the main interface. Non-German speaking users should click on LNG in the lower right corner to change the language to English or one of the other supported interface languages.

You select the source first with the button on the left. Just select the scanner that is connected to your computer. Most users will find only one scanner in the list.

You can then opt to scan in multiple pages that will be all turned into the same pdf document or just one page. If you do not check the Multiple Pages checkbox only one page will be turned into a pdf document. A click on Scan to PDF initiates the scan.

The first document that you put into the scanner will be scanned and converted into a pdf document after the scan.

And that’s it. No fancy interface, options or anything. Ideal for quick scanning and the creation of pdf documents.

WinScan2PDF is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions and versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. You can download the program from the developer’s website over at Software OK.

Results vary depending on the digital camera used but it can be basically said that most digital cameras should be able to produce a good enough scan. It is a good idea to use enough lighting and place the document on a one colored background. This makes it easier later on to process the scanned document in an image editor.

It really depends on the purpose of the scan. If you just want to scan a document to a friend or family member a simple image might suffice but if you have to send it to authorities, business or other formal contacts you might want to make sure that it looks extra fine.

The one colored background ensures that it is easy to copy and paste the document to create a new document that is using the exact document borders as its resolution. This looks way more professional than a document photographed on a kitchen table.

The scanned document can then be printed or send electronically. It is really an easy and efficient process. Have additional tips? Let us hear them.

Photocopier (via Inspect My Gadget) is a name of a free software program that can emulate a photocopier by utilizing a connected printer and scanner. The process itself has been designed to be as uncomplicated as possible. At best the only requirement is to put the paper into the scanner and press the copy button to start the photocopying process.

If everything goes as planned the printer should print out a copy of the document that has been put into the scanner. The Photocopier software program runs on all Windows operating systems starting with Windows 95 including Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The only other requirements are a printer that is connected to the system and a scanner that supports Twain. A few other settings are available. The user can pick the number of copies that should be made, the brightness of the scan, the scanning mode and basic scaling.

It’s a bit late now but the software QQScan2Disc does that. Well, it actually does even more than that because it can convert the scanned papers into pdf format and burn them to DVD.

The requirements are an ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) Scanner and a computer with Windows XP or Windows Vista. A list of supported scanners is available on the website of the program, they are: Plustek PS281, PS282/286, PL806/812, PL1200, PL1500, PL3000, PL7000/7500, PL2546, OB4600, D428, D600, A320/360 with an option provided by the developer to request the addition of other devices.

The user picks a scanner upon start and configures some of the settings like color mode, resolution, file format and page size. The write settings specify the CD or DVD drive that will be used to store the scanned papers which can be stored in original format, pdf format or both on the disk.

Everything is automatic after that point. The documents will be scanned automatically and burned to the disk in the formats that you have selected.

Update: The software has not been updated in a while. The project web page still states that it is only compatible with XP and Vista, Windows 7 is not mentioned there. While that surely does not impact systems running the supported operating systems, it may mean that the software is not future proof because of this. It is also likely that the developer is no longer adding support for additional scanners.

I found this nice tip at the One Tip a Day blog who himself got it from Digital Inspirations. The open source software iCopy does not require installation and can be run from any location including USB devices.

Just place a document on your scanner and press a button in iCopy to start the process that prints the document in the end. It’s possible to set a quality level in iCopy as well as a brightness and contrast level for the scanned image. Several copies can be printed one after another as well.

iCopy works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Microsoft Server 2003 with the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed.

One way to cope with the situation would be use the freeware Pocket Killbox which deletes selected files before the next system start. Simply start Pocket Killbox and navigate to the file that was identified as a virus. Select delete on reboot and hit the red X icon on the upper right corner of Pocket Killbox. It will prompt for a reboot, select yes and the virus should be automatically deleted during startup.

Just perform a second scan to make sure the virus was really deleted b Pocket Killbox. Another way would be to use the great free program Unlocker which will kill every process that is keeping the file busy. This would mean that you can delete the file in Windows directly without rebooting your computer. It might however have problems with some special system files that have been infected.

Just try both methods and start with Unlocker. Reference to Pocket Killbox first seen on Technibble.

The program is easy to download and install which is also a plus, just download, double click on the downloaded tool and you are ready to go. You have the option to include different languages, the source and add windows explorer and outlook integration. I´am not using Outlook so I removed this option and left everything else untouched for now.

The user interface is a basic one, you don´t have all the nifty graphics most other antivirus programs use. Clam is simply in that way, but its also fast due to this. I don´t care about looks if a program does what I expect it to do, but I know there are lots of people who like a resource eating monster like Symantec Internet Security more than a freeware program without the cool animated effects.

You have lots of configuration options, you can set filters, email alerts, schedule scans and use a proxy for the automatic internet updates if you like. Automatic updates are a great plus for Clam, my current antivirus software that I use (AVG) does not have automatic updates, you have to start the updates manually which is a great hassle. Especially when you don´t know if there has been a update at all.

What I don´t like about Clam is that its only having a plugin for outlook which is the most used email software of course but should not be used by anyone serious about making his pc more secure.

I can recommend Clam Win especially to users of Microsoft Outlook and users who tend to forgot to check for internet updates of their antivirus software. Resources accessed are minimal which is also a good thing for an anti-virus product.