I thought I’d post this, as I didn’t find an adequate answer in my Googling, and I even saw the question asked over at Yahoo! Answers without a solution.

Recently I decided to finally install and test the Windows 7 release candidate. Having a 64-bit processor, and knowing that finding drivers for 64-bit systems isn’t the hassle that it used to be, I decided to try the 64-bit version.

So far the compatibility issues have been minimal. In fact, the only two areas in which I’ve had any difficulty have been with my Palm Centro (Palm’s software doesn’t support 64-bit Windows for some absurd reason, that will be another topic), and my printer. For some reason, my Canon PIXMA iP3000 is not in Windows’ driver database. Of course the 32-bit driver I had stored on my hard drive wasn’t going to work on the 64-bit system:

No big deal I thought, just head over to their website and download the latest driver for Vista, right? Nope. All they have for Vista is an “Add-on Module” for the driver. Odd. That got me nowhere.

The first part of the answer was simple. Download the Windows XP 64-bit drivers. Duh.
Here’s the link for those that don’t want to endure the tedious task of navigating Canon’s site and having to close window after window with each link followed.

Why Canon neglects to include the XP driver alongside the useless Vista “Add-on” when “Vista” is selected as the OS is puzzling. I hope this helps someone else afflicted by the poorly-organized site (in Canon’s defense, every driver-related site I found does the same thing).

Extract the file you download from Canon’s site to a location you’ll remember (C:\drivers\Canon\iP3000 would be a good idea).

Now we come to problem number 2. This one isn’t quite so simple, though the fix is easy. Windows 7, by default, will not allow unsigned drivers to be installed. So if you simply run the installer from the folder you created above, you’ll eventually get an error telling you this. Since so digitally signed driver exists, you’ll have to circumvent Microsoft’s security.

To do this, reboot the PC, press the F8 key before the Windows logo appears. This will give the option to boot into Safe Mode, Last Known Good Configuration, and a number of other options to boot into a system for troubleshooting purposes. The relevant option in this case would be “Disable Driver Signature Enforcement.” Select that, boot up.

Now you should be able to run Canon’s driver installer without problems. If you still get the error about an unsigned driver, finish the setup and then proceed to the “Devices and Printers” section of your Control Panel. Add a new printer, (choose “Local” if it’s connected directly to the PC in question, “Network” if it’s shared on another PC), click on “Have Disk” when asked for the make and model of your Printer, and navigate to the directory where you extracted the file downloaded from Canon’s site (in the example above, it was C:\drivers\Canon\iP3000). The driver should install correctly now.

That’s it! Please, comment if you find any problems with this solution.

The Problem:

It has been decided that we need a home theater computer (HTPC). Cases designed for the purpose are either expensive, ugly, or they won’t fit properly with the rest of the audio/video components on the shelf. Besides, building one will be much more fun.

The Solution:

I found a nice Sony 5-disc CD player at a yard sale for $5. The plan is to cram a micro-ATX motherboard complete with all the necessities for a fully-functional machine inside. There are plenty of boards with on-board graphics and digital audio that can handle HD video as well as surround sound, so that will help keep costs down and the build simpler. The case is just about the right size for a standard power supply unit, and there should be no need for add-in cards with Ethernet, video and audio all on-board. I also plan to install an LCD display to replace the one in the original CD player.

The Results (So Far):

First, disassembling the CD player. This involved a lot of unscrewing, but not much else. Fortunately, even though the outer casing was screwed right into the internals of the CD player, the four parts that make up the case fit together quite nicely afterwards.

The CD Player	Taken apart
Another view	Reassembled, minus the internals

Sort of.  Instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m migrating the site to a WordPress blog. Less time spent on back-end maintenence will translate to more updates to the site.