"gregjohn" <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> I have a Canon Power Shot A40, a fairly old model.  Our recollection is that an
> old WinXP laptop, possibly lacking in the appropriate updates, is able to
> download images from it in a plug-and-play fashion.  It's at home.  While on
> vacation,  I tried without success to download the images from both a Windows
> Vista box (NOT mine!) and a well-updated WinXP laptop. Windows insisted on
> finding a driver.  We went searching for Windows software and or drivers for
> the A40, but it either appeared to be scamware not from Canon or crap from
> Canon that wasn't in fact a driver.
>
> I booted  a Kubuntu 8.04.1 live CD on the WinXP laptop. Kubuntu mounted the
> camera automatically. Digikam autodetected the camera type and downloaded the
> images-- in this case I chose USB drive.
>
> Q: Should I have had to go to Linux?  Either in terms of my skill about knowing
> what Windows should do, or in what Windows "used to" be able to do?

I've always had trouble with Canon software/drivers working on my XP/Vista
boxes. I gave up and bought a generic USB card reader. I pop the memory stick
out of the camera into the reader and cut and paste all image files into a
folder on the PC just using Windows Explorer. It frees the memory on the stick
for more photos at the same time.

I just keep the reader in my laptop case when traveling and getting lots of good
reference photos.

:)

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