Even though Nikon does not officially support their film scanners on Windows 7, they will work with a little effort. I own the Nikon Coolscan V, sometimes referred to as the Nikon LS-50, but these instructions also apply to the some of the other Nikon film scanners such as the the Coolscan 5000 (LS-5000), Coolscan 4000 (LS-4000), Coolscan 8000, and the Coolscan 9000.

Disclaimer – these instructions have been adapted from http://www.exposedvisions.com/Win7%20Scans.htm. You will need to download my .inf for the Coolscan V (itself modified from Steel Chn’s version), but otherwise credit goes to Andrew Minton at exposedvisions.com.

Download the required files

1. Begin by downloading Nikon Scan 4 from Nikon here. You want the 32-bit Vista edition. Don’t worry, it will install just fine under Windows 7 x64.
2. Next, download my scanners.inf here. Unzip it in a location of your choosing.

 Install Nikon Scan

(Note – if you have Vuescan installed, uninstall it now. You can reinstall Vuescan later.)

1. Install Nikon Scan. It should install uneventfully and create the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Nikon\NkScan4\
2. Create a new folder inside of NkScan4. Copy your extracted scanners.inf into the new folder you just created. I called my folder “NikonFiles”
3. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Nikon\Driver\ScanUSB (Scan1394 for Firewire equipped scanners) and copy “NKScnUSD.dll” to the folder you created in step 2. You should now see “scanners.inf” and “NKScnUSD.dll” in this folder.
4. If you haven’t already, plug in your scanner, being sure it is turned on.
5. If windows asks you for a driver, you can point it to the scanners.inf file located in the folder you created in step 2. Otherwise, open your device manager (start -> right click on my computer -> manage -> device manager), open “other devices”, the right click on “unknown device” and select “Update Driver Software.” This device will have a yellow exclamation icon next to it. Select the second, bottom option  labeled “Browse my computer for driver software” then enter “C:\Program Files (x86)\Nikon\NkScan4\NikonFiles” as the location, substituting “NikonFiles” for the folder you created in step two. Press next and the scanner will install. If a warning comes up that says the driver/software cannot be validated (I forget the exact message), select continue.
6. The scanner should now be installed and Nikon Scan should work as intended. If you use Vuescan, you can install it now.

35mm film scan of my 318i convertible in 2006