Can I use a scanner connected to another computer on my computer?

I have a home server running Windows Server 2008 R2, wich has one multi-functional printer.

I can already use the printer from my laptop (Windows 7 Professional RTM), but can I use the scanner tool from my laptop? If so, how?

Solution 1:

Share a scanner / Twain device via TCP/IP in Win32 with the Network Twain Engine

Network Twain Engine is free open source software.

Solution 2:

You can always use remote desktop connection to remotely log in to the Windows Server 2008 R2 machine. Although that doesn't mean you get the images scanned directly to your own computer, you can transfer using shared folders on top of it.

Solution 3:

There are at least several solutions:

1) USB over Network - Allows to share any USB device on remote computer and connect it to your computer over network. Virtual USB device is created on your PC. And it appears like if the remote USB device was unplugged from the remote computer and plugged to your one.

2) Scanner for Remote Desktop - It allows to redirect your locally plugged scanner to your remote Windows session. In other words, you can logon to RDP or Citrix session from your local PC and scan within the session.

I hope it will help!