Help with Epson Scanner that has stopped working; Epson support says it is windows.

"Printer.exe" is malware.  Your computer was and still may be infected.

See, e.g., http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/printer.exe-19403.html

Raise the problem with tech support at your work.

The antivirus is McAfee . And it's controlled by my work. It can not be turned off either . They are the admins. But  the exceptions tab I do see printer.exe so it should work . None of that has changed in 10 years . 

I am going to try the instructions listed . All I hope is that it doesn't interfere with it running all the work problems as well. Or change any settings. Once done I am unsure how to be sure all is turned back on. more of a step by step person lol

@MaliciousDelicious

BearPup, who last wrote on this topic over a year ago, may or may not respond.

BearPup's description of how to do a "clean boot" specifically does NOT disable Microsoft services.  I assume, however, that you followed the directions and selected "Hide all Microsoft services" before you clicked the "Disable all" button.  If your scanner worked when you did that, I suspect that you have some sort of "security" program installed that blocks operation of your scanner.  When you disabled it, the scanner works.

What is the name and version of your antivirus program?

What other security software is installed?

Run msconfig again and select "Normal startup"  When you restart the computer, this will restore your computer to the state it was in originally -- and your scanner will undoubtedly not work.  Now run msconfig again and select the Services tab.  Look at the list of services remaining after you select "Hide all Microsoft services."  Do any of these services appear to relate to a security program or a firewall?  Which one(s)? 

If you can't determine by inspection which service is the culprit, you'll have to use a process of elimination.  Uncheck half of the non-Microsoft services, click OK, and restart the computer.  If your scanner works, you know that the service that was blocking it is in the group that you unchecked; if your scanner doesn't work, you know that the service that is blocking it is in the group that remained checked.

Run msconfig and enable all of the non-Microsoft services.  Then disable half of the group that includes the blocking service.  Click OK and restart the computer.  Test the scanner. 

Continue doing this until you have identified the one service that when disabled permits the scanner to work.  Be sure to return the computer to "Normal startup" after you have identified the problem service.  At this point, you should be able to either uninstall the program that uses that service or configure it to allow the scanner to work.  If you can't figure out what to do after you have identified the service, post back with its name and we'll try to figure out what program is involved.

I did the selective start up and disabling the Microsoft services and the scanner works . Now what do I do ?

i mean do I have to go back and reverse what I did ??

i didn't have to load anything or reinstall the scanner . It automatically worked

I fixed this same problem by typing services.msc in search box of Windows 7.   When' services' appears I opened it by clicking on it. From there I scrolled down to find ' SHELL HARDWARE DETECTION .'  It was disabled. I clicked on it and selected ' Automatic '. Closed that out and my scanner works fine now.