Windows Fax and Scan
| File:Windows Fax and Scan Vista Fax.png A screenshot of Windows Fax and Scan in Windows Vista in Fax view. | |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 6.0.6000.16386
/ November 8, 2006 |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows Vista |
| Type | Fax software, Scan software |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | Windows Fax and Scan |
Windows Fax and Scan (WFS) is an integrated faxing and scanning application included in the Windows Vista operating system. This application is only available with Vista Business, Vista Enterprise and Vista Ultimate[1]. With Windows Fax and Scan users can send and receive faxes, fax or email scanned documents and forward faxes as email attachments from the computer. WFS supports one-click scanning of documents from locally connected scanners, network-connected scanners and multifunction devices. Even when this can be used for most type of documents, WFS is optimized for scanning, viewing and storing text documents. Windows Photo Gallery can better suit for scanning photos and pictures and can store them in the Pictures folder.
WFS is available by default in Windows Vista Ultimate and is available as an optional component in Windows Vista Business and Enterprise.
Faxing
The Fax View of WFS is an improved and enhanced version of the Fax Services component which was available as an option in the Windows XP operating system. The significant new features include a fax account model, an enriched composition experience, the ability to save faxes in composition as drafts, and a preview pane. It is also possible to right click on a file and send it as a fax. To send and receive faxes users can either create a local fax modem account to use a locally attached fax-capable modem or can create a shared fax server account to use a network fax server.
Scanning
| Part of a series of articles on |
| Windows Vista |
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| New features |
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The Scan View of WFS has an intuitive user interface to manage scanned documents. It allows the creation of new folders, the renaming of folders, moving folders across, etc. from a single view. The preview pane gives a quick view of the documents scanned. Users can create profiles for particular scanners and save them for future scanning. Users can also directly route the scanned documents to their mailboxes after configuring the mail settings. The 'Fax from Scanner' feature allows users to directly fax the document from the scanner.
Beyond the basic capabilities, the Windows Fax and Scan experience offers more productivity and flexibility than in the past. This application is a step towards Unified Messaging, in bringing together the management of related media like faxes, emails, digital documents, etc.
