I found the following work around listed here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...11404&SiteID=1

Posted By: OnePostOnly
Posted Date: 22 Jan 2007, 4:32 PM UTC
I had the same problem and the only solution I found was to give up on Microsoft Document Imaging and install PDF Creator (http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator). You can print to PDF's as well as TIFF and other formats. Best of all . . .it's FREE! Oh, yeah, and it actually works.

I downloaded and installed PDFCreator using the MSI option. Upon installation, I found that the printer that was supposed to be created was not on my PC either. I looked on PDFCreator site for a solution. It referenced me to SetupLog.txt file in the PDFCreator folder, where I found this error - InstallPrinter [PDFCreator]: 1797: The printer driver is unknown. I then googled on that error and came up with this link... http://www.pdfforge.org/node/740/1754#comment-1754, which states to "Uninstall the msi package and use the exe setup." So, I did that. As I was installing the exe version, it noted an error with a corrupted path setting and asked to fix it. So, I let it fix the corrupted path setting, which required a reboot. Upon rebooting, I attempted to install PDFCreator again. This time it loaded as I expected and it created the Printer too.

That got me to thinking, maybe the corrupted path setting is the cause of the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Printer Disappearing. So, I tried installing it again with these steps:

Uninstall and then reinstall the MODI printer driver feature
using your Office 2003 CD. Instructions courtesy of Windows MVP
Carey Frisch:
1. Close all running applications. If you have any Office
application running, the driver will not be installed properly.
2. Go to "Control Panel" and "Add or Remove Programs".
3. Click on "Microsoft Office 2003" and then click on "Change".
4. Check "Add or Remove Features" and click "Next".
5. On the bottom of the page check "Choose advanced
customization of applications." and click "Next".
6. Under Microsoft Office click on the + sign in front of
"Office Tools"
7. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Not Available".
8. Click on "Update". This will uninstall the MODI driver.
9. Repeat steps 1 to 6 to go back to the same location you
were before.
10. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Run from My Computer".
11. Click on "Update".


Results: Success! My Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Printer was back in place. Woo-hoo! So, it looks like the fix is repairing a corrupted path setting. Not sure how to fix the corrupted path setting other than through PDFCreator EXE install at this time. Good luck if you run into this issue!