You mean to say Windows 8 has a fax folder?

Posted on 12/11/2012

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Take a trip back to 1990. The Windows 8 My Documents folder has a Fax sub-folder.

Younger readers, ask your parents about faxes.

Since I haven’t sent or received a fax in 15 years, I can only assume the folder was automatically installed by Windows. I’ve installed a fresh OS so it isn’t something previously hidden that Windows helpfully dragged up from the vaults.

I don’t remember seeing it before so my guess is the folder was added when I used the Windows Fax and Scan software to scan some paper documents.

Which brings me to my next question: why does Windows 8 have Fax software at all? There’s an argument for legacy stuff on a PC. This is ridiculous.

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I’ve also found it a bit odd that the basic-utility scanning tool in Windows 8 is called “Windows Fax and Scan” but I guess when you cater to a market as large as the one that consumes Windows, you have to weigh the options : you take it out and (make more sense, reduce the number of things you have to support, etc) deal with a hundred thousand loudly complaining Luddites that are still using fax, or you leave it in. Windows Media Centre, anyone? DVD Playback?

I also note that there are actually “enhancements” to Fax still coming out, including Fax over IP, which the legal profession must appreciate – there’s something wonderful about a document delivery system that stands up in court and shuts down any “I never received a copy of that memo” rubbish

billbennettnz says:
12/11/2012 at 4:31 pm
I thought this would be a good moment to check if anyone still uses faxes. According to this story Infoworld (http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-center/why-the-fax-machine-refuses-die-171308?page=0,1) Two billion fax pages were sent in 2011.

Unfortunately if you deal regularly with Governments – tax offices in particular, they STILL don’t give out e-mail addresses, and fax is the only way to communicate. Windows 8 may have fax software, but try finding a laptop with a modem. Thankfully USB modems are still available on e-bay….

billbennettnz says:
22/11/2012 at 2:35 pm
Hi Ollie
I had to check you email address as this doesn’t square with experience in New Zealand. The other give-away is e-bay, hardly anyone here uses that.
Here, I’ve found that if an organisation isn’t up with the play technically, the chances are it is REALLY behind the times. So the operations that aren’t all-digital are likely to use the NZ Post service.
When I was in Australia I found an Internet-to-fax service. I suspect it was free. Are those still in operation there?
- tnqtassignment says:
  22/11/2012 at 2:58 pm
  Yes Bill, I’ve used internet-to-fax and fax-to-internet services as well when I lived in the UK, but for the amount of time I used them (once in a blue moon) the monthly subscriptions became prohibitively costly because they’re not free (if you want a fax number). But I still have to deal with the UK Tax Office (HMRC) via fax, and also when sending any documents to the Australian defence force – just the way it still is. If you want ancient technology – did you know that Oki still build the ML182 dot-matrix printer because of demand for handling continuous stationary – I was using those in the mid 80’s!

Hi just happened to land here searching for info about fax folder location in W8….
Here in Italy you use to send faxes between companies and between companies and the government a lot, the only approved alternative (with legal effects) is smail mail (certified) or PEC (certified Electronic mail), the last one is mandatory to have for government offices but not for private companies.

We can also receive faxes on mobile phones (forwarded as an email) just adding a prefix to the mobile number that will be your fax number

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