Irfanview

Link: http://irfanview.com/ get the free plugins too.

I have CS3, Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, Corel, and a stack of others, but for quick chip editing, I just hit Irfanview. It scans, edits and adjusts, without loading some massive creative software. It's fast... and IT'S FREE

Want to clone, do layers, cut circles (like for chips) fill with a bucket, paint, draw, isolate, and a whole bunch of other things? It's like a mini Photoshop, and once again... IT'S FREE!

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP.

Paint.Net

http://www.getpaint.net/

Both of the above have Twain sources and will create images directly from your scanner, without any other software.