What printer model? What OS (assuming Windows)? What interface (USB? Network?)

Most printers don’t require any special software - especially if it is a network printer. If it is a USB model, it may require a driver, but you should be able to install a printer driver without any of these applications. Windows has built-in functionality for printing and scanning, as well as sharing these devices over the network. You might consider some fancy scanning software (which doesn’t necessarily have to come from the same vendor as your printer/scanner - e.g. Paperwork) if you are trying to do automatic OCR and convert scans to searchable PDF documents.

I’d try unplugging the printer, uninstalling all of it, plugging the printer back in, and letting Windows try to automatically retrieve whatever driver is necessary. If this doesn’t work, I’d then return to the Epson website and try to download drivers / software, unchecking every optional feature / add-on possible when downloading / installing them.

On Linux, the two main components are CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) and SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy). All end-user software interacts with these components, and all drivers are written targeting these components (as opposed to the OS kernel directly). As a result, the end user software, the device drivers, and the OS are mostly decoupled and interchangeable. This is basically how stuff works in the libre world. Apparently both CUPS and SANE can also be used on Windows, but I imagine it would be impractical for various reasons and certainly redundant.