Computer Hope

I have a very old iphone which I no longer use except for taking picture. My problem is trying to get these photos off the phone and onto my computer. The computer says it doesn't recognize the device. Does anyone have any ideas?

How old is the iPhone?

I have an iPhone 7 and as long as I unlock phone prior to plugging the USB/Apple cable to computer with Windows 10, and on the Apple iPhone it asks for allowing access and I select allow, it automatically adds the driver to access the phone then I can access the pictures through the Windows PC at Apple iPhone  -> Internal Storage-> DCIM

If you don't get the prompt at the iPhone when connecting the phone to PC try a different cable as maybe the cable is able to charge but the USB data line for D+ and D- is faulty.

Other thing is to verify that the connection is clean to the phone so your getting the D+ and D- for communications over USB.

I was able to get an XP OS to recognize the phone but I still can't access the pictures. I'm going to try with Vista.

Oh your still getting by with XP SP3 cool. I though the stats of system were just not updated in a while. I only use XP for offline purposes these days myself for older games that run better on old hardware/drivers etc. If you have a spare computer kicking around that meets the requirements for Windows 10 or a spare hard drive or SSD you can install Windows 10 to that other system or other hard drive to not mess up your XP build and that might work for you with the trial period of Windows 10 to access the phones pictures if Vista doesn't work for you. Microsoft makes it really easy to make Windows 10 installation media and a activation key is not required to install it. When installing Windows 10 if you have it not connected to a network connection and at the key activation window you select that you don't have a key it will allow installation without a key and Windows 10 will be in a trial mode and eventually a watermark will slow in lower right corner of screen reminding you to activate Windows but it will continue to work. For as cheap as refurb computers are these days with an activated license of Windows 10 it might be worth buying a refurb for around $100, but I'd test first with the free trial of Windows 10 first to make sure it works with your phone before spending money to avoid spending around $100 on a refurb if not necessary and wanting to stick it out longer with XP and Vista.

Apple Devices don't (didn't?) show up as mass storage devices, you needed to use iTunes to access them. Might need an old version installed on XP depending on the specific model.

I have a few iPhones (iPhone 4 and 7) And I use a software program called "3uTools" to access them instead of iTunes. This gives access to music/videos/photos and such stored on the device pretty easily. I'm able to access the contents of both the 4 and 7 this way.