Old Canon printer compatibility tip for Windows 10, 11
Cannot install Canon printer drivers
Canon MF4450 does not print in Windows 10
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Hey, I had some problems with my old canon printer (IP4200 in my case) connecting to my windows 10 computer, windows kept detecting an "inkjet printer" but said "driver is unavailable". I didn't find another complete topic so I hope this one will be beneficial for those who come here from google, etc and are less tech savvy
First of all know that the old printers should still work with the newer windows installations, sometimes without some functionalities (some people said printing works but scanning not) so that's why canon are saying it's not compatible.
The key to make it work is to go to canon's website, ignore them detecting your new Windows saying there aren't any drivers and look for the newest OS they say is still supported (In my case win7), make sure you select your build (64bit/32bit, nowadays if you don't know you're probably x64) and download. Once downloaded, install. If you want to make sure it'll run it, do Right click -> Properties -> Compatibility and change the drop-down menu to that OS (win7/vista etc), and also run the program as administrator.
Then go to printers settings, click "remove device" if it was badly detected before, unplug and plug your printer and it should appear with its name.
Last thing, If the driver you downloaded didn't make the charm, notice that there are apparently two Canon driver websites. For me downloading from Canon UK website ( PIXMA iP4200 - Support - Download drivers, software and manuals - Canon UK ) didn't work, but the driver version on the USA website( Support | iP Series | PIXMA iP4200 | Canon USA ) did the trick
Edit; If I helped you, and you are into fashion, jewelry and/or beauty (either as a consumer or business), I'd appreciate if you can PM me :) I'm working on an important problem in these areas and would love some feedback.
Tried all of this but when I tried to add printer it still wouldn't take the drivers
Thank you for your reply. I have not tried your suggestions yet. Here's some more information you may find useful. A second Microsoft representative remoted in to my laptop, made numerous changes, removing printer drivers and adding generic printer drivers, constantly saying "don't worry" as I voiced my concerns at what she was doing. To make a long story short, she told me I can use Microsoft Scan & Fax now. But I never had an issue with that; it always worked but the scan could not give me a PDF which is what I really needed; they were really pictures. So she made all those changes for nothing. To make matters worse, now I could not print even though I could scan through Microsoft. So I had to do a system restore 3 times to get back to where I was.
Back to you now. I now have Windows 10 version 2004 for x64 based systems, updated to 2020-11.
In thinking about your suggestions, I am not sure if they will work. When I type 192.168.1.1 in the address bar, I get an error message "Hmmm . . . your Internet access is blocked". In contrast, our desktop and my wife's laptop show the login to the router. This appears to be why the Canon printer drivers cannot be installed. Do you think my following your instructions will fixed this? Please note that I can print but not scan. The second Microsoft representation said that I may have to do a custom installation of Windows 10 to fix this. But that would erase all the programs I have on my laptop and I would have to reinstall them so I am trying to avoid that.
Again, thank you so much and I look forward to your response.