Canon PIXMA MP160 Driver Download and Installation Guide

If your Canon PIXMA MP160 is not printing, scanning, or showing up on your PC, you almost always need to reinstall or update its driver package to get the printer, scanner, and copier working properly again on a modern Windows machine.

The PIXMA MP160 is an older compact all-in-one from Canon, and it was discontinued a long time ago, so Canon no longer bundles fresh drivers for it on the front page of their support site. That does not mean the driver is gone; it just means you have to know exactly where to look, and you need to pick the correct package for your version of Windows. Below I will walk you through downloading, installing, and troubleshooting the MP160 driver, plus a manual method that works even when the installer refuses to run.

Applies To	Canon PIXMA MP160 (all-in-one inkjet printer, scanner, copier)
Author / Publisher	Canon Inc.
Driver Date	Last official release, unchanged for many years
Version	MP Driver v1.04 (printer) / ScanGear v2.05 (scanner)
File Name	mp160setup.exe or a MInstMPI installer package
File Size	Roughly 15-30 MB depending on the bundle
OS Compatibility	Windows 10 and Windows 11 in compatibility mode; officially tested up to Windows 7/8

Where to Get the Canon PIXMA MP160 Driver

Canon still hosts legacy drivers on its regional support portals. The safest route is the official Canon support page for the PIXMA MP160, where you select your exact Windows edition (32-bit or 64-bit) before downloading. If your regional Canon site does not list Windows 11 explicitly, pick the Windows 10 package; it installs fine on Windows 11 nine times out of ten because the underlying driver architecture did not change between those two versions for a printer this old.

A few things to check before you download anything:

• Confirm whether your Windows install is 32-bit or 64-bit (Settings > System > About).
• Close any antivirus real-time scanning temporarily, since old Canon installers sometimes get flagged incorrectly by aggressive heuristics.
• Unplug the USB cable from the printer until the installer specifically asks you to connect it.

Installing the Driver Step by Step

1. Download the MP Drivers package and the MP Navigator / ScanGear package separately if Canon offers them as two files.
2. Right-click the downloaded .exe and choose “Run as administrator.”
3. If Windows SmartScreen blocks it, click “More info” then “Run anyway” — this is expected for older unsigned or weakly-signed installers.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts and select USB connection when asked.
5. Only plug in the USB cable when the installer tells you to; plugging in earlier can cause Windows to load a generic driver first, which then conflicts with Canon’s installer.
6. Let Windows finish detecting the new hardware, then restart the PC even if it’s not strictly required.

I ran into this exact printer two years ago when a reader sent me an MP160 to test compatibility on a Windows 11 22H2 laptop. The official installer refused to launch at first because Windows flagged it as an unrecognized app, and I had to use the “Run anyway” override before it would even start. Once past that screen, the install itself took less than three minutes and the scanner worked immediately through Windows Fax and Scan.

What to Do When the Installer Fails

Old Canon installers were not built with Windows 10 or 11 in mind, so failures are common. Here is how to work through the most frequent ones:

• Installer closes immediately after launch: Right-click the .exe, open Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, and set it to run in “Windows 7” or “Windows 8” compatibility mode, then try again.
• “This device cannot start” error in Device Manager: Uninstall the existing entry completely (right-click, Uninstall device, and tick “Delete the driver software”), unplug the USB cable, reboot, then reinstall from a clean state.
• Installer hangs at the “Searching for printer” step: This usually means the USB port is not delivering enough power or the cable is bad. Try a different USB port directly on the motherboard, not a front-panel hub, and try a different cable if you have one.
• Print jobs get stuck in the queue: Open Services (services.msc), restart the “Print Spooler” service, then try printing again.

If none of that works, Microsoft’s own guidance on fixing printer connection and printing problems in Windows covers a broader troubleshooting checklist worth running through, especially the built-in printer troubleshooter.

Manual Install via Device Manager

When the automatic installer just will not cooperate, you can point Windows at the driver files directly:

1. Download the driver package and extract it with a tool like 7-Zip instead of running the .exe (right-click > Extract, or use 7-Zip’s “Extract here” if the installer is a self-extracting archive).
2. Open Device Manager, find the MP160 under “Unknown devices” or “Other devices” (it may show a yellow warning triangle).
3. Right-click it, choose “Update driver,” then “Browse my computer for drivers.”
4. Point the wizard at the extracted folder and let Windows search subfolders for the matching .inf file.
5. Confirm the install and let Windows finish loading the driver.

This manual route is also the one to use if you only need basic printing and do not care about the scanner or copy functions — it installs the print driver alone without the full software suite.

Windows 10 vs Windows 11 Differences

On Windows 10, the MP160 driver installs almost exactly like it did on Windows 7 — no extra steps needed beyond the SmartScreen prompt. On Windows 11, you may also see a stricter driver-signing warning during install, and in rare cases the printer will install but show up twice in the Printers list (once as a generic “USB Printer” and once as the proper Canon MP160). If that happens, delete the generic duplicate from Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners and keep the Canon-named entry.

Per Daniel Reyes, who is a small business owner running a home print shop, “I kept an MP160 running for label printing long after Canon stopped supporting it, and the trick that finally worked was installing in Windows 8 compatibility mode on my Windows 11 desktop — after that it never gave me trouble again.”

Keeping the Printer Running Long Term

Since this driver is no longer actively updated, treat the installer file as something to keep backed up once you have a working copy — Canon’s own download links for very old models sometimes move or disappear during site redesigns. A few habits that help:

• Save the extracted driver folder somewhere safe (a USB drive or cloud folder) so you don’t have to hunt for it again after a Windows reinstall.
• Avoid Windows Update’s automatic driver substitution — if Windows silently installs its own generic driver after an update, roll it back through Device Manager’s “Roll Back Driver” option and reinstall Canon’s version.
• Clean the print head periodically through the printer’s own maintenance menu; a clogged head on an inkjet this old is a far more common cause of bad prints than the driver itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Canon PIXMA MP160 work on Windows 11?

Yes, with the Windows 10 driver package installed in compatibility mode when needed. There is no dedicated Windows 11 driver, but the older package works fine for basic print, scan, and copy functions.

Why does my MP160 print but not scan?

This usually means only the printer driver installed and the ScanGear scanner component did not. Reinstall using the full software bundle rather than just the print driver, or install ScanGear separately if Canon offers it as its own download.

Can I use the MP160 wirelessly?

No. The MP160 is a USB-only all-in-one with no built-in Wi-Fi or Ethernet, so it must stay connected directly to a PC via USB cable, or be shared over a network from that PC.

Where can I find the driver if Canon’s page for this model is gone?

Check Canon’s regional support sites for other countries (the file is often identical across regions), or search Canon’s global driver archive by model number. Avoid third-party “driver download” sites that are not Canon-owned, since many bundle unwanted software.

My printer shows as “MP160 (Copy1)” — how do I fix that?

This duplicate entry happens when Windows creates a second printer object after a reconnect. Remove the duplicate from Printers & scanners settings, keep the original, and always plug the USB cable into the same physical port to avoid Windows treating it as a new device.

Conclusion

The Canon PIXMA MP160 still works reliably on Windows 10 and Windows 11 once you get the right driver installed, even though Canon stopped updating it years ago. Stick to the official Canon download, use compatibility mode if the installer complains, and fall back to the manual Device Manager method if you only need basic printing. Keep a backup copy of the driver files once you have them working, since support pages for discontinued models like this one can disappear without warning.