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hookenz
Asked: 2009-12-04 17:40:16 +0800 CST

Can 32-bit print drivers work on 64-bit windows?

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I'm reading around and it seems that 32 bit drivers do not work under 64 bit windows. Is this true? since 32-bit applications can run under 64 bit windows it seems ridiculous that 32-bit printer drivers cannot. Are printer drivers run at the kernel level?

Sounds like we're in for driver hell for our RDP environments.

rdp

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    x64 versions of Windows do not support 32-bit kernel mode drivers. Microsoft's statements re: Vista are here (be sure to look at the errata at the bottom-- the article has a major mistake that it corrects), and the same is true for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

    There is no magic "switch" you can throw to allow 32-bit kernel mode drivers to work on an x64 kernel. They won't, period. (Yeah, yeah-- I suppose somebody could write some kind of ugly shimming system to make it possible, but nobody outside of Microsoft would have the necessary documentation to write such a thing... Besides, it's easier just to run a 32-bit OS under virtualization in a 64-bit host if you really need that...)

    With respect to printer drivers, Easy Print is Microsoft's answer to the nightmare of client-side printer drivers in a Terminal Services environment, but you need Windows Server 2008 on the Terminal Server machine.

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  2. It is possible to install 32 bit drivers alongside the 64 bit drivers on your print server. Click on the print server, go to the printer options page, and click 'additional drivers' to install the 32 bit version. The name needs to match exactly.

    The big printer vendors do have 64 bit compatible drivers. Also, check out the HP Universal print driver and the Xerox Global Print driver. Worked for most of the printers on my network. Xerox's driver promises to work for any printer, anywhere (but I only use it for Xerox machines).

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  3. Totally doable. Instructions with screenshots here: http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/02/13/how-to-add-32-bit-print-drivers-to-sbs-2008.aspx. Don't worry that the post is about SBS, it works fine with vanilla x64 versions of W2K8 as well.

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  4. Some drivers will work, some will not.

    In 64 bit versions of Windows Vista, you cannot install drivers that are not "signed". This means that if you're trying to install 32 bit unsigned drivers, you'll run into problems.

    Fortunately you can disable this restriction by running the following from the command prompt...

    bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
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