220-801 · Question #291
Joe, a technician, is attempting to install a new printer on a Windows 7 Enterprise x86 machine. Upon inspection, Joe finds that he only has access to a 64-bit driver for the printer. Which of the…
The correct answer is D. A 32-bit driver will have to be found in order to install the printer. A 64-bit driver cannot be installed on a 32-bit (x86) operating system - driver architecture must match the OS architecture exactly.
Question
Joe, a technician, is attempting to install a new printer on a Windows 7 Enterprise x86 machine. Upon inspection, Joe finds that he only has access to a 64-bit driver for the printer. Which of the following scenarios BEST describes the outcome of this situation?
Options
- AAs long as the driver is signed, it should work with this version of Windows.
- BAs long as the driver is IA-64 compatible, it should work with this Windows version.
- CJoe should install the driver using Windows Vista compatibility mode.
- DA 32-bit driver will have to be found in order to install the printer.
How the community answered
(25 responses)- A4% (1)
- B4% (1)
- D92% (23)
Why each option
A 64-bit driver cannot be installed on a 32-bit (x86) operating system - driver architecture must match the OS architecture exactly.
Driver signing verifies authenticity and integrity but does not override the fundamental hardware architecture incompatibility - a signed 64-bit driver still cannot load on a 32-bit OS.
IA-64 refers to Intel's Itanium processor architecture, which is entirely different from both x86 (32-bit) and x86-64 - an IA-64 driver would be incompatible with this machine.
Windows Vista compatibility mode adjusts application compatibility settings for user-mode software and does not affect kernel-mode driver loading or change driver architecture requirements.
Windows x86 (32-bit) operating systems can only load 32-bit kernel-mode drivers because the processor instructions and memory addressing model are incompatible with 64-bit driver binaries. The Windows kernel enforces a strict architectural match between the OS bitness and any driver it loads into kernel space. Joe must obtain a 32-bit (x86) driver from the manufacturer or a compatible source before the printer can function on this machine.
Concept tested: Driver architecture compatibility between 32-bit and 64-bit systems
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/device-driver-packages
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