Why is my optane memory driver 32bit on a 64bit system?

[idata]

Hello, I am running windows 10 home edition(64bit on 64bit hardware), my system has a 16GB optane module installed, everything is working fine except Task manager shows the driver and utility for the optane module is running a 32bit version, not 64bit.

[n_scott_pearson]

If you are running 64-bit Windows, that the driver *has* to be 64-bits, so you don't have to worry about the driver. As for the program, it doesn't matter; it is not running all the time.

Time to go worry about things that actually matter....

...S

[idata]

Well, that isn't really the answer I was expecting....the os may be 64bit but it can run 32bit software you know....anyway I managed to track down intels official 64bit driver and replaced the 32bit one, quite an easy process eventually...I was more concerned that the driver setup program originally installed a 32bit driver on a 64bit os and hardware...seems counter intuitive.

[n_scott_pearson]

No, I am sorry, that is not correct. While it is true that 64-bit Windows can host 32-bit software, this is only at User level. Kernel level code can ONLY be 64-bit and device drivers run as part of the Kernel. You cannot run a 32-bit driver on 64-bit Windows. It simply will not load.

Here is a snippet regarding this from MS (the highlighting is theirs):

If I'm running a 64-bit version of Windows, do I need 64-bit drivers for my devices?

Yes. All hardware devices need 64-bit drivers to work on a 64-bit version of Windows. Drivers designed for 32-bit versions of Windows don't work on computers running 64-bit versions of Windows.

(Article ID: MSW700010)

...S