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For security reasons, 64-bit versions of Windows Vista allow only signed drivers to be installed in kernel mode. [1] [2] Because code executing in kernel mode enjoys wide privileges on the system, the signing requirement aims to ensure that only code with a known origin executes at this level.
The 64-bit versions of Vista require that all new Kernel-Mode device drivers be digitally signed, so that the creator of the driver can be identified. [77] [78] This is also on par with one of the primary goals of Vista to move code out of kernel-mode into user-mode drivers, with another example bing the new Windows Display Driver Model. [79]
Common device driver compatibility issues include: a 32-bit device driver is required for a 32-bit Windows operating system, and a 64-bit device driver is required for a 64-bit Windows operating system. 64-bit device drivers must be signed by Microsoft, because they run in kernel mode and have unrestricted access to the computer hardware. For ...
All 32-bit editions of Windows Vista, excluding Starter, support up to 4 GB of RAM. The 64-bit edition of Home Basic supports 8 GB of RAM, Home Premium supports 16 GB, and Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate support 128 GB of RAM. [19] All 64-bit versions of Microsoft operating systems impose a 16 TB limit on address space.
Display drivers in Windows Vista and Windows 7 can choose to either adhere to WDDM or to XDDM. [4] With the removal of XDDM from Windows 8, however, WDDM became the only option. [5] WDDM provides the functionality required to render the desktop and applications using Desktop Window Manager, a compositing window manager running on top of Direct3D.
Kernel-mode drivers on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista must be digitally signed; even administrators will not be able to install unsigned kernel-mode drivers. [52] A boot-time option is available to disable this check for a single session of Windows. Installing user-mode drivers will still work without a digital signature.
As a result, the decision was made to postpone the introduction of UEFI support to Windows; support for UEFI on 64-bit platforms was postponed until Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 and 32-bit UEFI will not be supported, as Microsoft does not expect many such systems to be built as the market moves to 64-bit processors.
Kernel-mode drivers on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista must be digitally signed; even administrators will not be able to install unsigned kernel-mode drivers. [20] A boot-time option is available to disable this check for a single session of Windows. 64-bit user-mode drivers are not required to be digitally signed.