Konica Minolta Support for 64 bit Printer drivers
Konica Minolta provides printer driver support for 64-bit implementations of Microsoft's Windows operating systems for all new printers models and for most recent printers models. There are frequently asking to provide 64-bit printers drivers for legacy models. These legacy models were designed to work solely with 32-bit operating systems, and have never been supported for use with 64-bit systems. For example, the magicolor 2300W was available when Windows XP 64-bit was released, but no 64-bit drivers were developed because this product was never designed for use on a 64-bit operating system. This also explains why there are no 64-bits drivers available for Windows Vista 64-bit and Windows 7 64-bit operating systems for these legacy devices.
Konica Minolta Drivers for downloads:
http://www.konicaminolta.eu/business-solutions/support/download-center.html
Why will a 32-bit printer driver not work with a 64-bit Windows operating system?
The central component in Windows operating systems is called the kernel. The kernel acts as a brigde between applications running on the computer and computers's hardware.
Most devices drivers, such as printer and scanner drivers, must run in kernel-mode, meaning that they must interact with the kernel of the operating system in order to function properly. Since the kernels in Windows 64-bit operating systems run exclusively in 64-bit (as dedicated by Microsoft), kernel-mode device drivers must also be created to run in 64-bit; 32-bit kernel-mode deviice drivers simply wil not run in a 64-bit kernel. Therefore, 32-bit printers drivers for legacy Konica Minolta, Minolta-QMS, Minolta, or QMS printers will not work within 64-bit Windows operating system (regardless of the version). A good analogy of this is a 64-lane highwaythat suddenly changes to a 32-lane highwayonce it reaches a city; the ensuing bottleneck would be untenable.
How to determinate if your Windows operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit
Windows XP/Server 2003: Right-click My Computer (either on the or in the Start menu) and select properties. If you see x64 under the System section of the General tab you are running the 64-bit version of the operating system: if not, you have the 32-bit version.
Windows Vista/7: Click the Start button in the lower left of your screen, right-click Computer in the Start menu, and select Properties. The version of Windows will appear next to System Type.
Additional information
Please refer to the Microsoft website for additional information.
32-bit and 64-bit Windows: Frequesntly asked questions
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/32-bit-64-bit-faq.aspx
A description of the differences between 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946765