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{{More citations needed|date=December 2024}}
A '''driver wrapper''' is a [[wrapper function|subroutine in a software library]] that functions as an [[adapter pattern|adapter]] between an [[operating system]] and a driver, such as a [[device driver]], that was not designed for that operating system.<ref>https://www.ijert.org/research/device-driver-wrapper-IJERTV2IS60707.pdf Retrieved December 17th, 2024</ref> It can enable the use of devices for which no drivers for the particular operating system are available. In particular, {{as of|2010|lc=on}} [[Microsoft Windows]] is the dominant family of operating systems for [[IBM PC compatible]] computers, and many devices are supplied with drivers for Windows but not other operating systems.

==Windows driver wrappers for Linux==
Several open-source software projects allow using [[Microsoft Windows]] drivers under another operating system, such as [[Linux]].

Examples include network drivers for wireless cards (such as [[NDISwrapper]] for [[Linux]] or [[Project Evil]] for [[FreeBSD]]) and the [[NTFS]] [[file system]] (see [[Captive NTFS]]).

The common thread among these examples is the use of ''wrapper'' technology, which allows execution of the drivers in a foreign environment.
Limitations for driver wrappers include inability to function at real time. An example of this limitation includes latency problems as those associated with attempts to make compatible with [[Linux]] the ZoomR16 audio DAW sound recorder and control surface.

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|wrapper}}
* [[Compatibility layer]]
* [[Wrapper function]]
* [[Wrapper library]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Device drivers]]
[[Category:Subroutines]]
[[Category:System software]]


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