# Driver wrapper > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Driver_wrapper > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Driver_wrapper.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_wrapper > Source revision: 1265784081 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{More citations needed|date=December 2024}} A '''driver wrapper''' is a [subroutine in a software library](/source/wrapper_function) that functions as an [adapter](/source/adapter_pattern) between an [operating system](/source/operating_system) and a driver, such as a [device driver](/source/device_driver), that was not designed for that operating system.https://www.ijert.org/research/device-driver-wrapper-IJERTV2IS60707.pdf Retrieved December 17th, 2024 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](/source/Microsoft_Windows) is the dominant family of operating systems for [IBM PC compatible](/source/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](/source/Microsoft_Windows) drivers under another operating system, such as [Linux](/source/Linux). Examples include network drivers for wireless cards (such as [NDISwrapper](/source/NDISwrapper) for [Linux](/source/Linux) or [Project Evil](/source/Project_Evil) for [FreeBSD](/source/FreeBSD)) and the [NTFS](/source/NTFS) [file system](/source/file_system) (see [Captive NTFS](/source/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](/source/Linux) the ZoomR16 audio DAW sound recorder and control surface. ==See also== {{Wiktionary|wrapper}} * [Compatibility layer](/source/Compatibility_layer) * [Wrapper function](/source/Wrapper_function) * [Wrapper library](/source/Wrapper_library) ==References== {{Reflist}} Category:Device drivers Category:Subroutines Category:System software {{Comp-sci-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Driver wrapper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_wrapper) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_wrapper?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.