32 bit OLE DB driver on 64 bit windows 7

Question

Hi.

We are running 64 bit windows 7 with 64 bit office 2010. We have a custom 32 bit OLEDB driver installed but it doesn't show up in the list of data providers when trying to import data into Excel.

I've heard that 64 bit and 32 bit don't go well together and that you need to run 32 bit drivers inside the wow64 emulator but how can we get this to work from within Excel?

Thank you

Answer 1

You are correct that you can't mix 32 and 64 bit dlls in the same process. So your options are:

1. Run the 32 bit version of Excel (probably the easiest choice). This will work under 64 bit operating systems and can load 32 bit dlls (but not 64 bit ones, obviously).
2. Use a 64 bit version of your OLE DB driver (possible if you develop it in house, if its 3rd party then bug the vendor).