Since the previous thread on this topic has been locked I'm unable to add to it, so I'll start a new one.
I upgraded recently from 32-bit WinVista to 64-bit Win7. Since Microsoft's hardware compatibility list had told me that 64-bit drivers were available for all my hardware, I was surprised to find subsequently, from postings here and elsewhere, that this just wasn't true for the DWA-142.
However, based on this thread [http://www.vistax64.com/network-sharing/151536-dlink-dwa-142-installation-problems-vista-64bit.html] and this thread [http://www.vistax64.com/network-sharing/188050-d-link-dwa-142-vista-x64-driver.html], I decided to download this 64-bit driver [ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/wn111_setup_21_na.exe] for a comparable Netgear adapter based on the same chipset. I had no problems installing it and it seems to be working fine (except that when the computer is in sleep mode the connection breaks more often than it used to in my WinVista experience).
I hope this is useful for anyone following a similar path and discovering the same D-Link brick wall.