I created 32-bit and 64-bit installation files respectively with Windows Installer. How can I create a unified installation file that can check the bits during installation, and merge these two into one to install automatically according to the bits?
1 Answers
Heath Stewart: Different Packages are Required for Different Processor Architectures. Here is an extract: "A common question is how to create a Windows Installer package that installs 32-bit binaries on 32-bit platforms, and both 32- and 64-bit binaries on 64-bit platforms. If you’re actually trying to install 64-bit binaries to appropriate directories and write to the 64-bit view of the registry, the short answer is that you can’t build a single package."
You should be able to use a setup.exe creation tool such as WiX's Burn or Advanced Installer or InstallShield (all can create setup.exe
launchers). I am unsure of the built-in mechanisms they provide for this at the moment - I haven't looked at it for a while.
In any case you need a 32-bit setup.exe
so that it can launch on both 32 and 64 bit systems and inside it you can keep your 64-bit setup along with the 32-bit one.
Rob Mensching's on the topic: How to deploy 64-bit and a 32-bit Windows Installer package as a single setup?.
Here is one of his blogs on Burn: https://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2009/7/14/lets-talk-about-burn/ and here is the normal starting point in the WiX documentation for Burn.
Here is my attempt to show a basic, functional Burn package (many links - too many - towards the bottom).
Links:

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