[wix-users] installing 64 bit files within a 32 bit MSI [P]

[Phill Hogland]

from that link:

"Bottom line: Mixing 32 and 64-bit components in a single MSI works fine in many cases, but is against the MSI rules and can lead to further problems."


Each of my driver projects uses a single wixproj to author separate MSI packages for each targeted platform architecture, and the multiple MSIs are then deployed as part of a single bundle chain.  This is not what you are proposing, but it works well, and as a result the x64 files are installed to a Win32 system with the x86 files, but are ignored on that system, etc.  So I don't think it would be very hard to create a single MSI which in some cases deploys both x64 and x86 bitness files, but I would expect that trying to fight with MSI as it relates to registry and file redirection and custom action behavior would get old fast.  I have not tried that approach, given that I need a bootstrapper anyway, and Burn does a good job of chaining both x86 and x64 packages.  Using a common external cab file to reduce the overall footprint of multiple MSI packages also works well in this situation.

________________________________
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> on behalf of Steven Ogilvie <Steven.Ogilvie at titus.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:25:09 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: [wix-users] installing 64 bit files within a 32 bit MSI [P]

Classification: Public
Rob/Bob

Any comments?

Thanks,

Steve





This message has been marked as Public by Steven Ogilvie on December 20, 2016 11:25:07 AM. Classification provided by TITUS.


-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Wheeler, Blaine (DSHS/DCS)
Sent: December 19, 2016 5:45 PM
To: 'WiX Toolset Users Mailing List' <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] installing 64 bit files within a 32 bit MSI

That article is from 2009 which alone makes me think this would be a bad idea to try -

If you want a item to execute I suggest keeping the 2 msi's and wrap them with a bundle that detects the architecture of the destination machine of applies correctly

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Steve Ogilvie
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2016 1:55 PM
To: WiX User List
Subject: [wix-users] installing 64 bit files within a 32 bit MSI

Hi all,


I am asked to look into (researching) installing our product from 2 MSI's (1 32 bit and 1 64 bit) into 1 MSI by using:

Thanks to the msidbComponentAttributes64bit flag, mixing architectures in a single MSI package is technically possible: You mark the package as being 32 bit and set said flag for all 64-bit components. Rather than splitting your setup into multiple packages, you can conveniently combine everything into one.
THis is from this website: "<https://jpassing.com/2009/10/09/mixing-32-and-64-bit-components-in-a-single-msi>https://jpassing.com/2009/10/09/mixing-32-and-64-bit-components-in-a-single-msi/"


Is this really a good idea? installing 64 bit binaries into a 32 bit file system on a 64 bit OS (C:\Program Files (x86)\)


This goes against everything I know about MSI technology...


Cheers,


Steve


ps Merry Christmas everyone :)

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