Windows Installer Editor Reference
62
Working With Wise Installation Files
Target Platforms: 32-bit and 64-bit
Windows Installer Editor supports the following types of installation packages:
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32-bit installations that contain only 32-bit components
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64-bit installations that contain only 64-bit components
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64-bit installations that contain some 32-bit components
Windows Installer Editor supports both x64 (for AMD64 and Intel EM64T processors) and
64-bit Itanium platforms.
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An Itanium installation will not run on an x64 platform, and vice versa.
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A 64-bit installation will not run on a 32-bit platform.
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A 32-bit installation will run on any 32-bit or 64-bit platform.
Developing 64-bit Installations on a 32-bit Computer
You can develop a 64-bit installation on a 32-bit computer, with these limitations:
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On the Registry page, you cannot browse the 64-bit registry in the upper list boxes.
However, you can add 64-bit registry keys in the lower list boxes, and you can
import .REG files that contain 64-bit keys.
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You cannot test, run, or debug a 64-bit installation on a 32-bit computer.
See:
How to Specify the Target Platform
on page 63
What’s Different in a 64-bit Installation?
on page 63
32-bit Applications on 64-bit Computers
on page 65
Guidelines for Creating Platform-Specific Installations
on page 66
Creating Multiple, Platform-Specific Installations from One Project File
on page 67
Using 64-Bit Windows Installer Packages in the Windows Installer SDK Help
Can you switch from
working on one file
type to the other?
You can switch from a project file to a
database file by compiling the project,
opening the resulting database file, and
continuing development in the database
file. However, an .MSI created by
compiling a .WSI does not contain file
paths; it contains only the files
themselves. Therefore, any files added
prior to the switch will not be refreshed
from disk because they have no file path.
Only those files you add after the switch
contain file paths and are refreshed from
disk.
Use MSI to WSI Conversion to convert an
.MSI to a .WSI. It extracts installation files
from an .MSI, saves them to disk at
locations you specify, and creates a .WSI
that points to those files.
See
MSI to WSI Conversion
on page 356.
If you work in a .WSI or .WSM
(Wise project)
If you work in an .MSI or .MSM
(Windows Installer database)