Installshield 2012 : Identify 32 or 64 bit Operating system and install appropriate ActiveX control - Basic msi installer

Question

I have an ActiveX control which needs to be deployed in client machine and i am planning to do this by supplying installers to the clients .

I have made separate msi packages for 64 and 32 bit operating systems and it works properly.

However , i face a problem when it comes to 64 bit machines since i have the following requirement ,

In case of 32 bit machine install 32 bit ActiveX control.

In case of 64 bit machine install both 32 and 64 bit ActiveX control.

I read many articles stating hybrid installations cannot be done using basic msi installers ?

Can this be done using a single setup.exe file ?

Answer 1

A single MSI cannot both install files or registry to 64-bit locations on a 64-bit system and run on a 32-bit system. So assuming your 64-bit ActiveX control must be installed to or registered in a 64-bit location, you cannot do this in a single MSI.

If you have the premier edition of InstallShield 2012, this is one of the use cases of the Suite (or Suite/Advanced UI) project type. You must create two MSI files, and include them both in the suite with relevant eligibility conditions. (The exact conditions depend on whether you make the MSIs standalone or cumulative, but the 64-bit MSI should only be eligible if the platform has an architecture of x64.)

Answer 2

You can have both 32bit and 64bit components within a single installer and make it to decide what to install depending on the target platform as below.

1) Create two new features(one for 32 and one for 64) and add conditions to both of them.

for 32 bit -> Not VersionNT64
for 64 bit -> VersionNT64

2) Add both prerequisites and select appropriate (parent) feature for each one