I am using Visual Studio 2008 to write applications. When deploying the app, some of the systems are 32bit, while the others are 64bit. Therefore, I plan to deliver both 32bit/64bit version in the installer, then launch the corresponding version based on the bitness of the OS. How to implement the latter, i.e., get the bitness of the OS and launch the corresponding version?
Let me clarify the situation. I already developed both 32bit and 64bit EXE application with C++. Then I want to detect the bitness of the Windows in C++(I don't know .NET) and launch the corresponding version of application.
Thanks
I would recommend looking for a more powerful MSI packaging tool. Most professional tools offer you a built-in bootstrapper that provides this functionality with one click.
The VS setup project is useful for basic application packaging, but never intended to offer you full power.
It depends on what you mean by "launch the corresponding version". This implies that you already have code written that needs to choose, in which case this isn't an installer question at all - you just need to find the bitness of the OS and then install the appropriate MSI file (or VS-generated setup.exe). If it's a C# launcher you'd perhaps use Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem.
Your question doesn't say if you are delivering code (assemblies, COM Dlls etc) that will be used by client programs. I mention this because your 32-bit setup will install and run on 64-bit OS versions in the 32-bit subsystem. The 64-bit version will presumably contain only native 64-bit code.
Note that your 64-bit setup won't install on a 32-bit OS anyway.
Related
I have a windows form application which is being installed on client pc by using msi file trough active directories, application is a 32bit app which is being deployed to a 32 bit and 64 bit windows systems and as we know application folder names are different between 32 and 64 bit systems, Program Files and Program Files(x86), also during installation application shortcut is placed in startup folder so app will be started when PC us powered up.
Question: Is there a chance to build msi by Windows Installer provided by Visual Studion in such a way that it will check what operating system its being installed at and place the shortcut in to start up folder with correct URI, to Program Files\Applicaiton\ or Program Files(x86)\Applicaiton?
Thank you!
Windows Installer packages are platform aware (x86, x64 ). Windows Installer doesn't support 64bit packages running on 32bit platforms or 32bit packages writing to 64bit ProgramFiles.
You can compile your EXE as AnyCPU and even though it's installed as 32bit it'll execute as 64bit. Although the Visual Studio team has moved away from that and compile as x86 by default in recent versions of Visual Studio.
Upon initialization, the Windows Installer gathers information about the operating system and automatically sets properties that can be used in optional conditional statements used by the setup application, such as VersionNT64 and "System Folder Properties"
In cases where it is necessary for the setup to know this information, it is preferred practice to allow the Windows Installer service to determine folder locations rather than try to hard-code this information into the package.
We are developing a DLL, which calls generic WinUsb functions from WinDDK. This DLL needs to work in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, including xp, vista, win7, and possibly win8.
My question is, how can we manage the Visual Studio 2010 solution by targeting all these platforms? WinDDK libraries are different for each OS, so if I reference a library from the code:
#### #pragma comment (lib , "C:\\WinDDK\\7600.16385.1\\lib\\wlh\\i386\\winmm.lib" )
Or by referencing the library from the project options->includes section, this project only becomes correct for a particular target architecture. (In this example, Vista 32-bits, since I am including 'wlh').
Are we supposed to create a different project for each different OS target?
The WDK/DDK version does not constrain the OS version for which you build. You can pass the target OS as a build environment/compile parameter.
I think you should build DLL through DDK and use that in your VS project.
You can write pre-build event for your VS project to run a batch file which will build the DLL and put it in some well-known place for the project.
Also, you may have to create different project configurations for each platform you want to build for (at least different for 32-bit and 64-bit) and run appropriate build command for DLL.
I have a problem related to this question. Two players:
C# application
Mixed assembly used by 1)
The application has to support anything from Windows XP (32bit) to Windows 7 (32 & 64bit). The assembly is complicated in different ways. It contains managed C++/CLI code and some native C++ classes dancing with native DirectX. It also is linked to a few 32bit native dll's w/o source access (containing C++ classes with import libraries).
Things are working well in 32bit environments (XP and 7 tested) including the 32bit subsystem on Windows 7. Havoc happens, as soon as "Any CPU" is used on 64bit systems in order to build the complete solution. The 32bit assembly is unusable than - but seemingly only in debug mode ("cannot load, wrong format" etc.). It seems to work in release. A 64bit assembly build is prevented by the implicit dependencies to the mentioned 32bit third-party dll's.
Is there any way to provide a real native 64bit application able to use the assembly?
Requirement for the assembly isn't that strict. It could be both - 32 or 64bit - but as said above, should be be usable from the application one way or the other.
You are running into a rock hard limitation in the 64-bit version of Windows, a 64-bit process cannot execute any 32-bit machine code in-process. You certainly have a dependency on machine code when you use C++/CLI and work with DirectX. Although it doesn't sound like you could not execute in 64-bit mode, both C++/CLI and DirectX can be compiled/are available in 64-bit.
This then boils down to a build and deployment issue. You have to build the C++/CLI project(s) in 64-bit mode and deploy only 64-bit components on a 64-bit operating system. The main EXE must be built to AnyCPU. Similarly, on a 32-bit operating system you must build and deploy only the 32-bit compiled version. You solve the build issue by adding the x64 configuration to the solution so you build the 32-bit and 64-bit version separately. You solve the deployment issue by creating two installers.
Since you have to support a 32-bit operating system anyway, the simple solution is to change the Target platform setting on your EXE project to x86. Now everything always runs in 32-bit mode and you don't have to bother with the build and deployment headaches. The only thing you miss out on is the larger virtual memory address space that's available in the 64-bit version.
Forget about the C++/CLI project for a minute.
You have third-party 32-bit DLLs. These CANNOT load in a 64-bit process. So your main application will have to be 32-bit. This restriction has nothing to do with the C++/CLI middleman.
The only way you can make use of these DLLs from a 64-bit application is to load them in a separate (32-bit) process and marshal data back and forth.
I have seen that some programs which were written by me and assembled for x86 using ml.exe run fine on my Win 7 x64. I believe this is because of Wow technology.
However, there are some programs (not written by me) which don't run. They give the error that:
The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check you computer system infromation to see whether you need an x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher
Is there any way I can modify the EXE of these programs to make it run on Win 7 x64. What is the fundamental difference in these programs which make it different from other programs which run transparently.
They're actually 8- or 16-bit programs. Windows x64 runs in Long Mode, which does not support Virtual 8086 Mode, required for such programs. There is no way to make them work short of recompiling them from source or running them in a virtual machine.
One reason can be combination of .NET and native libraries. .NET libraries are compiled in runtime as x64 (if you don't specify explicitly x86) and native libraries run in x86 mode. it cannot run togehther.
Another reason is access to registry. Depending on used API, x86app in wow64 mode can be forwarded to another part of registry. If the registry access API is inconsistent, it can make a problem.
My problem is that a vendor is providing me with a 64bit application (packed in a 64bit installer) but it goes and installs to the x86 (Program Files) Folder and he keeps telling me its OK but I want it to install in the Program Files directory; as the 32 bit version does that and scripts for the app are developed based on this assumption.
Can someone direct me to the Microsoft recommended best practices for 64bit applications(links).
Thanks in advance.
This may help:
About Windows Installer on 64-Bit Operating Systems
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367451.aspx
Is your vendor installing the app via an MSI file? If so, their app setup generator (WIX, InstallShield, etc) should be creating MSI's that store their components in the correct places.
If not and they're installing using a custom script, suggest they start investing in learning WIX ;)
Either way, they should be following the recommended guidelines and installing 64-bit code and 32-bit code to the correct locations and modifying the correct registry trees accordingly.