Is it possible to target x64 .msi with WiX on a 32bit machine?

Question

I'm developing SharePoint solutions on a virtual 32bit machine, and I use Wix to package the setup.

I'm targeting both 32bit and 64bit environments with my solutions, but in order to create 64bit MSI's, I need to have have a 64bit machine and the 64bit version of WiX. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, since I would have just simply use a 64bit dev environment.

But there are some issues with developing SharePoint solutions on a 64bit platform, which more or less forces me to develop on the 32bit platform. Because of that, I can't create a 64bit MSI's, unless I copy the source files to a 64bit machine just to build the 64bit MSI, which feels a little bit cumbersome.

Is there any trick to flag/build the 64bit MSI package on my 32bit dev box, if it's even possible?

Answer 1

AFAIK the Wix tools set is agnostic to platform, you need to install the x64 version, and you need to use the proper flags inside the setup (there are various of places you need to be explicit about x64, more info here).

Answer 2

You do not need to run a 64-bit development machine to create a 64-bit MSI file.

What makes an MSI file "64-bit" is simply that the "Template Summary" field in the Summary Information Stream is set to "AMD64;1033" (one possible example) instead of "Intel;1033".

This MSDN article might provide you more information.