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I have a client who is requesting that we give them an MSI file instead of our normal EXE file for installation of our software. The client has users on multiple Windows operating systems (2K, XP, Vista). As stated in the title of the question, do I need to create a MSI specific to each OS or are MSIs generic enough to work on all of these operating systems.
.MSI files can work successfully on multiple OSes.
One caveat is 32-bit vs. 64-bit: you’ll have to make the choice of do you want to natively support 64-bit Windows. Your options are:
1) One .MSI file for both 32-bit and 64-bit. You would mark the package as 32-bit in the Summary Information Stream. Files would get installed to the 32-bit equivalent targets in 64-bit Windows. (e.g. Program Files (x86), 32-bit HKLM/Software/WOW64, etc.)
2) Two .MSI files, one each for 32-bit and 64-bit. Different Summary Information Stream for each package. This way the 64-bit targets would be the native 64-bit targets in 64-bit Windows. (e.g. Program Files, HKLM/Software, etc.)
More reference: Using 64-Bit Windows Installer Packages