Newbie Question: How to merge x86 and x64 MSI into one?

[maxme21]

Hi all

I am pretty new to InstallShield but managaged to compute two MSIs. One specific for Win32, the other for x64 platform. The MSIs are both roughly 200 MB in size. Frankly, 99% of the data within the MSIs are identical.

For deployment I now have two possibilities:
a) I provide both MSIs and let the setup choose the proper one
b) I provide two seperate setups, one for Win32, the other for x64

I prefer a) but the problem with a) is that I nearly have double the amount of data to be distributed.

Question: Can I somehow merge the x64 into the Win32 MSI?

Thanks for any info on this

[MichaelU]

A third approach is to create an x86 MSI with all the common elements and an x64 MSI with only the 64-bit specific ones. Package these up in a suite and nobody has to pay close attention to what MSI files get installed. If you don't have suites, you can still try this approach by putting the 64-bit components in a prerequisite, but that won't work well unless you know where they need to be installed.