InstallShield Build Fails During Signing of Media

[#1]

Summary

On some 64-bit systems, when building an InstallShield media release that is defined to be signed with a .pfx file, the build fails during the execution of the SignTool utility.

Symptoms

On some 64-bit systems, when building an InstallShield media release that is defined to be signed with a .pfx file, the build fails during the execution of the SignTool utility.

The following InstallShield Editions are affected by this problem:

• InstallShield Standalone Build

Cause

The InstallShield product is using the 32-bit version of Microsoft's .NET Framework SignTool.exe.

Steps To Reproduce

To reproduce this problem, perform the following:

1. Install the InstallShield product on a 64-bit system
2. Create a new Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, Merge Module or Express project.
3. In the Releases view, create a new Release
4. Under the Release's "Signing" tab, specify a .pfx file to sign the installation media
5. Build the release

Resolution

To fix this problem, overlay the SignTool.exe found in the InstallShield Product' System folder with the 64-bit version of the SignTool utility by performing the following steps:

1. Obtain a copy of the 64-bit version of the SignTool utility. This tool is included with Visual Studio and with the Windows SDK.
2. Close all running instances of the InstallShield product.
3. Make a backup copy of the SignTool.exe file found in the <ISProductFolder>\System folder. (i.e., For the InstallShield 2012 Professional Edition, by default, this location is ?C:\Program Files\InstallShield\2012\System?)
4. Copy the 64-bit version of the SignTool.exe to the <ISProductFolder>\System folder.
5. Rebuild the InstallShield project.

Additional Information

Additional information on digital signing can be found in the InstallShield Help topic: Digital Signing and Security

For a reference of the fields found in the Release "Signing" tab, please refer to the following InstallShield Help article: Signing Tab for a Release