EXE to install only x86 32bit to run on ARM

[giotecno1977]

Hi Folks first time on here and new to the advanced installer.

I am trying to find a way to repackage an EXE which is Sony Digital Paper application to only run as 32bit x86. Th reason for this is I have a SUrface pro x which runs Arm cpu and only 32bit applications are supported. It seems the EXE has dual platforms but when executes sees the arm platform and does not install. I want to repackage the exe so it only install as 32bit. Hope I am making sense and would really like some help. Thx

[Catalin]

Hello and welcome to Advanced Installer forums,

Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with the ARM architecture.

First of all, just to make sure, in order to repackage your application, are you using our Repackager.exe tool or the "EXE to MSI" project template?

As I am not familiar with the ARM architecture and I could not test this, I have the following question:

Have you tried installing another 32-bit MSI on your Surface Pro X? If so, did the installation work?

If you haven't tested this yet, could you please create a simple .MSI file with Advanced Installer (make sure the "Package Type" is set to 32-bit in "Install Parameters" page) and try to install it on your Surface Pro X?

The main reason behind the above task is because I have found some interesting information about this while doing my research on this subject.

For instance, in the "Deploying, managing, and servicing Surface Pro X" article, under "Recommendations for commercial customers" section, it is stated that:

If your procedures require using a Windows Installer .msi file, contact Surface for Business support.

To be fully honest with you, this doesn't sound to me like .MSI would be supported by default on such machines.

In addition to that, in the "MsiExec.exe and InstMsi.exe Error Messages" article, at the bottom of the page - error 1654 (ERROR_INSTALL_REJECTED), it states that:

The app that you are trying to run is not supported on this version of Windows. A Windows Installer package, patch, or transform that has not been signed by Microsoft cannot be installed on an ARM computer.

Hope this information is somehow useful to you and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
Catalin

[giotecno1977]

Thx for the response Catalin,

I did indeed try a x86 32bit MSI file which was Putty to test and it installed fine it seems the latest Windows 10 on ARM emulates 32bit x86 apps well but not 64bit ones. Hence my main issue with a dual install exe which looks at the machine sees a windows on 64bit ARM hence tries the 64bit install then spits back an error saying processor not compatible.

I will try and find other EXE files with dual insatllers to see if I can use advanced installer to strip out and only use the 32bit.

I found interesting points on this URL for Putty which now has an ARM version too https://community.arm.com/developer/too ... ows-on-arm

Thx

[Catalin]

Hello,

Thank you for your followup on this.

In the article you have given me, it states that:

The other problem is that an MSI has a master table including a ‘platform’ field, and initially, I couldn’t work out what to put in there. If I set it to ‘Arm’ or ‘Arm64’, then msiexec.exe reported that the installer was for an unsupported platform! ‘x86-64’ was also refused, leaving only ‘x86’ – and if I set it to ‘x86’, then when msiexec ran the installer, it insisted on installing the Arm PuTTY executable files in C:\Program Files (x86).

Yesterday, when I repackaged your software, I remember the platform was set to "64-bit package for x64 processors (AMD64, EM64T)" (by the Repackager) (in "Install Parameters" page). Could you please try to change that to "32-bit package" and let me know if it helps?

Best regards,
Catalin