I know the 32 bit visual studio will install on Windows 7 64 bit machine, but I suppose it can only be used to create 32 bit dlls. Is there a separate visual studio installer available to install 64 bit Visual studio that can be used for creating 64 bit dlls?
Edit: Sorry for not visiting my own question for so long. I'm building the solution using devenv command: devenv mysolution.sln /build "RELEASE|WIN64"
It skipped building all projects. So I opened the solution in Visual Studio, and in the build Configuration manager, I set
Active Solution Configuration: Release Active Solution Platform: win64
But in the Project contexts (check the project configurations to build or deploy):
Configuration: Release Platform: Win32 alone is available in this dropdown, not win64.
What do I need to do?
Best Answer
You are correct in noting that Visual Studio (even v2010) is a 32-bit app, and will default to running the 32-bit build environment, which in most cases is good for creating EXEs that work well on both x86 and x64. There are a few x64 VS components that you can (and should) choose during the installation.
The build tools are able to cross-compile for the 3 major platforms, and you can pick which platform you're targeting. If you want to be sure you're using the x64 compiler, then you want to run it from the command-line with DEVENV.
Read this article for some "gotchas" on cross-compiling for x64.
The build tools are part of the Windows SDK, and the web installer is platform-aware and will install 64-bit capable build environment. (Or if you're downloading the ISO image for installation, be sure to get the x64 one--see the SDK Release Notes.) After installation, you should see icons in the Start Menu group which launch the command prompt with x86, x64 and ia64 options set.
(Lastly, note that there a known issue only if you have installed the SDK before VS 2008 RTM, but that is fixable following the directions in the KB article.)