x64 Host Applications

Q:

Are there any issues with native 64-bit host applications as far as VSTA is concerned? Will there be any problems, say, with debugging add-ins when they are loaded by the native x64 app?

A:

VSTA 2.0 supports 64 bit platforms with no known issues, including debugging.  The SDK documentation covers 64-bit integration issues.

Proxygen and ProjectGen both have 64 bit versions that can be used with x64 (managed only)* Object models.

*You cannot run Proxygen.exe to create a proxy of a COM application if the object model is 64-bit. This is because Proxygen.exe has a dependency on a 32-bit native component (vstlbinf.dll). However, you can use the latest version of Microsoft Interface Definition Language (MIDL) to generate both 32-bit and 64-bit type libraries from a 64-bit interface definition language (IDL) file. You can then register the 32-bit type library using regsvr32.exe, run Proxygen.exe, and use the resulting proxy with the 64-bit version.

The 64-bit host configuration key is located in the following registry location:

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VSTAHostConfig

Unfortunately the ShapeApp samples’ setup files do not address 64-bit registration.  They only show how to register a host on the 32-bit OS.  However, the changes are not too complex.