title: How to install VS help using WIX x86 installer on a x64 platform?
body: <p>I've been struggling with installing a CAB Help file (generated from a MSHC) using WIX. The basic recipe I tried to follow is the one here: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4627758/installing-help-with-help-library-manager-and-wix">Installing Help with Help Library Manager and WiX</a> .</p>
  
  <p>In my particular case I'm not really struggling with the recipe but with x64/x86 targets. I've read the WIX hints from <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/471424/wix-tricks-and-tips/577793">WiX tricks and tips</a> that describe how to make 2 installers, one for each target. However, since I prefer to have just one installer rather than 2, I chose to implement only a x86 target. </p>
  
  <p>When I install using a x64 platform everything works fine. When I try to do the same thing for x86, it complains that it cannot find <code>HelpLibManager.exe</code>. On closer inspection, this seems reasonable, because this is installed in the 64-bit <code>C:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\HelpLibManager.exe</code>, while WIX uses the x86 folder <code>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\HelpLibManager.exe</code>.</p>
  
  <p>To fix this, I attempted to read the correct path from the registry that contains where HelpLibManager is installed:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Property Id="HELPLIB"&gt;
    &lt;RegistrySearch Id="HelpLib"
                    Root="HKLM"
                    Key="Software\Microsoft\Help\v1.0"
                    Name="AppRoot"
                    Type="raw" /&gt;
  &lt;/Property&gt;
  
  &lt;SetProperty Id="HELPLIBMANAGER"
           Value="[HELPLIB]HelpLibManager.exe"
           After="InstallInitialize"
           Sequence="execute"/&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When you look into the registry, (within the <code>Wow6432Node</code> of course), it tells me that the value of this key is: <code>c:\Program Files\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\</code> - which is correct. However, when I look at the log of the MSI, it reads <code>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\HelpLibManager.exe"</code>, which is incorrect:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Property(S): HELPLIB = C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0\
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So apparently Wix changes the string value I read from the registry.</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone explain to me what the proper way is to fix this?</p>