Problems with 32bit/64bit exe wrapper for Java on Windows

Question

In my ini file for winrun4j java exe wrapper I set vm.version.min=1.7 to specify Java 7 as a requirement. But when I ran it I couldn't get winrun4j to recognise that I had a java 7 jre installed even though java -version from the command line returned it.

On further investigation I realized that my Java 7 installation was 64bit whereas my Java 6 installation was 32bit. I then found that winrun4j has some 64bit version of its commands (ie rcedit64), if I built an appname64.exe rather than appname.exe it no longer complained about Java 7.

1. So can someone confirm this was the issue that I need a 64bit exe to run a 64bit jvm
2. Secondly if this is the case how do I present this to the user, I'm wrapping the installer as an exe so does that mean I need to provide the user with both an installer.exe and a installer64.exe and explain to the user to pick the right one not based on their processor but based on what version of java they have installed32bit or 64bit)

Edit: Sounds like things are as i described, and using launch4j maybe a solution

What's the best way to start Java applications on Windows 7?

Answer 1

that I need a 64bit exe to run a 64bit jvm

Yes. You can not use a 32 bit exe to run the 64bit JVM

Secondly if this is the case how do I present this to the user, I'm wrapping the installer as an exe...

Don't. Just create an installer for a 32-bit system and a 64-bit system. Depending on the target system the corresponding installer should run