Mixing 32-bit and 64-bit development

I came across a weird little problem with a mixed 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 development team. Because EPiServer installs by default into Program Files (x86) on 64-bit, the virtual paths for the CMS UI point to different physical folders in the episerver.config, compared to the 32-bit installations which don’t have the (x86) version of the Program Files folder. If you try and share the config file without realising this, either the 32-bit or 64-bit machines are going to give you a 404 resource not found when trying to access edit or admin mode.

You could not put the file into source control I suppose, but that’s a bit messy. Easiest way I found is to use the 32-bit style of Program Files folder in the episerver.config, then create a symbolic link on the 64-bit Program Files folder.

To do that on the 64-bit machines:

1. open an administrator command prompt
2. cd “Program Files”
3. mklink /D EPiServer “C:\Program Files (x86)\EPiServer”

That should be sorted, and all should run perfectly with the same episerver.config!