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Nobody noticed because Windows special cased InstallShield.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20131031-00/?p=27...

It was 64-bit Windows versions, 16 bit was never supported not even on XP 64-bit. I think W8 was the first 64-bit only Windows.

Windows 11 was the first 64-bit only build of the NT-based Windows tree. There are 32-bit x86 builds of all previous versions.

Windows 11 drops IA32, and thus (first party) MS-DOS and Windows 3.x support.

Windows actually has some special cased support for (at least some of) the problematic 16 bit InstallShield installers to run a 32 bit version instead on AMD64.

> I think W8 was the first 64-bit only Windows.

Nope, that would be Windows 11! There is a 32-bit version of Windows 10.

From InstallShield’s perspective, why would they replace working 16-bit code which is still natively compatible with Windows and x86? Because Windows and/or Intel might (or might not) drop support a decade later?