BizTalk 2010 Adapter Pack on x64: Why the Adapters May Not Be Listed

Fellow BizTalker, Virtual TS, and Connected Systems Dude Extraordinare, Brent Anderson with RBA Consulting, recently drew my attention to an issue you might find when installing BizTalk 2010 WCF Adapters on 64-Bit systems.   If you install only the 64-bit versions of the adapters, they will not be listed as you go through the “Add Adapter” steps in the BizTalk Administration console.  If you install the 32-bit versions as well, they will show up as they should.

I’m not 100% certain why this is the case, but I suspect it’s because the BizTalk Admin Console and particularly ExplorerOM which the console uses to configure BizTalk artifacts is still 32-bit.  As such, it may not recognize your 64-bit adapters although the BizTalk Engine will use the the correct version when you’re running on a 64-bit Host.