biberbiblatexmiktexwindows
Update: As of summer 2015 Biber is also included in the 64-bit repositories for MikTeX. There is no need to install Biber manually any more, it can simply be installed via the Package Manager just like other packages.
The question Biblatex + Biber + Texmaker + MiKTeX describes how to use Biber with MiKTeX. But on the 64-bit version of MiKTeX Biber isn't installed.
How it is possible to install Biber on a 64-bit version of Windows?
Can I use this file?
Okay, the issue was an outdated biblatex version. According to the Biber doc you need Biblatex v3.2 to work with Biber v2.3. Unless you don't have these versions it's not going to work.
And Biblatex v3.2 creates a .bcf file with the version number 2.9:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<bcf:controlfile version="2.9" xmlns:bcf="https://sourceforge.net/projects/biblatex">
Basically I solved my problem by just reinstalling MiKTeX. You can also use the package manager to install the latest packages, but in my case it created just more problems.
In summary, this were the required steps on my system:
Create a local texmf tree. The gist is, create the folder C:\localtexmf and a subfolder tex and then run
initexmf --register-root=c:\localtexmf
initexmf --update-fndb
Open MiKTeX Options and go to the "Roots" tab. Check the "Show MiKTeX-maintained root directories" box. Your local tree should be before "UserInstall".
MIKTEX_USERINSTALL that points to the new "UserInstall" path. I chose C:\Users\CL\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.9\install.initexmf --update-fndb --verbose. Now, the local texmf directory should be listed before UserInstall but after UserConfig and UserData.kpsewhich --all biblatex.sty. This will probably point to a file in your UserConfig tree (in my case: C:\Users\CL\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.9\tex\latex\biblatex). I suppose that this should not be the case but is an artifact of separating UserConfig and UserInstall after the fact. Delete that biblatex directory and update FNDB.Download the development version of BibLaTeX from Sourceforge. Choose the file with the tds.tgz extension (e.g. biblatex-3.7.tds.tgz).
tds.tgz file. It contains a tds.tar file. Copy the contents of the tds.tar file to your local texmf directory:
initexmf --update-fndb --verbose and then kpsewhich --all biblatex.sty. This should point to biblatex.sty in your local texmf directory.A remark on step 5 under the second bullet point. As the local texmf tree has precedence over UserInstall (if MiKTeX is set up correctly), it is usually not necessary to remove the old/stable version of a package before copying a new version to the local texmf tree. The reason why the biblatex directory needs to be deleted in step 5 is because after separating UserInstall and UserConfig, the files (wrongly?) remain in UserConfig. Packages that are installed after the trees have been separated end up in UserInstall and don't need to be removed manually when another version from the local tree is to be used.
Christian Schenk suggests to move the contents of UserConfig to UserInstall when separating the trees. This should make deleting the biblatex folder obsolete.
Best Answer
Edit October 2015: MikTeX now includes the 64-bit version of Biber.
Biberis only included in the 32-bit version ofMiKTeX. Either install the 32-bit version (the 64-bit version is still experimental) or download Biber and copybiber.exeto$texfm$\miktex\bin.