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A 64-bit version of Firefox is finally available for your Windows PC

By Koh Wanzi - on 16 Dec 2015, 10:57am

A 64-bit version of Firefox is finally available for your Windows PC

Windows users can finally get a 64-bit version of Firefox. (Image Source: Mozilla)

In a time when 8GB of RAM is becoming commonplace on both desktops and laptops, Firefox has remained a 32-bit affair as Mozilla failed to join Google and Microsoft in shifting to 64-bit Web browsing. Up until now that is. Mozilla has just launched Firefox 43, which finally includes a 64-bit version for Windows (did we say finally?), along with improved security features.

64-bit open-source Web browsers based on Firefox like Waterfox and Pale Moon have been available for some time now, but this marks the first time that an official build is available from Mozilla itself. Back in 2012, Mozilla actually halted development on the 64-bit build of Firefox while it was still in testing, supposedly because there wasn’t enough plug-in support for a 64-bit version, and plug-ins that did support it did not work very well.

But now that a 64-bit version is official, users on 64-bit versions of Windows can look forward to improved performance stemming from the ability to utilize more than 4GB of RAM. This means that you can run Web apps larger than 4GB of RAM, like certain cloud-based development tools or 3D Web games.

Certain Web games like this one built using Epic Games' Unreal Engine would need a  64-bit browser to run. (Image Source: Venture Beat)

Furthermore, the larger address space helps increase security through a more effective address space layout randomization (ASLR), making it harder for malicious Web content to exploit vulnerabilities in Firefox.

64-bit Firefox is also reportedly faster because it can access new hardware registers and instructions, which means that JavaScript code can run a lot quicker and execution time is cut down.

In addition, Firefox 43 adds new features that are not limited to the 64-bit version. For instance, Private Browsing with Tracking Protection enabled now allows you to block all known trackers – derived from an open-source blocklist from Disconnect – instead of just some of them. This mode is known as “strict protection”, as opposed to the regular “basic protection”, but Mozilla cautions that some sites may not work properly when the feature is on.

Firefox 43 comes with more powerful blocking features. (Image Source: Mozilla)

The search bar, which Mozilla calls the Awesome Bar, can also now display search suggestions, something that was lacking in previous versions of Firefox. The drop-down menu will show matching sites from your browsing history and bookmarks, as well as sites that you tagged (if you’d rather keep your bookmarks private, you can opt to exclude it from the suggestions). Mozilla has designed the search bar to get better the more you use it, working off data on how frequently you visit each site, how recently you visited it, and what result you clicked for specific words or characters.

Other improvements include support for .m4v video playback and an onscreen keyboard when you select input fields in Windows 8 and later. There’s just one caveat – the 64-bit version of Firefox 43 still has limited support for plug-ins.

Source: Mozilla

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