Vista x64 and Internet Explorer
I received this email today:
"I bought a 64 bit HP PC with Vista Home Premium and ie7 installed. When I was at a website to view something today it said I needed an Adobe plugin and directed me to Adobe. But Adobe said it did not have a 64 bit version and to use a 32 bit browser. After a bit of searching on the internet I finally got back to looking at programs on the new PC and found that there are 64 bit programs in the Prigram folder and 32 bit programs in the Program (x86) folder. And in each program folder there were ie7 programs. I suspect the desktop ie7 is 64 bit. So can I install a 32 bit version of ie7 from the x86 folder and thus have two versions of ie7?"
Vista x64 comes with two versions of Internet Explorer, a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version. The No Add-Ons version is simply the 32 bit version with a special switch added to the target path.
There is no need to install anything to get access to the 32 bit (x86) version of Internet Explorer. Simply run the correct executable. These are the target paths:
Vista (32 bit) = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
Vista (64 bit) = "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
Vista (No Add-Ons) = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -extoff
I have also created a special shortcut that opens Internet Explorer in InPrivate mode:
Vista (32 bit) InPrivate = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -private
I have added a shortcut for each version of IE, as well as a shortcut with the -extoff switch and the -private switch to my QuickLaunch bar.
My correspondent was right when he pointed out that there is no x64 version of Flash - Flash is not unique when it comes to this restriction.