Firefox 32 bit

slinga

When I go to Task Manager it shows Firefox 32 bit. In fact quite a few of the other Processes are shown as 32 Bit.


My Wndows 10 runs on 64 Bit.


Is there a conflict here or is this normal?

[Deleted User]

slinga wrote: »

When I go to Task Manager it shows Firefox 32 bit. In fact quite a few of the other Processes are shown as 32 Bit.


My Wndows 10 runs on 64 Bit.


Is there a conflict here or is this normal?

It's normal, 32 bit apps can run on 64 bit operating systems but it won't work the other way around. There is a 64 bit Firefox by the way, although it real life I doubt you'd notice the difference.

Neil_Jones

32bit Firefox, by its nature, can only use up to 4Gb of memory. 64-bit doesn't.
All new downloads of Firefox since version 56 have been 64-bit - those using 32-bit Firefox 55.0 or older (on Windows) upgrading to 56.0 would have got Win64 Firefox if you have 64-bit Win7 or later and 2GB+ Ram. The stub installer on http://www.mozilla.org will default to 64-bit if your system supports it and not be only 32-bit as before. One can still download the full separate 32-bit or 64-bit Firefox setups for Windows at http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

This blog post from 2016 might be of interest:
https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2016/07/22/firefox-64-bit-for-windows-can-take-advantage-of-more-memory/

slinga

Neil_Jones wrote: »

32bit Firefox, by its nature, can only use up to 4Gb of memory. 64-bit doesn't.
All new downloads of Firefox since version 56 have been 64-bit - those using 32-bit Firefox 55.0 or older (on Windows) upgrading to 56.0 would have got Win64 Firefox if you have 64-bit Win7 or later and 2GB+ Ram. The stub installer on http://www.mozilla.org will default to 64-bit if your system supports it and not be only 32-bit as before. One can still download the full separate 32-bit or 64-bit Firefox setups for Windows at http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

This blog post from 2016 might be of interest:
https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2016/07/22/firefox-64-bit-for-windows-can-take-advantage-of-more-memory/

Thanks.
I downloaded and installed the 64 bit Firefox and when I open the Task manager it no longer shows Firefox 32 bit, but it does show Firefox(3) and it also shows other apps etc as 32 bit, which I'm not concerned about.


But what does the (3) mean after Firefox?

debitcardmayhem

Usually 3 tabs I think

Neil_Jones

slinga wrote: »

Thanks.
I downloaded and installed the 64 bit Firefox and when I open the Task manager it no longer shows Firefox 32 bit, but it does show Firefox(3) and it also shows other apps etc as 32 bit, which I'm not concerned about.


But what does the (3) mean after Firefox?

The number is the number of processes Firefox has open, the figure varies. It's designed to improve performance and hopefully mean that if one tab falls over the entire browser doesn't come down with it, like it used to, it's called MultiProcess Firefox:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Multiprocess_Firefox