How to upgrade Firefox from 32-bit to 64-bit

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While in the past web browsers only offered 32-bit versions, mainly due to the low market share of x64 operating systems, today virtually all have an x64 system and, therefore, major browsers Web have out-of-the-box versions to work natively in this architecture, improving both performance and security. Firefox, for example, is one of the last browsers to make the leap to x64 architecture last year.

Although 64-bit versions only provide improvements over 32-bit versions , according to Mozilla, only 1,7% of its users have updated their browser 32-bit to 64-bit . This is due, on the one hand, to the ignorance of average users of the existence of this version and, on the other hand, to the fact that the browser web offers by default (for compatibility reasons) version 32 bits, instead of 64, forcing users who want this version to actively search for it.

If we don't know which version of Firefox we have installed, we can easily check it by opening our browser and typing in the address bar:

about: support

In the new window that will open, we will be able to see " User Agent ”, Where it will indicate if our version is Win32, x86 or Win64, x64.

Advantages and disadvantages of Firefox for 64 bits

The functions and characteristics of both versions are the same, since the changes are internal, in operation, in stability and in security. For example, taking this latter concept into account, the 64-bit version only works with the plugins Flash et Silverlight , so if we use others like Java or Unity, we don't need to update. In the future, Mozilla will block the use of all these plugins.

In terms of performance, the 64-bit version is able to work with more than 4 GB of RAM , which brings a performance improvement, especially if we open many tabs at the same time and run many plugins in the session. Most users who normally use the browser will not notice this improvement.

How to update our 32-bit Firefox to the 64-bit version

Although at the beginning the data should not be lost, before the update, to avoid further harm, it is advisable to make a full backup of our profile. For this we can use tools such as mozbackup et Febe or take advantage of the Mozilla cloud, called Firefox Sync , to synchronize data on their servers.

Once ready we just need to download the 64 bit version we want to install from the following links:

Once the version we want downloaded, all we have to do is launch the installer and follow the assistant which appears. Once done, when we run our browser again, it will already be the 64-bit version. If for some reason we want to go back to the 32-bit version, we just have to do the reverse, that is, download the 32-bit version and reinstall that version over the existing version.

We can also install both versions at the same time, in different directories, so in this case we could use two versions of the browser at the same time, one 32 bit and the other 64 bit.

Are you using a 64-bit web browser?