Firefox 64-bit Needed for Windows7 – NOW



I remember when I decided to move to Firefox over Internet Explorer. IE6 was not cutting it and Mozilla was showing promise. Add to it all the security issues for some projects I was working on and the plugins to test code. I never thought I would move away from Firefox at that point.

Until Windows7 64-bit.

Everyone talked about how Firefox crashed, and in all reality, I didn’t see that problem. That was until I hit 64 bit mode. Firefox is still a 32 bit application, so I expected a few crashes during the inception.

Then the crashes started happening a little more than usual. I would be working – especially on a page that housed Flash – and the system would stop responding. I would restore what I was working on, but the same process would happen again within minutes. Just the other day I had the browser crash 6 times in an hour – halting my work every time.

Add to it the memory it starts to eat up. I pulled up Task Manager and watched how – while I was doing nothing in the program – the system was allocating more memory for it. Now you might think that it was because of Flash or a plugin I had installed, but I turned off all plugins and was on my homepage – which is a page I created with nothing but HTML links.

I decided to look for a 64 bit version of Firefox. One area said they are not even thinking of going 64 – at least not until version 4. I did find the alternate projects to FF 64. I installed a program called “Minefield”, which made me nervous to begin with. Who names a testing platform “Minefield”?

Alas, it wasn’t any better. I had no Adobe flash and it crashed within a few pages.

I don’t get it. It’s the only 32 bit program that crashes on a regular basis. I even tried compatibility mode, but the browser would still stop responding.

The big issue was the memory hog it became. I went to the about:config option to try and find a key that would limit or release memory. There was none that I could find. I might have overlooked it – anything is possible. But as far as I know, nothing to change how it works memory.

I didn’t think this would be a big issue for Mozilla. 64 bit OS has been around for a couple years now, and they have Firefox 64 for Linux and Mac users. But not for PCs

Therefore, for now I am using Chrome on the main system. Since the laptop is still 32 bit Windows XP, Firefox will be the browser of choice on that machine. It doesn’t crash there. I personally don’t like Chrome, but if I had to order the browsers I would use and like, it would be Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE and then Safari.

Still, I implore Mozilla to get on the 64 Bit kick and get this browser out. I also want you to try and figure out why Firefox eats memory like a high scoring Pac-Man game. I like the plan of going to the ribbon style menu, but if it still causes crashes, I’ll have no choice but to switch off Firefox. After all, I cannot start working in a browser that might stop responding, especially if I am in the middle of writing a blog post.

About J Powers

Podcaster, Blogger, IT Specialist. Been working in IT for over 15 years. Supported Windows 95 upon initial Launch and have worked in desktop, server and Web site support roles. Started Geekazine in 2007 and launched 5 shows from it. Speaker on many topics in Podcasting and technology. Also a musician.


8 thoughts on “Firefox 64-bit Needed for Windows7 – NOW

  1. Well, here I am typing this in Firefox 3.5 on Windows 7 x64. In parallel I am running Shiretoko a.k.a. Firefox 3.5 64-bit. Neither is crashing. So, unless you are working on some code that you are testing with your browser and that is causing your problems, I don’t know what are you talking about. Shiretoko does not have any Flash – there is simply no 64-bit Flash (go Adobe). However, this does not crash anything, for any web page with flash content Shiretoko just shows some icon and a message that a plug-in is missing.

  2. Y’all need to suck it up & quit whining. I mean, according to y’all, ya got the greatest OS ever so ya should be using MS IE8 to go along with the program. How do ya expect MS to survive if y’all are not using their browser. 8-)

  3. What a clueless reply old rang, MS has it’s methods called illegal by competitors, fanboys and antitrust lawyers looking to make a name for themselves. Even if MS did do ‘wrong’ (which is subjective anyway) it’s irrelevant to this issue and is only brought up because crybaby fanboys can’t get anyone to use their crappy pet OS. Your technical arguments are just plain retarded, NT (win 2k, XP, vista, 7) is 32-bit or 64-bit, no 16-bit code at all. Linux problems are hardly fixed, let alone fixed quickly (audio, stable driver api, graphics drivers, e.g.) Windows 7 works well, as did Vista, and XP (considering it’s 8 years old), it does not require tweaking, don’t know what you got that idea, linux and mac have just as many security flaws as Windows if not more (this is where the anti-MS fanboys switch tunes and start saying linux and mac developers look harder for bugs), also Windows does not BSoD any more than linux and mac kernel panic, and usually, in both cases it’s because of drivers or bad hardware, not the OS. And what do you mean ‘never heard of an overflow, have you’ ? Every OS suffers from buffer overflows, you are clearly a clueless *nix fanboy, and linux has no enhancements to speak of anyway, to use your words.

  4. Let’s see… You use micro-soft’s so called ‘operating system’ Windows 7 (which is really only a patch to the somewhat more than usual defective Vista)…

    Microsoft has done everything it could to destroy:

    1) Netscape… (Illegally or by whatever means)
    2) Open Source…(Illegally or by whatever means)
    3) Firefox… (Illegally or by whatever means)
    4) Macintosh… (Illegally or by whatever means)
    5) Linux… (Illegally or by whatever means)
    6) Any Competition…Period…(Illegally or by whatever means)
    7) Any Manufacturers that sell computers w/o ‘their’ o/s, exclusively… (Illegally or by whatever means)

    And, you have figured out that their o/s doesn’t handle ‘your’ desires (probably because you don’t know how to overcome the (possibly deliberate) settings required (hint: check our Axcel 216, Xen2000), so you are demanding that the victims of Redmonds somewhat less than honorable methods of doing business, cater to your ignorance about how to fix their os??

    Something like asking the condemned to dig their own graves, sharpen the axe, tie the noose and other quaint tasks…

    I used Windows for many years, looking for the best way to set up the stupid settings… (I no longer care, but, have they set the thing up not to run in 16 bit mode by default, yet?? They had not in XP, NT, 2000, or 98… silly setting by default for computers that could not run them at all, for the most part)

    Alas, I now Run with Ubuntu, FireFox, (3.6 AND 3.7) in 64-bit, because… It works, WELL with no where near the security troubles, calling home, necessary tweaking, or silly ol’ bsds…

    Yes, there are problems, usually fixed real quick…

    Windows still has some from YEARS ago (never heard of an overflow, have you??)

    And, Linux has yet to call a critical fault, an ‘ENHANCEMENT’…

  5. There are 64 bit versions of FireFox available. They can be found here:

    I haven’t tried any of them but I would imagine you’d also need 64 bit of your favorite add-ins.

  6. Jeffery, I agree with the memory problems, although that is getting better.
    I have firefox 3 on 2 different 64 bit & 1 32 bit win7 machines with no firefox crashes.
    I also have Chrome on 2 of those, and the speed difference is unbelievable.
    I suspect you have a software conflict some where. Check other running programs or processes. That said Firefox should not be that sensitive to other processes.

  7. I have turn off windows seven due to this problem and now restore windows XP. I hope i may use windows seven again.

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