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I just bought a new laptop. I have two Microsoft Internet Explorers installed : Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer (64 bits). What's the difference ? Is it a problem to have the two installed ? How come the two are installed ? Should I uninstall one ? It's Microsoft Internet Explorer 8. My PC is running Windows 7.

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Windows 7 64bit ships with both the 32bit and the 64bit of Internet Explorer installed. The same goes for installing IE9 manually on a 64bit OS. This is for compatibility reasons, since a lot of plug-ins (including Flash and MS' own Silverlight) aren't available in 64bit versions and thus don't work in a 64bit browser. For the same reasons, 32bit Internet Explorer is the default browser in Windows 7.

Similar considerations apply to other types of software. Take MS Office 2010 as an example: It's available as both 32bit and 64bit, but MS themselves recommend using the 32bit version for plugin compatibility.

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No, it is not a problem.

The 64-bit version makes use of your 64-bit CPU to process web pages and it's content. The main difference between the two is that the 32-bit version has better support for add-ons.

It is also worth noting that the latest version of Internet Explorer, which is version 9, the 32-bit version is faster as the faster JavaScript rendering engine is not compatible with 64-bit, which uses the older JavaScript rendering engine.

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  • It just uses the older javascript engine, see here
    – soandos
    Jun 2, 2011 at 13:38
  • Whoops, will change it
    – user78429
    Jun 2, 2011 at 13:40
  • As a general rule, any 32 bit program can be run on windows 64 bit (the same is not true of drivers and some other things)
    – soandos
    Jun 2, 2011 at 13:41
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There is no problem having both installed. I read an article here that gave a reason not to use the 64-bit version of IE 9. I have no idea of differences between the v. 8 programs, but something to keep in mind.

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