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Notice: This post was relevant to a specific time period. Most of the answers contained herein are outdated, for many the situation described has simply changed. Caveat Emptor

What 64-bit web browsers exist for Microsoft Windows (64-bit XP/Vista/7)? For example, 64 bit versions of Opera, Firefox or Safari?

If such a browser exist, do you have any experience with opening very large HTML files (opening times, stability, memory consumption per HTML input byte).

I am asking because we have a server application that generates very large HTML files (the record so far is 900 MB, but a more typical size is 100-200 MB) and users often run out of memory when trying to open the HTML files. The current practical limit is about 130 MB. The memory consumption is about 10 times the input HTML file size (but this may of course depend on the kind of HTML).

Chris S
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Peter Mortensen
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    Maybe you should be talking to the developers of that application to try and get them to output in a more appropriate format. – John Gardeniers Jul 09 '09 at 22:35

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A 64-bit version of Internet Explorer is available for 64-bit versions of Windows Vista/7. Nobody uses it, primarily because plug-in developers cough Adobe, specifically Flash cough will not bother writing a 64-bit version of their plug-ins, and who will browse the net if YouTube doesn't work? ;)

It would work fine for opening large HTML files however.

Start --> All Programs, and it is listed right above Internet Explorer as Internet Explorer (64-bit).

Sean Earp
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There is a 64-bit version of Firefox available. The browser itself works fine, however there is a severe limit of plugins available, no Flash for example, although I believe they have just released a 64-bit Java plugin.

64-bit versions of Windows come with a 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, but again you meet similar limitations with Flash and Java.

So, using these versions may assist in your application, but it's going to restrict users in what else they can do and will end up going back to their 32-bit version for other browsing.

Peter Mortensen
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Sam Cogan
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64-bit Flash is here =D (it's a prerelease called Flash square 64). The prerelease of Firefox is now down the pan as an update the other day made it crash far too often to contemplate using it =(

I despise Internet Explorer and go as far as uninstalling it the second I reinstall Windows. iI find I then have a lot fewer errors in Windows itself, whether I am using it or not. I find just having Internet Explorer in the file system interferes with Windows far too much, so I resorted to using Safari. It rocks, I mean it really rocks =D

There was once upon a time a 64-bit version of Chrome, but now I can't find any existence of it on Internet. I am now searching for a reliable 64-bit browser. I will let you know my results on everything I try. As far as your huge HTML scripts it sounds like you're running out of virtual memory. Different browsers will not help with this, but would speed up the process.

Think getting your users to up their virtual memory will sort this out I am sure, but having it on a 64-bit only system is not the best answer as it forces your users to use 64-bit. Most won't know the difference and would have to reinstall Windows.

I hope this helps you all.

Peter Mortensen
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madyotto
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I do not have much experience with the 64 bit versions of web browsers. I have tried using a few of the major ones before on a couple 64 bit OS installs, but I can confirm that the plugins not being 64bit or not working optimaly are major issues. Haha, I like what Sean said about "who will browse the net if YouTube doesn't work?"

Troggy
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