Just like Windows 7, there are two versions of Internet Explorer installed in Windows 8; one in the Program Files folder which is where all of the 64 bit programs are installed, and another Internet Explorer in the Program Files (x86) folder which is where the 32 bit programs are installed. Unlike Windows 7, when checking the version number of the 64 and 32 bit versions of Internet Explorer, you can't tell which is 64 bit and which is 32 bit. In fact it looks like no matter which version you start, you always get the 32 bit version. Does anybody have any information about this? Thanks.
Found this on neowin forum. For IE10, we’ve changed IE such that Manager Processes always run as 64bit processes when running on a 64bit processor running a 64bit version of Windows. This improves security among other things. We do not expect that this change will meaningfully impact compatibility, because the Manager Process is designed not to run 3rd party content, and thus there’s little opportunity for anyone to take a dependency upon the Frame Process’ bitness. In support of this change, the various registry points that point to Internet Explorer have been updated to point to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe. If you manually invoke C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe, that 32bit process will simply launch the 64bit version of iexplore.exe (with the appropriate command line parameters) before exiting. For the Content Processes, the story is a little more complicated. In the Metro-style experience of Internet Explorer, all Content Processes will run at 64bit (on Win64), which means that they benefit from the improved security provided in 64bit. The compatibility impact is minimal because Metro-style IE does not load any browser add-ons (Toolbars, BHOs, and non-browser-platform COM objects like MIME Handlers, URLMon Protocol Handlers, MIME Filters, ActiveX controls, etc). Back in IE9, running in 64bit mode meant that JavaScript was not JIT-compiled, but for IE10, the JIT compiler was enhanced to work for both 32bit and 64bit tabs, providing great performance in both. Additionally, many major browser add-ons like Flash, Silverlight, and Java are now available in 64bit versions. In Internet Explorer on the Desktop, by default, Content Processes remain at 32bit by default for compatibility with 32bit ActiveX controls, Toolbars, BHOs, etc. Even when you directly launch the 64bit iexplore.exe executable, you will still have a 64bit Manager Process that hosts only 32bit Content Processes. If you want to enable 64bit Content Processes for the Desktop, you must tick the Enable Enhanced Protected Mode option in the Security section of Internet Explorer’s Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab. When this option is enabled, all Content Processes that are running in Protected Mode (e.g. Internet Zone and Restricted Zone, by default) will begin to use 64bit Content Processes.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. I just tried enabling Enable Enhanced Protected Mode and restarted IE. All of my Favorites disappeared and IE refused to run the Google Toolbar. So Microsoft is one up on Google. Then I went back in and unchecked Enable Enhanced Protected Mode.