How to switch from 64-bit to 32-bit Firefox on Windows 10 Home
I want to uninstall FF 64-bit and install FF 32-bit (because I want to use addons, like ADBlocker Plus, and they won't install - or worse install but not show up - in FF 64-bit).
1) I go to https://www.mozilla.org, which becomes https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/ . I click "Firefox" and I am at https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/new/ .
2) I click "Firefox for Other Platforms and Languages" and I get a dialog where I click "Windows 32-bit". I get "Firefox Installer.exe".
3) I close and uninstall FF 64-bit from Control Panel.
4) I run that exe and after the install process I do have FF again, but it's still the 64-bit version. It has even remembered my session and bookmarks and I am even still logged in to sites I was logged in to before uninstalling (those for which I had asked to be kept logged in of course).
I tried that same process many times, by downloading FF with FF itself and with other browsers. I have even unistalled a "Mozilla Maintenance Service" I found installed in Control Panel, in case it was it that was forcing the wrong version to be installed, but no.
I also tried to click "Available languages" in the dialog at point 2, clicked on "Download" at row "English (British)" and column "Windows" (NOT the "Windows 64-bit" at its right), that gave me "Firefox Setup 55.0.2.exe", but this installer too produces the same result (I end up with the 64-bit version again).
No error messages ever appear at any point.
I simply can't seem to be able to replace FF 64-bit with FF 32-bit. I really don't understand what I am doing wrong. Any ideas ?
Chosen solution
I tried again just now, clicking the same in that "platforms and languages download page" (that is, clicking the column "Windows", NOT the "Windows 64-bit" at its right), and now that gives me a new version, which apparently became available in the meantime, that is "Firefox Setup 55.0.3.exe", and this time when I do exactly the same but with that new installer, I do get FF32.
However, I am sure that even before, in that "platforms and languages download page", I was clicking the column "Windows", NOT the "Windows 64-bit" at its right, and I was getting "Firefox Setup 55.0.2.exe" resulting in FF64.
Anyway, although I'm still confused, and worried by this page I just found and the lack of any mention in it of whether the addons will now work in FF64 like they do in FF32, now I got my FF32, and in the meantime I was told about http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ which I didn't know, so now I know that I will always be able to get FF32 if the addons don't work in FF64.
Read this answer in context 👍 5All Replies (3)
I imagine that those "32-bit" captions refer to the OS and not FF, but then shouldn't I get an error that I'm installing the wrong FF for the OS, instead of being silently switched to the 64-bit FF? Also, I see no link to the 32-bit FF download. Does it mean that on a 64-bit Windows the only option is to install 64-bit FF?
Chosen Solution
I tried again just now, clicking the same in that "platforms and languages download page" (that is, clicking the column "Windows", NOT the "Windows 64-bit" at its right), and now that gives me a new version, which apparently became available in the meantime, that is "Firefox Setup 55.0.3.exe", and this time when I do exactly the same but with that new installer, I do get FF32.
However, I am sure that even before, in that "platforms and languages download page", I was clicking the column "Windows", NOT the "Windows 64-bit" at its right, and I was getting "Firefox Setup 55.0.2.exe" resulting in FF64.
Anyway, although I'm still confused, and worried by this page I just found and the lack of any mention in it of whether the addons will now work in FF64 like they do in FF32, now I got my FF32, and in the meantime I was told about http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ which I didn't know, so now I know that I will always be able to get FF32 if the addons don't work in FF64.
Also, now I realize that the issue that started all this mess, that is the fact that addons disappeared from my toolbar and won't reappear not even after reinstalling them, was due to some FF update that had disabled the ones I had and was probably re-disabling them right away every time I tried to reinstall them, and all without showing any warning or info while doing it. And when I say "addons" I actually don't know if I should say addons or extensions or plugins.
I think this information about the forced disabling should have been given more clearly by that update process and whenever FF was doing it. I certainly missed some warnings but probably they were not shown particluarly clearly.