Making IE64 default?

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BBA

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
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Now that Flash and Java are working with IE X64, how can I make it the default browser? Must be a registry setting somewhere (the app itself does not give you the option).

Any idea? Seems a lot snappier than IE32 and would offer a small layer of protection against bad stuff designed for 32 bit browsers.
 
Don't, yet. Use the 32-bit version. The 64-bit version doesn't use the Chakra JavaScript engine.
 
You can't through the interface, but I'm not sure about the reg edit, I tried a reg edit to do this and it didn't seem to work but maybe I did it wrong. MS' reasoning on the interface lock out is that this prevents noobs from accidently running x64 IE and setting it as the default. Best you can do is open it and pin it to the task bar, but you will be forced to use 32-bit IE for any program that opens the default browser (again without a valid reg edit). And as SK said, it uses the older, slower javascript engine. The difference on my machine is 180ms vs 900ms on sunspider.
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure which ways you launch IE, but other than using the 64-bit link, you can change the behavior of the shell launching IE by updating the registry. This will work when you click "Internet shortcuts" and also when applications launch web pages via shell commands, which is very common. This does not change the behavior system wide, especially for built in tools which use parts of IE, or when applications directly launch IE from the default directory. It should be fairly close to making IE 64-bit behave like the default in most typical cases. Remember to use the 64-bit link to start it manually. Replace or update the default IE shortcut on the desktop and/or taskbar.

Save the files with appropriate names and double click to import:

ie32bitshelldefault.reg:
Code: 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\http\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe\" -nohome"

ie64bitshelldefault.reg:
Code: 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\http\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe\" -nohome"
 
Got it set.

Basically, went through the registry and replaced the \Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer path entries with \Program Files\Internet Explorer entries. I did have to take ownership and assign myself permissions to many of the keys to be able to do it. There were about a hundred (exageration) keys to edit but it does work.
 
BBA said:
Got it set.

Basically, went through the registry and replaced the \Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer path entries with \Program Files\Internet Explorer entries. I did have to take ownership and assign myself permissions to many of the keys to be able to do it. There were about a hundred (exageration) keys to edit but it does work.
Click to expand...
:eek:

LOL, that was a really bad idea.
 
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