Mozilla upgrades Firefox, adds 64-bit client for Windows and more

Mozilla just pushed out a major update to its popular Firefox web browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The Firefox update version 43 brings in a slew of features and improvements over version 42 adding a little something to every platform. 

Most notably, the web browser now supports 64-bit architecture on Windows over the outgoing version which was 32-bit. Mozilla already offers a 64-bit version Firefox on Mac and Linux.

The Firefox update version 43 which will work on Windows 7 or above is an important update for Windows with regards to speed and security. The outgoing 32-bit version of Firefox can only use 4GB of address space which although 'good enough' for most applications can't handle large Web applications as effortlessly as the 64-bit version. 

Updating Firefox to 64-bit makes the browser future-proof on Windows, an OS that ships with its own branded browser, aka Edge in Windows 10.

Mozilla has reiterated that since the 64-bit version of Firefox for Windows offers limited support for plugins currently, some websites -- that need plugins - will be incompatible on the new browser.

Moving on, Firefox update version 43 aims to strengthen the new Tracking Protection feature in Private Browsing, which was first introduced in version 42. All versions of Firefox can now choose a strict blocklist for Web trackers. "A basic protection list is on by default in Private Browsing with Tracking Protection and it shields against many ad, analytics and social trackers. 

If you want increased protection from tracking, Firefox now allows you to choose a 'strict' protection blocklist which will block additional content trackers such as those often found in video, photo and embeddable content. Choosing this list comes with a tradeoff because Disconnect has received reports from users of some sites not working properly and in some cases being unusable, when this 'strict' list is used," according to Mozilla.

Firefox for Android on the other hand brings in tab audio indicators, a feature that was earlier brought to desktop. This means users on Android will now know which tabs are producing sound.