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IT Programming

How to force open Internet Explorer 32-bit or 64-bit in C#

On a project I was recently working on it was necessary to open a URL in Internet Explorer (a requirement of it to work correctly, unfortunately) and we had a few “bugs” which seemed to randomly occurred. It turned out this was due to Process.Start(“iexplore.exe”) loading 32-bit IE whereas it seems we required 64-bit.

With a little help from StackOverflow I was able to resolve this issue and thought it would be useful to share the resolution (with a little added detail) as it required a little searching myself to find.

So, to open 32-bit:

Process.Start(Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86), @"Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"));

and to open 64-bit:

Process.Start(Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles), @"Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"));

In theory this is only relevant if you are working with 64-bit systems, as the first will always open 32-bit and the second will open 32-bit if you are running on a 32-bit system.

About Stephen Pickett


Stephen Pickett is a programmer, IT strategist and architect, project manager and business analyst, Oracle Service Cloud and telephony expert, information security specialist, all-round geek. He is currently Technical Director at Connect Assist, a social business that helps charities and public services improve quality, efficiency and customer engagement through the provision of helpline services and CRM systems.

Stephen is based in south Wales and attended Cardiff University to study Computer Science, in which he achieved a 2:1 grading. He has previously worked for Think Consulting Solutions, a leading voice on not-for-profit fundraising, Fujitsu Services and Sony Manufacturing UK as a software developer.

Stephen is the developer of ThinkTwit, a WordPress plugin that allows you to display multiple Twitter feeds within a blog.

By Stephen Pickett

Stephen Pickett is a programmer, IT strategist and architect, project manager and business analyst, Oracle Service Cloud and telephony expert, information security specialist, all-round geek. He is currently Technical Director at Connect Assist, a social business that helps charities and public services improve quality, efficiency and customer engagement through the provision of helpline services and CRM systems.

Stephen is based in south Wales and attended Cardiff University to study Computer Science, in which he achieved a 2:1 grading. He has previously worked for Think Consulting Solutions, a leading voice on not-for-profit fundraising, Fujitsu Services and Sony Manufacturing UK as a software developer.

Stephen is the developer of ThinkTwit, a Wordpress plugin that allows you to display multiple Twitter feeds within a blog.

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