Why can't I get Flash to work in Internet Explorer on my 64 bit Windows 7 machine?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #82, I look at some confusion around 32-bit and 64-bit as it
refers to both an operating system and to versions of Internet Explorer.

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Flash in 64-bit Internet Explorer

Well, there’s definitely some confusion here. I’ve got a pretty strong guess as to what’s going on.

Not only is your system 64-bit, but Microsoft included on Windows 7 two different versions of Internet Explorer: a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version.

64 bit and 32 bit

The 32-bit version works just fine in 64-bit Windows. In reality, I’m not sure there’s much of a reason to use the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer ever.

That being said, my guess is that what you are doing is you are running the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer (which as I said, is fine), but you’re installing the 64-bit version of Flash.

Now when it says “64 bits,” it’s not really referring to what your operating system is, what it means is what version of Internet Explorer you’re installing it into.

My recommendation is that you repeat the process, but this time install the 32-bit version of Flash.

Yes, you’re installing it on the 64-bit operating system; that’s OK. You’ll be running it with a 32-bit version of Internet Explorer, which is exactly what you want. And yes, by providing both versions of Internet Explorer, Microsoft has indeed confused many, many people.

But, like I said, the 32-bit version works just fine and I would strongly recommend that you give this a try.

(Transcript lightly edited for readability.)