14 DAY TRIAL // Google has recently unveiled the 64-bit version of Chrome for Windows, but the application was until now part of the development channel, meaning that it was more or less unstable and full of bugs.
The company has announced today that Chrome 64-bit for Windows has been pushed to the beta development channel, so everyone can give it a try right now, with the search giant promising that the app is a bit more stable and most of the bugs have been fixed.
Chrome 37 beta comes with DirectWrite support on Windows, so font rendering is now better even on high resolution displays.
“Chrome 37 adds support for DirectWrite, an API on Windows for clear, high-quality text rendering even on high DPI displays. Before DirectWrite, Chrome used the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) to render text. GDI dates back to the mid-80's and reflects the engineering tradeoffs of that time, particularly for slower, lower-resolution machines. The switch to DirectWrite has been a top user request for years, and required extensive re-architecting and streamlining of Chrome's font rendering engine,” the company explains.
However, Google says that while most of the users should spot the differences as soon as this version, the stable build of Chrome 37 is more likely to bring better font rendering when it comes out in a few weeks.
“Some users should begin seeing better-looking fonts and increased rendering performance as we roll out DirectWrite, with no changes required by web developers. Assuming everything goes smoothly, all users will experience the improvements by the Chrome 37 stable release,” it said.
Chrome 64-bit for Windows works only on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, Google specifies. The application is automatically replacing the existing version and keeps your settings and bookmarks, so you don’t need to uninstall the current version of Chrome that’s running on your computer. Visually speaking, the application looks exactly the same as the other versions of Chrome, so you won’t notice any changes after launching the browser.
Google says that the 64-bit version of Chrome should be more stable and secure than the standard package, mostly thanks to the new technologies available in these modern operating systems.
Of course, everyone can give it a shot right now, but keep in mind that it’s still part of the beta development channel, so a number of bugs and other issues could still be encountered in this release.
Otherwise, just click the download links below to get the version running on your computer, with the Windows build also including the 64-bit package.
Download Google Chrome Beta for Windows Download Google Chrome Beta for Mac OS X Download Google Chrome Beta for Linux