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Well, I did some investigation, using the 32 bit and 64 bit Java Installs, to see if I could come up with some ideas about the control panel icons.
Yes, I know that applications are different, but I did want to point out that I *think* the same could be true with Flash. However, knowing that there is not a separate install for Flash 32 bit and Flash 64 bit, and knowing the icon that shows up in the control panel does say 32 bit, I tend to believe that it will only effect the 32 bit version of flash.... Let me try to explain my logic by looking at a few things with the java installs.
First, I removed all versions of Java, and modified my control panel view to be Large Icons. If you look at Pic #1, you can see all of my control panel icons, and there is not one at all for Java.
Now, I installed the 32 bit version of Java (jre-6u30-windows-i586-s.exe). Once the install was complete, I went back and looked at my control panel. I now have a new icon for Java, as shown in Pic #2, that is called
Java (32-bit) If I double click on that, I get the Java Control Panel, with
5 tabs (this is important, and you will see why later). The one tab that I want to focus on is the Update Tab shown in Pic #3. I also went to the Java Tab, and clicked on the View button, to bring up the window shown in Pic #4, which is the Java Runtime Settings window. As you can see, the path that the Java exe is installed to is
c:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\javaw.exe I then closed out of the Java Control Panel, and the windows control panel, and installed the 64 bit version of java (jre-6u30-windows-x64.exe).
Now when I open the control panel, I see the Java Icon has changed, as shown in Pic #5. It just says
Java . We lost the (32-Bit) part of it. So, we can assume at this point one of two things: 1) The icon is only for the 64 bit version of Java (as windows does not put 64 bit after every icon that is a 64 bit setting or application), or 2) We can modify both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Java from this one icon.
When I double click on the Java icon, I get what is shown in Pic #6. Again, notice the number of tabs is now
4 . We have lost the "Update Tab" that was present in Pic #3. Further looking around, I again went to open the Java Runtime Settings, which is shown in Pic #7. Notice that the path that the Java exe is installed to is
c:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\javaw.exe So, in the case of Java, I am only able to modify the settings for one of the installs. In this case, the 64 bit one, as the icon no longer has (32-Bit) after it. If I did want to modify anything with the 32 bit install (say the update options), I can't do that anymore. If I wanted to, I would have had to perform those modifications BEFORE I installed the 64 bit version, or if something needed to be changed later on, I would have to remove the 64 bit version, modify the settings for the 32 bit version, and then re-install the 64 bit version.
Again, I know that different applications install things differently, and this may not be the case with flash. However, going by what I found with Java, I would make the assumption that if the icon says "Flash (32-Bit)", the settings only apply to the 32 bit version of Flash.
On a side note, it is interesting that when I do the install for Java, I do not get BOTH icons in the control panel, since I actually do have both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions installed.
--Brian