Ritlabs, SRL on February 5 releases The Bat! v6.7.20 and now offers a 64-bit version of the program as well. From now on users can install either the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of The Bat! Email Client depending on the bitness of their operating system, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the company.

Thus, using 64-bit programs in 64-bit operating systems is more secure as threats that particularly target the 32-bit applications are harmless to the 64-bit ones. Data Execution Prevention, a security feature that prevents code execution from system memory reserved for Windows and other authorized programs, is always turned on for 64-bit programs while it might be disabled for 32-bit programs. The 64-bit operating systems offer a higher level of security as its Windows ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) is more effective due to a much larger address space than in 32-bit systems. Additionally, the 64-bit version of Windows automatically rejects drivers without valid digital signatures.

The good news is that The Bat! 64-bit version offers yet another advantage to the users of the 64-bit Microsoft Office allowing them to connect to MS Exchange Servers, while the 32-bit version of The Bat! was able to interoperate only with the 32-bit version of Microsoft Office.

The Bat! 64-bit version is 5% faster than the 32-bit one in a 64-bit operating system. The new version of the email program is of an interest to the users who simultaneously run high memory consumption applications in 64-bit operating systems. Since 32-bit applications in 64-bit Windows are run in emulation mode, their performance might be affected.

“Nowadays, more and more users run 64-bit versions of Windows. I’m convinced that the bitness of applications and the bitness of operating systems must match as this way the programs will perform at their best. Yet nowadays, in 2015, many popular applications don’t have a 64-bit version. Personally, I always look for the 64-bit versions of the programs that I like and get upset when it turns out there are no such versions. I’m sure many The Bat! users feel the same. That is why we developed the 64-bit version of The Bat!”, said Maxim Masiutin, CEO of Ritlabs, SRL.

Further improvements of this version (available in the 32-bit version as well) are:

- Time range selection in the Message Finder: the new option in the search window (F7) allows to quickly select a certain time range to search for emails (last year, past 6 months, past 30 days, etc.).

- Compacting of the address book: previously, after deleting a contact it only disappeared from the list of contacts, but remained in the address book file on the local drive. The more contact pictures a user had the larger grew the file. Compacting the address book keeps the file as small as possible.

- Online help topics in German and Polish languages. The Bat! offers a wide range of useful features and now it’s even easier to learn them. The context help instantly provides the necessary information to the users as all they need to do is press the F1 key, which will open a web page with the relevant information. The support team constantly updates and refines the help topics. Each topic contains screen-shots, which allows to better explain The Bat!’s features. Users can also search the help topics by key words.

According to the press release, Ritlabs, SRL is a software company specializing in the development of secure communication products for corporate and private clients. The Bat! first entered the global market in 1998, and today is a leading e-communication processing system with millions of users worldwide. Multilingual support made it possible for the company to widen its customer base across the world and have users in 191 different countries.