Browser Choice

[jojo]

When I started my PC today, a program automatically started called Browser Choice.

It's located in the System32 file and says it's from Microsoft.

It's asking me to choose a browser and download it.

I said I'd decide later, so it replied, 'We'll be back'.

(Actually it said it would keep running till I make a decision.

Any info anyone?

[ken]

Micro$oft are trying to keep up the bargain they struck with the EEU Jojo, when they changed their minds and let Micro$oft include IE in Win7. They now have to give you a choice on what you have as a default browser. So you dont have to worry, its not a nasty.

[jojo]

Thank you ken. I figured that, but thought it best to check with someone I know and trust.

I'll just select IE8, I suppose. I've tried Opera and Google. Can't say I was particularly impressed. OK but why change what isn't broken?

[jojo]

Just found a report on BBC News about it.

We have 7 choices: Avant, Chrome, Firefox, Flock, Green Browser, Internet Explorer, K-meleon, Maxthon, Opera, Safari, Sleipnir and Slim.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8537763.stm

[jojo]

I have a notion to try out several of the browsers being offered.

If I do, will I beable to completely uninstall them if and wehn I decide they are rubbish?

[ken]

They all uninstall OK as far as I know. I have uninstalled Opera, Slim and Firefox in the past, without any ill effects. I have even uninstalled IE8 on XP, without any trouble. I cant see the others being that much different, they are only browsers and not a very big program.

[jojo]

Great. I'll try each out and try to do a small write up to post here.

[Lynnrose]

Good idea Jojo, hope you are enjoying being the tester x

[ken]

Welcome back Lynnrose, we can all breath again now. At least nothing went wrong while you were away, otherwise it would have really hit the fan and browsers would have been the last thing on our minds.

[Lynnrose]

Thankyou KC...I thought no-one missed me

[jojo]

Mar 4, 2010 19:13:30 GMT Lynnrose said:

Good idea Jojo, hope you are enjoying being the tester x

Busy working my way through. On the 3 of those offered. Trying to spend about a couple of days on each.

Will post the results when it's done.

[buzzy]

Which reminds me, where is Larry?

computertypes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=firefox&action=display&thread=3110

[Lynnrose]

Larry popped in on Chatroom thread, so he must have missed your message. I don't think he would mind you PM'ing him with link to thread Buzzy

[jojo]

Browser review

This is a review of the 11 alternative browsers recently offered by Microsoft.

Each browser has been loaded onto my machine, tested then uninstalled before the next is loaded.

I use XP home. My system details are:

CPU 2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
Motherboard Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5N32-E SLI 1.XX Bus Clock: 266 megahertz
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Networking: NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller

Introduction:

Each browser has been measured against Internet Explorer since this is the standard and one which most people are use to.

Most of the browsers claimed to be fast. However, I have not included speed in the test as it is so dependant upon other factors, ISP, local nodes, servers.

Most browsers claimed to be secure. Before loading the first I ran Ccleaner and MalwareBytes Anti Malware. They cleaned out the usual garbage that accumulates with IE. After each was uninstalled I ran both these programs again. Ccleaner found some left behind they rubbish. MalwareBytes didn't detect any garbage from any of the alternative browsers.

My surfing habits are, various forums on different sites, YouTube, Wikipedia, Google, miscellaneous sites linked to from forums and Google, some on line email sites and banking.

I have measured five categories.

Extra Features. This was a score of any extra features in the browser. Those that stood out as being particularly useful scored better. In addition, features that might encourage the user to try something new scored more against features that seemed dull. Where features are fiddly, these gained negative scores. 10 indicates significant extra features that would be useful to a wide range of users.

Compared to IE. This is a simple comparison with IE. After migrating, would the user be likely to say, in over all comparison. 10 is would never look back.

Worth Migrating. This begs the question, is it worth the effort of migrating form IE to this browser. 10 is any effort is worthwhile for the benefits.

Switching from IE. This asks the question, how much adjustment would the average user have using this browser on one machine and IE on another? 10 is almost none.

Ease of use. This asks the question, is this browser easy to use? Are features accessible? Are facilities placed conveniently? 10 is yes, completely.

Next are the scores. After these is a basic written review.


Google Chrome

Extra features: 3/10
Compared to IE: 7/10
Worth migrating 4/10
Switching from IE 4/10
Ease of use 6/10

Advant

Extra features: 3/10
Compared to IE 5/10
Worth migrating 2/10
Switching from IE 6/10
Ease of use 6/10

Firefox

Extra features: 7/10
Compared to IE 10/10
Worth migrating 9/10
Switching from IE 9/10
Ease of use 10/10

Slim browser

Extra features: 1/10
Compared to IE 5/10
Worth migrating 5/10
Switching from IE 8/10
Ease of use 6/10

Flock

Extra features: 10/10
Compared to IE 10/10
Worth migrating 9/10
Switching from IE 9/10
Ease of use 10/10

Green browser

Extra features: 6/10
Compared to IE 9/10
Worth migrating 8/10
Switching from IE 8/10
Ease of use 9/10

K-Meleon

Extra features: 2/10
Compared to IE 5/10
Worth migrating 6/10
Switching from IE 7/10
Ease of use 7/10

Opera

Extra features: 3/10
Compared to IE 8/10
Worth migrating 4/10
Switching from IE 7/10
Ease of use 8/10

Safari

Extra features: 0/10
Compared to IE 1/10
Worth migrating 0/10
Switching from IE 7/10
Ease of use 4/10

Maxthon

Extra features: 6/10
Compared to IE 5/10
Worth migrating 5/10
Switching from IE 8/10
Ease of use 8/10

Slepinir

Extra features: 2/10
Compared to IE 8/10
Worth migrating 6/10
Switching from IE 8/10
Ease of use 8/10

Detailed Review.

Google Chrome

Appearance. Bright, with blue. Colours cannot be changed. This is particularly frustrating when trying to see the tabs.

Fonts appear fuzzy. There is an option to change the fonts, but sadly, it doesn't work.

When you open a blank tab, it isn't separate from the previous ones.

If you close a screen with several tabs still open, it doesn't check if you want to close the whole screen or just the tabs. This can be a bit frustrating when you accidentally click the red X instead of the tiny button on the tab which is really difficult to get at.

Opening a blank tab shows the last 8 sites visited, with a graphic of the page.

A really nice feature is, when clicking on a link, it automatically opens the link in a new tab. IE is suppose to do this but rarely does.

The bookmarks are all listed in alphabetical order and capital letters come before small case. Having the order like this, especially with a large file of book marks is tiring, but possible to get use to.

Right clicking on an image gives some useful options: Save Image, Copy Image URL, Copy Image, Open Image in new tab.

After downloading something, a list of recent downloads can be accessed with a bar at the bottom of the page.

Spell checking is included when typing on line. Spelling mistakes are underlined. Right click and an alternative is offered.

Tools. There are very few security tools to tweak. Which is probably a good thing since I doubt many of us really know what any of them actually do.

History page seems to be missing. This is a real drag.

The search engine is incorporated into the address bar. Naturally it's Google.

Conclusions: Chrome is a nice little browser which lacks some of the flexibility of IE. It imports IE favourites and home page, automatically.

The features are placed in such a way as to make them awkward to use when migrating from IE. This might be a temporary problem but seems rather silly and makes Chrome tiresome to use.


Advant

Appearance. This one comes out in a shade of grey. The tabs are easy to see. Different skins are available.

One of the first things you notice is a small pop up offering on line storage. It's quite easy to get rid of this by ticking a box.

There are tool icons at the top, with file tools on the left. More tool icons on the bottom.

There is no links bar, but favourites are quite easy to find from a button on the bottom left. The favourites list stays open till the button is clicked again. It functions in exactly the same way as IE complete with history. The favourites are imported automatically, but not the home page which sticks to bling, which is also the default search engine.

By clicking on Tools a tool bar I could there is an sub-tool called Advent Options. This opens a page of tweaks, one of which is to change the home page.

I tried to change the default search engine to Google but it wouldn't work. The only one that seems to is Advent's own which is quite frankly, rubbish.

Entering Google.com into the address bar brings it up. But after clicking a link, I couldn't return to Google with the back button.

The loss of Google means this browser is effectively useless. What's the point of a browser without a search engine?

There is also Internet Options which is identical to IE's Internet Options.

Clicking the close window X brings up a box with 3 options, Prompt to save all opened windows on exit, which is the default, Automatically save opened pages, exit directly. This is a nice feature since it means that browsing can be restarted from where you left off, without having to trawl through a history file, which is also easily accessible.

A page is opened in a new tab by holding down shift instead of CTRL. A rather annoying feature is that the new page is on-top, so if you want to open several, you have to continually click back to the first tab. Even more annoyingly, there is no obvious option to open a blank tab!

A nice browser, made annoying by new pages opening on top and utterly useless by the block on Goggle.


Firefox

It's a nice clear browser. Tabs are easily visible. Links are opened in new tabs by holding down CTRL. Blank tabs are easily opened and are
separate from previous tabs. Clicking on a link opens a new tab. Closing that tab returns to the original one. Nice feature.

The links bar, from IE is available. One extra link opens a drop down menu with a large number of News headlines, all linking to BBC News.

Bookmarks are accessed from the tool bar. They are listed as a drop-down menu, with sub menus. Nice and clear.

Home page and search engine can be reset to preferred.

History is available on a separate tab and there are several options to control it.

There seem to be a number of addons available. I downloaded the dictionary. It highlights words it doesn't recognise. A right click on the word offers spelling alternatives. Excellent.

When closing the browser, you are offered to save the current pages so you can restart from where you finished, or simply close it.

Tools to are available for some customising. These seem to be clear and easy to use.

This is a really nice browser. It does everything IE does and more some.

The only criticism is accessing the bookmarks is a little fiddly.





SlimBrowser

This one loaded quickly and all bookmarks were transfered.

The appearance is a bright blue with everything easy to see.

Changing the home page was quite easy as it uses IE's Internet Options box. But my home page had to be typed in as the Select Current was greyed out

All features seem to be there, links bar, bookmarks east to access, lots of customising tools. Plus a number of tools that seem to be for social use, such as setting up groups.

The default search engine is My Search. Others, including a version of Google called Google FP can be selected with a drop down box, but this needs to be done each time. Sadly, it brings up American results.

I suppose you could always put Google onto the favourites bar.

Links are opened on a new tab by holding down shift. The new tab is on top, so of you want to go back to the original tab, to open further link, you need to click back each time. There isn't an obvious way to close individual tabs but can be done by right clicking on them. Opening a blank tab is not possible.

The tab sequence seems to be confusing.

The confusion with tabs and the difficulty accessing Google let this, otherwise nice browser down. After install, lots of garbage was left in the registry.




Flock

Basically, this browser is very similar to Firefox. It even uses Firefox's addons. A few differences in tweaks.

What makes this one different, nay, better is the inclusion of a number of social networking tools.

A browser is suppose to enable us to browse the net. It should include as many of the tools we need to do this. Flock has gone some way to this.

I don't personally use social networking, but I may use the photo upload facilities. However, these extra tools are there, they don't cause any problems and could be so useful if ever needed.

Other sharing features are a button where you can automatically share a web address by email.

This is a really impressive browser.


GreenBrowser

On loading it looks a lot like IE. But no links bar.

There was an annoying green G in the middle of the screen. It's purpose is a mystery but eventually got rid of it by right clicking on it and clicking a button called Monitor. Still not sure what it's purpose is.

An Options box is available to customise this browser. Not much that is different from most of the others apart from a button which can find occurrences of a specific word on a page of text. Handy if you spend a lot of time in forums or reading.

IESpell, for IE works on GreenBrowser

Tabs seem to open and close in a logical sequence.

I have avoided looking too much at speed, but this browser does seem noticeably faster than the others.

It's also one of the smallest, taking up only about 3 megs of disc space

Apart form that, this is a nice basic browser with a few extra tools.

Addition. This browser failed to unload. When I loaded the next browser in the test, clicking on a link, brought up this one, again! It also left some garbage in the registry.




K-Meleon

This browser is not dissimilar to IE. When first opened, it lacks a links bar and a few other features, such as closing individual tabs, but these can be easily set using the options.

The home page cannot be reset

New tab opens with shift. Blank tabs opened with a button hitten on the top right.

Tabs open nicely, though the most recently opened is on top.

No spell check function.

Search is done using the address bar. This can be set to Google.



Opera

Plain looking browser. Minimum of buttons visible. Links bar can be loaded, called Personal bar.

Bookmarks need to be imported manually from File Import

New tab opened with shift. Blank tabs opened easily.

Tabs open nicely, though the most recently opened is on top.

A spell checker is included. A British version was downloaded automatically.

When opened, the pages from the previous browsing are loaded automatically.

There are a few tools to customise the browser. Also, a selection of what are called Widgets. These are just Opera's versions of Microsoft's Desktop gadgets, clocks, and such.

I've heard this is an impressive browser. But I'm afraid I can't find out why. Perhaps the really impressive stuff is hard to find.



Safari

This is Apple's offering. I'm pleased to say it doesn't disappoint. I was expecting something pretty bad and that's exactly what is offered.

The screen is basic. Address bar. Search bar, (Google) and a links bar. Sadly, the links bar is occupied by Apple's links.

Bookmarks can be installed, but in keeping with Apple's haughty attitude toward Microsoft, they are treated as something alien and kinda awkward to use. They take a while. There is a rather interesting graphical display above the favourites, supposedly showing a tiny image of the bookmarked page. The purpose of this is presumably so people can say Wow, swell graphics man!.

There's a button showing top sites. The first on the list is ipod!!

On the links bar is Popular. This is a drop down list of sites, mostly selling stuff.

There is a preferences box. But apart from the home page, there really aren't many preferences on offer.

This browser is astonishingly slow. Slower than IE. Every so often, there is an interminable delay when everything freezes up. OK, it's my computer, would work better on an Apple. As would a worm!

Sorry, this is definitely one for the bin.


Maxthon

Opened quite quickly. Top of screen has all standard browsing tools. Favourites were automatically loaded from IE along with my homepage.

There is a links bar, but rather strangely, it contains the first seventeen favourite folders rather than the links. If you have a lot of Bookmarks stored, this is going to happen. Setting this for your most used links seems to be imposable.

There is a rather basic customisation options facility.

The search bar can be quite easily set to Google.

New tabs open on top, again, but a blank tab can be easily opened. A really nice feature, which can be selected from the options, means that a link is automatically opened on a new tab.

On closing you have the option to erase all history. This is offered on other browsers, of course, but generally a set option.

The usual browser tools are available, back refresh, home. Some interesting tools are, photo download where photos can be downloaded with a single click, split screen so two different pages can be visible at the same time, language translation is incorporated,

For some reason, this browser refuses to remember log ins.


Slepinir

This is another quite basic browser based upon IE.

Google can be easily selected as the default search engine. The home page can also be reset.

Tabs are clear. They can be configured fairly easily.

Some site links opened in new tabs, others didn't. But pressing CTRL forced a new tab. New tabs open on top.

The option box has a number of features whose purpose is a mystery.

There is a links bar. But by default, it only contained three sites recommended by the authors. Your own links can be loaded here, manually.

Spell checking using IE Spell

The best that can be said about this browser is that is is an alternative to IE, for those that want an alternative.




Note to Lynnrose. The attachment is this article with my preferred format, (view in full screen mode). Sadly, this site removes extra spaces so I've posted it as is. If you can sort it out, be really grateful.

[Lynnrose]

Hi Jojo and thankyou for taking the time to review those browsers (Firefox is the one I use) very nice review.

Note to Lynnrose. The attachment is this article with my preferred format, (view in full screen mode). Sadly, this site removes extra spaces so I've posted it as is. If you can sort it out, be really grateful.

I can't see the attachment?

[jojo]

I can't see how to up load the attachment. I can put it in the box from my computer but no upload key is visable

[jojo]

Can anyone advise how to upload a .txt file?

The file is linked in the box to the correct location on my HD, but can't see how to upload it.


Seems to have worked this time! ;D

Cn you post it in this format lynnrose?

Attachments:

[Lynnrose]

Sorry Jojo, it opens in Windows Notepad, so it looks the same as what you posted before.

[jojo]

The scores on the attachment, are listed in two lines of five each, rather than a long vertical list as in the posted version. You need to view it in full screen. I laid it out so it would fit into a full screen on CIT.

But it's no big deal really.

It was kinda fun doing the review, but I'm glad it's done.

[Lynnrose]

It would be better in a table Jojo, like in a Word document, or using the tables on here.

[jojo]

Lynnrose.

I know you use FireFox.

I've been using it since I finished the Browser review. I find that videos embedded into forums run intolerably slow. They run for a few seconds then stop for about 10.

I tried switching to IE, running the same videos and they work fine.

Is there a setting on Firefox to fix this that you might know of?

[Lynnrose]

Not sure on that one Jojo.
Embedded videos work fine for me.
Perhaps you need a Firefox Add-on, that I might have, but don't realize I actually need for videos lol
Copy and paste the following into your address bar to see a list of Plugins you may have.
Might shed some light.

about:plugins

I have way too many to list.

[jojo]

Thank Lynnrose.

I might do that sometime, but for the moment, I went back to IE. It isn't brilliant and it is a bit mediocre but it works.

When I was compiling the list of things which I would check in the browser review, I included Flash video but only checked those on Utube.

I really should have looked at embedded videos as well.

[jojo]

Hi All.

It's been ages since we had a decent discussion on browsers, back when we still liked each other and ken was a member.

Happy days, eh?

Anyway. IE has been causing increasing problems of late. Mainly because it's so intolerably slow. Slow to load. Slow to open and especially slow to open a new tab.

I confess, I kinda put up with this, assuming it was M$ sabotaging XP to get us to use whatever they call their latest offering.

A few days ago, I needed to download the update for Google Earth. They offered Chrome at the same time.

I know Chrome is quite a small file, and thought, why not?, especially as it might mean the Google Earth software might be the proper stuff.

I just wanted to say to anyone here. If you're looking for a no nonsense, does what it says, browser, then Chrome is worth thinking about.

[mikkh]

Chrome, like Opera is a good alternative to IE or Firefox

Both are a bit fiddly to set up if you don't like the default look - and I hated it on both, especially Opera, but worth sticking with.

I've been using 'Nightly' for the last few months which is a 64 bit version of Firefox. It's an ongoing test version of 64 bit Firefox with nightly updates - hence the name

Current installed browsers (for Windows) are Nightly and Opera which is the only one that seems to do the photo slideshow correctly on Yahoo mail in 64 bit Windows 7

In Linux I use Firefox and Chrome

[johnnybee]

Yeah, pat on the back from me too, Jojo, good work, M8!
As I said to Mikk recently, I've tried FF, Opera, Maxthon and Chrome before and didn't like any of 'em partic'ly - good and bad points with all of 'em.
Have to say your review of Flock has me wondering whether it'd be worthwhile giving that a go - is it a simple enough download / install?