|
|
|
| Pop-up ads but no tabs, no thanks!
If you are sick of advertising pop-ups, want faster browsing, like the concept of opening webpages within one window with tabbed access, or would just like a change, then Internet Explorer in its default form is not what you need.
Having decided that, you have three choices - and the good news is that they are all good ones! They are:
Improved versions of Internet Explorer are Avant Browser (http://www.avantbrowser.com), Crazy Browser (http://www.crazybrowser.com) and Slim Browser (http://www.flashpeak.com), to name but a few. Go to Download.com and search for web browsers and then read about each one. Download a likely one and try it. Repeat, as necessary, until you find one you are happy with.
Netscape and the Mozilla browsers are based on the fast Gecko engine. My personal choice is Firefox, which gives more viewing area than other browsers to the page you are looking at, opens pages in the one window using tabs, blocks pop-ups, and manages downloads. Rather than cram in every possible feature, its designers have designed it so that you can add "extensions", of which there are currently around 160. You can also change its looks with "themes". It is, however, a "technology preview" or beta version. It's fast and stable, but may acquire further improvements before its final release as version 1.0. Netscape and Mozilla are stable, fully-developed versions and include email and webpage design features.
Opera is an independently developed browser which can be used in advertising-supported mode, or you can cross the makers palms with the amount of silver they ask and use it in paid mode. While it is fast and stable, I don't feel it has a sufficient advantage to warrant paying for it, and, in advertising mode, you lose too much viewing area to the advertising banner. But that's just my personal opinion - there are many thousands who disagree with me!
If you decide to just use Internet Explorer as bundled with Windows, or any of the browsers based on it, make sure you download and install the latest patches, as there have been a number of security issues identified and fixed via the patches since its latest version was released. Just in April 2004, Microsoft released 20 such patches, some of which affect Internet Explorer.
Note: Windows Update and many magazine discs use Internet Explorer as their interface. For this reason, it is probably not a good idea to remove it completely.
|
|
|