Avant Browser
Posted on: 11/13/2003 12:00 AM
Internet Explorer remains one of the most used browsers out there, yet lacks many of the features found in some of the competition. Many simply use it because it came with their machine, while others are simply unaware or too intimidated to try a competing product. What if you could still use Internet Explorer, but add in those features you hear about as well as have a new look? You can, and it is painless, easy, and in this case, free.
Avant Browser uses the Internet Explorer engine and adds a ton of great features, most can be customized or not used at all. The installation routine is simple and uninstalling it is as painless, leaving your Internet Explorer right where it was when you started. Actually, it never really left, you can still fire up Internet Explorer or Avant Browser or both simultaneously if you wish. All of Internet Explorers options are still accessible from Avant, as well as a slew of new options that Avant has added for you. Once you have installed Avant Browser, it is a good idea to spend a few minutes setting up some of these new options. For this review, I will cover as many of these options as possible.
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You're probably wondering about a pop up blocker. It features a pop up blocker that is one of the best I have used. It allows pages that should pop up (like games) to do so, while blocking pop up ads. In my experience, I only found one website where a window I wanted was not allowed, although in this case, it was a pop up window from a pop up window at pogo.com that it would not allow. You can even set it to play a sound when blocking pop up windows.
Another huge feature you never knew you couldn't live without is tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing allows you to open multiple windows all inside of the same browser and "tab" between them. The best way to explain this would be to imagine opening Internet Explorer 4 times, yet being able to access all 4 windows from one Internet Explorer Window. If you look at the screenshots, you will see at the bottom left a couple of tabs. Those are the windows that I have open and can switch between. How I lived without this feature for the past 10 years or so, I will never know.
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Avant adds a ton of new shortcuts making it easier for you to open or close windows. You can also block images, Java, ActiveX, scripts and more. This is handy for either faster website loading or added security. The built in search engine is powered by Google, the most popular search engine out there right now. You can also configure Avant to clear typed addresses, passwords, cookies, temporary internet files and recently opened pages, items that many of us clean out regularly. Avant can be minimized to your tray, taking up less space on your screen when not in use. Should Avant crash, or be closed accidentally, you can recover the pages that were open when this happened.
Avant only has a couple of small glitches to consider that I have found. One is that it often will not load the latest toolbars, but the author typically updates this and addresses this issue. Another is the memory usage. Naturally, opening multiple windows will use a lot of memory over time, which should be considered, but I have seen Avant use around 60 megabytes of memory, so if you have limited memory, this could be a deciding factor. Overall, I have used all the Internet Explorer add-ons available and while some come close, I always return to Avant Browser as my default. Try it for the pop up blocking and tabbed browsing, keep it for all the features you didn't know you couldn't live without.
Score: <img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"> (5/5 Stars)