Member Avatar for Karkinnen

i have windows xp sp1, i currently use firefox, opera, ie, and netscape. is there any other GOOD browsers out the that you would recommend i try? i can only seem to find shells for ie. also, anyone know a good shell to use for ie? i tried one, and it kept freezing. the name escapes me, sorry.

thanks
karki

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This thread is useful history, but the platform you described (Windows XP SP1) is now a security and compatibility problem. Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014, so XP systems no longer receive security updates and are increasingly exposed. (learn.microsoft.com)

A quick clarification about “shells”: a shell that looks different but embeds Internet Explorer still uses the same rendering engine (Trident/MSHTML). That means UI changes won’t remove engine-level vulnerabilities — ’s warning about IE-based overlays remains the right concern to have. (developer.mozilla.org)

Because mainstream browser vendors stopped shipping secure XP builds years ago, you’ll run into broken pages, missing TLS/HTTPS support, and unpatched security holes if you keep browsing from XP. Modern websites expect TLS 1.2+ and other features that XP clients generally can’t provide without risky workarounds. (support.mozilla.org)

Practical plan (short):

  • Best option: move browsing to a supported OS (Windows 10/11 or a current Linux distro) or run a modern OS in a virtual machine for web use.
  • If you must keep the XP box: upgrade it to SP3 and apply every offline update you can find; isolate the machine from routine web use; test any XP-specific browser builds only in a VM; keep up-to-date anti‑malware and avoid ActiveX/old plugins.
  • There are community projects that try to keep XP-capable browsers alive (for example, some maintained forks), but they’re third‑party and carry risk — treat them as a last resort and test in a sandbox first. (learn.microsoft.com)

Tie-back: and ’s IE praise and ’s shell suggestion reflect the 2004 reality, but today the safest move is platform upgrade or VM isolation before experimenting with legacy shells or forks.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for jwenting

IE itself is pretty good, IMO it's superior to all the competition.

Member Avatar for caperjack

IE itself is pretty good, IMO it's superior to all the competition.

Ditto to that !:)

Member Avatar for caperjack

i have windows xp sp1, i currently use firefox, opera, ie, and netscape. is there any other GOOD browsers out the that you would recommend i try? i can only seem to find shells for ie. also, anyone know a good shell to use for ie? i tried one, and it kept freezing. the name escapes me, sorry.

thanks
karki

http://www.flashpeak.com/

Member Avatar for Milhouse

i have windows xp sp1, i currently use firefox, opera, ie, and netscape. is there any other GOOD browsers out the that you would recommend i try? i can only seem to find shells for ie. also, anyone know a good shell to use for ie? i tried one, and it kept freezing. the name escapes me, sorry.

thanks
karki

Supposedly a good IE shell is Avant browser and MyIE2 browser I think this ones called.I also read Netcaptor is not a bad shell either.Go to Download.com and check these out.They should have reviews on them too.

For other browsers I've used K-Melon, Off By One,Aymaya and tried Galeon.I believe these aren't IE engines they're built on,but built with Mozilla except for OBO I think.I downloaded Galeon but couldn't open it as I did something wrong.Good Luck

Member Avatar for Sphyenx

convert to linus and use KDE's Konqueror Web browser.
Its much more user friendly and attractive. Actually everything about KDE is..

Member Avatar for felgall

I just saw a SUPER CRITICAL bug alert for Internet Explorer. The proposed workaround is to STOP USING IE IMMEDIATELY and switch at least temporarily to another browser. IE is a heap of garbage anyway as it is getting further and further non-standard since Microsoft do not seem to be working on upgrading it any more (apart from a few patches) and wont let anyone else fix it for them either. The same goes for anything that runs as an overlay on IE.

Firefox seems to be growing in popularity and will probably take over the major portion of the browser market eventually (it has over 5% already and has only been out a few weeks). Opera is also pretty good.

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngapbr.html lists lots of alternate browsers (it is discussing how well they support PNG graphics but has links to the browsers as well).

The important thing is that you don't run Internet Explorer or any other browser that is based on IE as this will open your computer up to attack. The latest vulnerabilities allow hackers to write whatever they want to your hard drive and there is no Microsoft patch available yet that you can install to block them.

Member Avatar for slayd86

I have to agree with felgall, IE has become a heap of garbage. It was once a powerhouse when it came to internet browsers, but has become a security risk. More than once have i opened IE to my homepage at google and am prompted to d/l something :evil: . I use firefox, and only use IE when firefox isn't compatible with a site :cool: . I swear by firefox now, until hackers attack it like they did IE. :cry:

Member Avatar for helloimtim

Try the maxthon browser. It sure works great on my machine and seems to be the fastest. Even though it uses ie core there are alot of fixes that has been done. It rocks. .......peace......im out

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