NetCaptor is the ultimate browser add-on

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://netcaptor.com/ppcthoughts.php">http://netcaptor.com/ppcthoughts.php</a><br /><br />NetCaptor can best be described as "the browser that Internet Explorer always wanted to be". It's a "shell" that wraps itself around Internet Explorer and enhances it with lots of new features - but it's still Internet Explorer, not some new browser. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I'm completely thrilled with the product. If you're anything like me, you're not a single-browser window kind of person. You'll have a few windows open, and soon your taskbar is loaded with IE windows (or you have multiple windows stacked on the taskbar). What's the solution? I found a program called NetCaptor, and liked it so much I approached the creator about a partnership - and he's offering 17% off the regular price with the discount coming back to Thoughts as an affiliate fee (about $5). So if you buy this great application, you're also helping the site. So why do I like NetCaptor? Let me count the ways.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/netcaptor.gif" /><br /><br />First, it's a tabbed browser. Instead of having multiple browser windows, you have a single NetCaptor window and every web site you open up has its own tab. The instant "no clutter" effect this had on my work was shocking - it's so much cleaner now! It's really cool how it also goes back to those sites if you shut it down - all the tabs will re-load when you load NetCaptor again. It slickly took over all file associations from IE - I deleted the IE icon, replaced it with NetCaptor, and haven't looked back since. With two clicks, you can look at Google for cached pages of the same site you're on, do a WHOIS lookup, or even filter all your page requests through Anonymizer (for privacy purposes). It's got a great multiple-engine search tab, and by using CaptorGroups, you can load a whole whack of pages at once (like all your favourite Pocket PC sites for instance). I'm in the midst of building up a few CaptorGroups of my own, and it will make finding news so much easier. Wake up, load a CaptorGroup, and start posting. It's also got a pop-up window killer, although it's not the most powerful pop-up killer I've seen. The only thing I miss is that my Google toolbar doesn't work with NetCaptor, but I've opted to simply have a Google tab open instead.<br /><br />It's easiest to <a href="http://www.netcaptor.com/tour/1/?a=1064">take the quick tour</a> to see what NetCaptor can do.<br /><br />You can <a href="http://www.netcaptor.com/download.php?a=1064">download a trial version to check it out</a>, but remember to come back here and <a href="http://netcaptor.com/ppcthoughts.php">use this link to order it</a>. Thanks so much for your support, and I hope you like the product (and the discount).

[tim254]

Yes, I love NetCaptor too! I've been using it for a long time and I'm also a beta tester. I use the CaptorGroups for my Pocket PC sites, Computer News, Hardware News, New Software, etc.

The QuickSearch and Alias features are awesome, I use them all the time. Another cool feature is the ability to "tab lock" the current window/tab so you can click on as many links as you want on the current page to open up in new tabs.

I could never go back to browsing with IE because I can't stand having all those windows open and not being able to switch to the one I want quickly. I just wish MS would use a tabbed interface in Excel, Word, and Outlook!

[ironguy]

If you want to use Google without the toolbar, try GoogleSearch at the URL below. It's basically a free floating version of Google that minimizes to the systray. It's not from Google, but uses the Google search engine. It's nice because you have the option of having it always on top, tucked in the corner, even when you don't have IE (or NetCaptor) open. :)

www.frysianfools.com/ggsearch

[d2hamilton]

I have been using Netcaptor for about a year now and consider it to be indispensable. It's probably at the top of my list of 'must-have' utilities.

The more you get familiar with it, the better it gets. I'm just now starting to use the quicksearch and aliases capability. In fact, just hitting a 'p' in the address bar takes me right to Pocket PC Thoughts. :D

d2h

[popabawa]

WOW! Netcaptor is great, just d/l'ed the trial version and so far I'm really impressed. LOVE the 'open all favourites' feature.

Just setting up my CaptorGroups now....

[shk718]

The new netscape also has tabbed browsing.

[Jason Dunn]

The new netscape also has tabbed browsing.

Netscape? Are they still around? ;-)

[w.winzig]

...try Mozilla, at www.mozilla.org !! It's free, has all the features you want, it's fast, supports themes, it lets you turn off unwanted popup-windows and best of all... it's free! Why pay for something you can get for free??? Are you guys all Rockefellers :?:
Question

W. Winzig

[mstie423]

*COUGH* Opera? Opera has all the features Netcaptor, Netscape and Mozilla have NOW, but way before that. Way to be original, programmers.

[bblock]

Well, IE 6 _was_ pretty pricey, but since I just sold my car...

[Jason Dunn]

*COUGH* Opera? Opera has all the features Netcaptor, Netscape and Mozilla have NOW, but way before that. Way to be original, programmers.

Oh boy...I didn't mean to spark a browser war. :-)

I tried Opera, and there was a lot to like about it, but I ditched it for one reason: it didn't have autocomplete! I live and die by autocomplete with all the forms I have to fill out online, so bye-bye Opera. It is a slick browser though! Lots to like about it.

[adamz]

Can you visually tell by the multiple tabs which tab has finished loading the page?
Can you see multiple windows at the same time?

[Jason Dunn]

Can you visually tell by the multiple tabs which tab has finished loading the page?
Can you see multiple windows at the same time?

1) Yes - there's a mini progress indicator. It also shows the icon for the site if they have one, which is very cool. :-)

2) No.

[PlayAgain?]

I've been using the new Netscape for a while and while its tabs are indespensable, it is a little unstable and many companies are still too short-sighted to have web pages that work on more than one browser.

The news of this application (thanks PPCT) may bring me back to IE yet!

I use Window Blinds and Web Blinds for skinning so that isn't too much of a problem for me (as far as eye candy goes).

[rix]

If you like Netcaptor, another similar browser is "CrazyBrowser"

http://www.crazybrowser.com/

freeware.

Rich

[Philb]

Just tried Mozilla, and it seems every new url spawns a new instance of the program, where NetCaptor keeps everything in the same window. Is there a setting in Mozilla that lets you do this?

[Venturello]

Gonna take a look at it - I LOVE utilities like these, although I prefer my IE stuff-free (more stable, etc).

If I like it, Jason, I will buy though your link. I hope the best for this great site.

[mstie423]

The big deciding factor for me and Opera was the mouse gestures... flicking the mouse to the left for while holding down the right button, goes back, etc. It really speeds up stuff. As for auto-complete, uh, Opera 6 has it. Of course everyone likes their own program for their own reasons. It just upsets me a little when companies steal ideas... Opera truely was first. But hey

[PJE]

If you like Netcaptor, another similar browser is "CrazyBrowser"

http://www.crazybrowser.com/

freeware.

Rich


I'll second that! Crazy Browser is a NetCaptor clone (not quite as pollished), except it's free and does not have NetCaptor's spyware built in....

If you are considering NetCaptor - which I evaluated - Crazy Browser gives you the same functionality for free!

Regards,

PJE

[Jason Dunn]

I'll second that! Crazy Browser is a NetCaptor clone (not quite as pollished), except it's free and does not have NetCaptor's spyware built in....

Spyware? 8O Pretty hefty charge - what sort of spyware are we talking about? I haven't noticed anything...?

As for Crazybrowser, I'm all for freeware, but there's something comforting about knowing that the guy who made NetCaptor is supporting his family off of it - you know he's going to keep improving it and stick around. A lot of freeware apps are launched then abandoned.

I took a look at Crazybrowser, and doesn't it look like he completely ripped off NetCaptor? The UI is way too close to be "random". Oh well. :-)

[Dr. Smooth]

...try Mozilla, at www.mozilla.org !! It's free, has all the features you want, it's fast, supports themes, it lets you turn off unwanted popup-windows and best of all... it's free! Why pay for something you can get for free??? Are you guys all Rockefellers :?:
Question

W. Winzig

Agreed! Mozilla rocks! Here's a quick rundown of what's so great about it:


- popup control (and general anti-commercial attitude)
- tabbed browsing (and bookmark groups)
- bookmark keywords -- this is an awesome feature. I associate the keyword 'g' with a Google bookmark, then I just type 'g search term' in my URL bar, and I'm searching Google. No toolbar to muck with (although there's a Google bar for Mozilla, too)
- pipelining to speed up browsing
- theme-able
- nice interfaces to form manager, password manager, cookie manager
Better standards compliance (and support for non-standard HTML rendering for compatibility with poorly-designed MSIE-biased pages)


I used to be a huge fan of Netscape, but gave up on it after the 6.0 release -- what a dog! Dunno if Netscape 7 is any better, but Mozilla is fast and stable. Try it![/list]

[klinux]

I am just beginning to play with Mozilla (on both PC and Mac) and found it to be very good (it is like the free version of Opera but without the ads). The only bad thing is that not all plug-ins e.g. MSNBC is available for Mozilla yet. Netscape 7 is Mozilla bundled with some personalization and extra programs from AOL-Netscape (like AIM).

[Doug Raeburn]

Just ran the latest version of Ad-Aware after installing NetCaptor... no spyware was reported.

One question... NetCaptor is very slow at displaying favorites in both the Favorites menu and its Favorites tab. Is there anything I can do to remedy this?

Other than that, I like what I see so far...

[Marcel_Proust]

The big deciding factor for me and Opera was the mouse gestures... flicking the mouse to the left for while holding down the right button, goes back, etc. It really speeds up stuff. As for auto-complete, uh, Opera 6 has it. Of course everyone likes their own program for their own reasons. It just upsets me a little when companies steal ideas... Opera truely was first. But hey

Without companies stealing ideas I doubt we would have the PocketPc technology we are all playing with. Probably no technology period.

The sponsorship sounds like a good way to support this great site!

[Jason Dunn]

One question... NetCaptor is very slow at displaying favorites in both the Favorites menu and its Favorites tab. Is there anything I can do to remedy this?

Odd - I haven't noticed anything. In fact, it seems a little FASTER than IE. I do notice that NetCaptor does a "fade in" effect. Perhaps there's a way to shut that off in the options? It might be too stressful for your video card to handle. :-)

[tim254]

One question... NetCaptor is very slow at displaying favorites in both the Favorites menu and its Favorites tab. Is there anything I can do to remedy this?

Go to "Tools" > "NetCaptor Options" > "Favorites" > "Use Custom Favorites menu icons" and make sure it's un-checked. Close NetCaptor and restart. If that doesn't work, let me know.

[wiredguy]

Is there a keyboard shortcut for jumping back and forth between windows? That is a must-have feature. I use ALT-TAB too much to switch to an app without that feature.

[donkthemagicllama]

Gotta agree with rix and PJE on this one... Crazy browser definately has more bang for the buck. The only things it doesn't have (that I've noticed) are:

- little icons for webpages (cool, but not that big of a deal)
- the sidebar that let you pick groups without using the pull-down menus
- Whois won't work because you can't get it to use the domain name instead of the whole URL

Everything else seems to work great, and it's free.

[wiredguy]

Is there a keyboard shortcut for jumping back and forth between windows? That is a must-have feature. I use ALT-TAB too much to switch to an app without that feature.

Figured it out... F2 and F3 browse back and forth on the tabs. Not perfect, but it gets around.

Any luck getting the Google Toolbar to work inside Netcaptor?

[Take1]

I've been using NetCaptor for several years (registered it because it was THAT good) now and agree that it's the BEST dissussion board viewer period.

If you have Cable, DSL, or any other broadband service, this thing is essential. I load up PPC Thoughts, PocketGamer, Brighthand, PocketNow PPC Passion, PDA Avenue, Clie Source, Slashdott, ZDnet, Cnet, and PPC4all on one Captor group!

[st63z]

I may be slow, I don't get the math. We get to buy this with a $5 discount, but the discount is supposed to go back directly to PPCThoughts?? Where is the extra 5 bucks coming from?

Hey, I'm not complaining or anything, it works in our favor as long as we get the discount, just curious... :)

[DrtyBlvd]

*sheesh* Where was I when they brought this out?!?

How indispensible? And the others too! I seem to have been having a browser blinkered life.

*sigh*

[DrtyBlvd]

PS I am Rockafella', and have reg'd it. I see it as a donation to PPCT which I wouldn't ordinarily give; you might have a good thing with this Jase 8)

[Doug Raeburn]

One question... NetCaptor is very slow at displaying favorites in both the Favorites menu and its Favorites tab. Is there anything I can do to remedy this?

Odd - I haven't noticed anything. In fact, it seems a little FASTER than IE. I do notice that NetCaptor does a "fade in" effect. Perhaps there's a way to shut that off in the options? It might be too stressful for your video card to handle. :-)

That might be a problem with my work computer... the video card (a TNT2) is way outdated.

It's much better with my home computer (Radeon 8500).

[Jason Dunn]

Any luck getting the Google Toolbar to work inside Netcaptor?

Doesn't look like it's going to happen - it's an API limitation:

http://www.netcaptor.com/article/107/?a=1000&d=1

[Jason Dunn]

I may be slow, I don't get the math. We get to buy this with a $5 discount, but the discount is supposed to go back directly to PPCThoughts?? Where is the extra 5 bucks coming from?

Basically the author is taking a hit on the overall price of the program - he's "really" selling it for $20 or so, but in exchange for that price decrease, he's getting exposure on this site, to an audience that may be new to him. I get you guys the discount, and part of your fee goes to Thoughts. And you get a sweet application. Everyone wins. :D

[Jason Dunn]

I seem to have been having a browser blinkered life.

I'm in the same boat - I'm surprise how I did without these cool tabs and other goodies for so long considering what a browser fanatic I was. :wink:

[CoffeeKid]

[quote=DrtyBlvd]I'm in the same boat - I'm surprise how I did without these cool tabs and other goodies for so long considering what a browser fanatic I was. :wink:

Not enough of a browser fanatic if you didn't follow Moz up through the 0.9x time. 8) When they introduced tab browsing (some time back now, btw), I immediately took to that feature.

I like using Moz as much as possible. I use it on the iBook and on my PCs. I only really use IE now when I'm testing code (like I was 5 mins ago). Mozilla is fast, has all the features I want (tho the popup killer isn't as good as I'd like it to be or as others have made it out to be - maybe I'm missing something, but I'd like to feature to exclude certain sites so popups can happen at them, while barring the rest). and you gotta admire that open source process, no matter how dragged out it got.

Mark

[Kre]

This is a great program! I was just reading somewhere about a browser that had the tab feature. I was feeling jealous, thinking how great that would be. NetCaptor to the rescue! Ive never even heard of this program before which is strange considering what a geek I am and how much time I spend at my laptop. I like the group idea. Very nice. Thats it, Im gettin it! 8)

[Doug Raeburn]

One question... NetCaptor is very slow at displaying favorites in both the Favorites menu and its Favorites tab. Is there anything I can do to remedy this?

Go to "Tools" > "NetCaptor Options" > "Favorites" > "Use Custom Favorites menu icons" and make sure it's un-checked. Close NetCaptor and restart. If that doesn't work, let me know.

I tried this on my work computer, and it helps with the Favorites Menu, but not the tab or the toolbar icon. With those, it displays the icons at the rate of about 2 per second. With 20 or so favorites, it's a noticeable lag.

That isn't stopping me from getting a license, though... the features are definitely killer... ;)

[DrtyBlvd]

I'm using Antipopup from webnacks.com - or rather, I have been, until taking on NetCaptor - now it obviously(?) doesn't work, but neither does the inbuilt NetCaptor pop up protection either - I get them as new tabs? I've had a play with the settings, but it seems to make little difference... how's everyone else find it?

[st63z]

I too purchased a copy from here (I liked the IE-addon concept, though I also use other browsers). It's great, but there are minor things missing here and there that I'm used to with IE6. One of them is not being able to use my custom ordering of Favorites in IE (I have a lot of links and like to move the frequently visited sites to the top) -- in fact, does anyone know of a utility to "save" this custom ordering and reload it on another PC? Just copying the Favorites folder to another PC will lose the custom ordering.

Anyways, I usually let AdSubtract Pro run in the background continuously, and it hasn't caused much problems when I'm testing NetCaptor (even with NetCaptor's URL/Popup blocking features also turned on). I haven't tried it yet with ZoneAlarm Pro's ad-blocking feature, though...

BTW, does anyone enable NetCaptor to run multiple instances? I'm trying to think of an useful browsing methodology with multiple instances and multiple tabs per instance...

[ironguy]

Like others, I decided to give NetCaptor a ride. Here's some issues I've run across:

1) If I go to fullscreen mode and back, my 'links' bar is pushed all the way to the right. It doesn't matter if the toolbars are locked or not.

2) I use it at work. We have a web based, Java scripted timecard program. Guess what? NetCaptor thinks it's an ad and stops it! Is there any way to eliminate certain 'ads' from the ad stopping part of NetCaptor?

[Jason Dunn]

I use it at work. We have a web based, Java scripted timecard program. Guess what? NetCaptor thinks it's an ad and stops it! Is there any way to eliminate certain 'ads' from the ad stopping part of NetCaptor?

Yeah - go into TOOLS > URL BLOCKING and add $URL to the list. It was doing the same thing to me with the Thoughts ad server, and once I added $www.pocketpcthoughts.com it started to work again. :-)

[PeteTho]

Well following your posts, I thought I'd give both NetCaptor and CrazyBrowser a try.
At first I preferred NetCapor, but the closer I looked I found some real advantages that CrazyBrowser had but seemed to be missing from NetCaptor ?

Avantages of Crazy Browser

Better options for managing Groups e.g
- Save all open pages as new group - quick way to build new group - not just 1 by 1.
- Can still add 1 at a time to existing group
- Can add all open tabs to an existing group

Also has a Group called 'Last Visited' which you can optionally open to go back to where you were the last time you were browsing, whereas in NetCaptor you do have a load on start up option to open the current tabs but it happens everytime you start up. It is much more usable if you can choose each time you start up.

Has Export and import URL list - simple text file of all the Open Tabs URLs, useful if you need export things to work on a PC with vanilla IE installed.

Has Smart Popup Filter : which claims to block all the annoying popups automatically, no adding of individual URL patterns (but still can aswell)

Has a drop down at end of entry bar giving all Web Page language translations etc.

Better Saving of Web pages on your computer, there are a variety of ways to save Web pages e.g. On the File menu, click Save All Pages(Html Only). This will save all the Web pages from all browser tabs.

Free

Disadvantages of Crazy Browser

Can't create a new folder in favourites hierarchy without going into organize favs or by using context menu to open File Explorer window and adding a new folder in file explorer.

Can't drag and drop a new fav into the favs tree pane

Missing picture icons

NetCaptor has slightly better help

NetCaptor has slight better looking UI

Other Suggestions for Improvements

It would be great if there was a common standard for exporting groups, so they could be interchanged ?

An option to load a list of Groups and when all loaded to disconnect would be great, I could then browse a set of sites offline.

[PJE]

Hi All,

In a previous post I'd stated Netcaptor has spyware built in... I think I'm wrong about the current version which I now believe to be free of spyware. However, previous versions of Netcaptor (5.0) did use spyware.

Sorry for any confussion this may have caused.

Regards,

PJE