AvantBrowser: The Best IE Add-On I've Seen

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.avantbrowser.com/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.avantbrowser.com/index.html</a><br /><br /></div>Like many of you, I'm always looking for great software - something so useful you install it on friends computers when you're over for a visit. Avant Browser is one such software tool. It's a light-weight add-on for Internet Explorer on your desktop PC, and adds some excellent features for a price you can't beat: free (though I'd urge you to give the author a small donation if you use it).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/avantbrowser.jpg" /><br /><br />It has a tabbed browser interface, integrated Google searching, a pop-up blocker that works better than anything else I've ever used, and it's very fast (some add-ons to IE slow it down). One thing I like in particular is that most pop-up Windows that you DO want work and they float in their original size (NetCaptor forces them to be "full size"). I've been installing this application on every computer I come across - it's that good. The author is also amazingly responsive - he releases new versions nearly every week, fixing bugs and adding new features. He even added F2/F3 tab navigation when I asked him too! Download the trial version to check out, and if you like it and use it, please support the author with a <a href="http://www.avantbrowser.com/donate.html">donation</a>.

[Ken Mattern]

What a neat idea! I like it already after only 5 minutes of use. And it is such a simple construct. Why didn't I think of this?

My job keeps me on the web much of the day. Having multiple windows/browsers open at one time is vital. This is a major tool. Thanks, Jason, for the Christmas present.

Ken

[sweetpete]

Thanks for the tip Jason. This is a great browser add-on. I always liked NetCaptor for it's tabbed browsing, but this seems a little cleaner and it's FREE best of all :lol:

I will be supporting the author and I encourage others that really like it to do the same. Freeware authors always get my moeny because by default, they aren't asking for it.

[Steven Cedrone]

I like it as well. One question though: do you guys really feel as if this is an IE add-on, or a replacement???

Steve

[sweetpete]

Well, given that the underlying browser technology used is IE ... it is an add-on. But once you install it, you really only run it instead of IE so I see where you say it is a replacement.

6 of one and half-dozen of another. 8)

[heov]

Well, finally it's for IE (which I use)... but Opera and Netscape already have this built in. I'm betting MS will intergrate this feature w/ IE soon.

[marlof]

As a previous NetCaptor fan, I love this one too. Main enhancement for me is the included Google search bar. That's something I really missed in NetCaptor. And I even could import my CaptorGroups! :)

[johnm]

Ok I've been using Mozilla ever since I saw the tab browsing and open window in the back ground feature. That is really all I use Moz for. Now I'm back in action with the more compatible IE + Avant. This is really great. I'll be donating to this for sure. Thanks Jason.

[MitzEclipse]

Hi,
Is there a way to disable the fact that all separate browsers load in the same Avant Browser? I like most of the features, but I don't like how I can't use "ALT+TAB" anymore :)

I know you can use F2 + F3, but that's not as easy as a the ALT + TAB keyboard shortcut :)

[johnm]

This is actually the best feature and the main reason for doing it. Keeps all your pages together. Try CTRL-TAB instead and it will do what you want.

[MitzEclipse]

ew, don't like that feature. Reminds me of Lotus Notes - and I still have to use it at work! ack.

I like them separate...

[klinux]

Ok I've been using Mozilla ever since I saw the tab browsing and open window in the back ground feature. That is really all I use Moz for. Now I'm back in action with the more compatible IE + Avant. This is really great. I'll be donating to this for sure. Thanks Jason.

You mean you did not use the the integrated Google (or other search engine) search and anti-pop up functions of Mozilla?

I have been using Moz 1.2.1 for the last six months or so on PC and Mac. I will definitely give this combo a try but it would need to be very good in order to trounce Mozilla.

[ironguy]

Loaded Avant but it can't display pages. "Page cannot be displayed' errors on everything. Anyone else seen this behavior?

IE6 works fine.

[Janak Parekh]

I have been using Moz 1.2.1 for the last six months or so on PC and Mac. I will definitely give this combo a try but it would need to be very good in order to trounce Mozilla.
Yes, Mozilla is very good -- but occasionally there are sites I need to access that aren't compatible, and when I do access them with IE, I get popups, too many windows on the screen, etc. Something like this would be a great counterpart. :)

--janak

[johnm]

I have been using Moz 1.2.1 for the last six months or so on PC and Mac. I will definitely give this combo a try but it would need to be very good in order to trounce Mozilla.
Yes, Mozilla is very good -- but occasionally there are sites I need to access that aren't compatible, and when I do access them with IE, I get popups, too many windows on the screen, etc. Something like this would be a great counterpart. :)

--janak

Ok I'll admit the popup blocking and integrated google in Mozilla are very sweet. But I agree with janak there are still compatibility issues with Moz, and the new version seems to hange on me about twice a day.
There are two other Moz features I really like - text resize. Moz will increase the font size of EVERY page, not so with IE and style sheets. That feature is very handing on my laptop with a high res screen. The other feature is the ability to set a 'group' as your home page. I've already requested this in Advant.

[Rirath]

Tabbed browsing... nice. Always wanted that in IE. Prefered IE's default look, or maybe just got used to it, but I can deal. Love the way it handles the Favorites, and even supports multiple pages. Great for quickly skimming them huge bookmark lists.

Thanks for the tip.

[Jonathan1]

They've had all these features out for a while. Its called Opera Web Browser. Not kidding. Every feature listed here has been in Opera since at least V6. The one diff is the way they navigate back and forwards. Instead of hold down the right and click left and vice versa its hold down the right and drag left to go back. Drag right to go forward. Drag down to open a new window.

[Rirath]

They've had all these features out for a while. Its called Opera Web Browser

Like many IE users, I'm loyal to it for it's across the board compatibility.

[R. DevilR]

In the same spirit (the good name ?), you've got Crazy Browser (http://www.crazybrowser.com/) too. (freeware too)

[Janak Parekh]

I tried it. Very nice, except for a couple things:

- Not easy to create new tabbed windows. In Mozilla, you can hit CTRL-T, middle-click on a link, CTRL-Enter on the address bar, etc.
- Address guessing. If I type in "slashdot.org" and it's not in my address history, it expands it to "http://www.slashdot.org.com". Ugh! I either have to prefix it with http:// or www, or hope it's in my history.

I still prefer Crazy Browser (www.crazybrowser.com) over this one (due to those two issues), and Mozilla best of all.

--janak

[Rirath]

Trying Crazy Browser now, it seems great. I certainly prefer the look, and the group abilities are wonderful. I really did like how Avant listed the favorites, but Crazy Browser makes up for it with group abilties and favorites search. Unless someone else has a better suggestion, I think we have a winner. :D

[bystander]

Can anyone tell me why the quoted URL is not working?

Thanks...
:oops:

[yawanag]

While we're on the topic of browsers I guess I will mention one that I have used for a couple of year and though I have tried others, including Opera and Mozilla, I just can't seem to give up the Channel Feature in this one.

It's called the TV Guide Browser. It is sponsored by NeoPlanet. I like the skins and most of all the Channel Guide that I mentioned. On the right of the browser window you can set up channels that you use often (I know you can do that with Favorites) but this is more direct. You assign a Channel name, drag the URL into it and after that all you have to do is click on that Channel Name and you're there.

For the women out there, I'm using the skin called, "Women" that plays the song, "Women" on startup and the tool menu items are tubes of lipstick or purses. The toolbar is an eyebrow pencil and while pages are loading, eyelashes are blinking. When they stop it's done.

In addition, you get all the TV Gossip.

[schergr]

In my humble opinion MyIE2 is the best. This one rocks. I've used AvantBrowser, NetCaptor, Mozilla, blah blah blah...I'm telling you. It operates on the same principles of the others (except Mozilla) as it uses the IE rendering engine. Check out MyIE2. You won't be dissapointed and its donationware.

http://www.ruihehang.com/myie2/html_en/home.htm

[stevew]

IMO it's Spyware. They say it's not, but only because they tell you in advance that it sends all the sites you visit to their server. Why do you think it's free?

[marlof]

Trying Crazy Browser now, it seems great. I certainly prefer the look, and the group abilities are wonderful. I really did like how Avant listed the favorites, but Crazy Browser makes up for it with group abilties and favorites search. Unless someone else has a better suggestion, I think we have a winner. :D

In between Navigation and Favorites in my menubar, I clearly see Groups in Avant Browser. :)

IMO it's Spyware. They say it's not, but only because they tell you in advance that it sends all the sites you visit to their server. Why do you think it's free?

As many browsers have been names, which one are you talking about? For Avant, they say (http://www.avantbrowser.com/faq.html#Is%20Avant%20Browser%20a%20spyware?) they don't collect info from users.

[Venturello]

As for me, I use (besides Opera which is just great for most pages) Netcaptor. Try it. A bit expensive but its great, you get good support too.

[kaiden.1]

Looks like a program that I am already using called NET CAPTOR. It is Awesome and does the same things. Check it out. www.netcaptor.com :D

[someppcuser]

Like many IE users, I'm loyal to it for it's across the board compatibility.

You've got to be kidding (or maybe I did not understand your statement). IE is compatible with something called MS HTML not the reference that can be found on w3.org.

Mozilla has everything and is based on open standards. The only sites that have problems are most of the time created by people who only work in a windows environement and don't really have a clue about real web design (they still think Frontpage 97 can get the job done).

Why play catch up with all these addons and all the weekly security fixes? Just use Mozilla or help beta test Opera 7 ;)

If you think something is missing from Mozilla, look at the projects library (mozdev.org) or request a feature.

[Janak Parekh]

Like many IE users, I'm loyal to it for it's across the board compatibility.
That works both ways ;) Try viewing http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ in both IE and Mozilla. You'll be in for a shock with what you can do with HTML if it's actually implemented properly.

Or, http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngs-img.html .

It would be a nice world where we could just use standards, and then base comparisons of web browsers on features. Hopefully someday...

--janak

[Orange]

...woulda been interested if i were still running at 800*600 and needed to conserve screen space, but at 1600*1200, the MDI interface actually gets in the way of my switching between applications easily (i like that i can overlap several explorer windows and word/excel/etc. to do my work at this high resolution without a parent container window getting in the way).

another note--i use popupcop for IE popup ad blocking, works extremely well for me, however it costs money. mozilla/phoenix have built in ad blockers that work most of the time (except for some sites, like nytimes.com)...

[jeffmd]

As much as its pretty slick... ad-aware does claim its spyware. it lokos like site info is only sent when you use that ICmore plugin (requires you to install a whole nother program though). Think i'll try that myie2 thing.

[mwille]

Hi all,

Must say I was pretty impressed with this Avant thingy. It just seems to load the pages way slower then IE does :?: Didn't want to believe it at first so cleaned all the cache for both browsers and tested loading random pages, some simple, some large, some with large amounts of flash content... every time IE gets its way faster then Avant... how come ??
(I use 768 kb downstream dsl)

Mark

[DrtyBlvd]

I now have four different versions of IE running. And can't decide which I prefer. 8O

[DrtyBlvd]

I recall seeing a browser in development that scrolled sideways & vertically - to show new pages - say, like a newspaper, rather than displaying tabs for separate pages? Anyone recall such a thing? I can't find the URL again...

[yellowdemon]

another note--i use popupcop for IE popup ad blocking, works extremely well for me, however it costs money. mozilla/phoenix have built in ad blockers that work most of the time (except for some sites, like nytimes.com)...

I'm using Phoenix with no popups on nytimes.com. Also, I might ad, Phoenix/Mozilla are remarkably customizable. I have mine set so phoenix does not display the 10-15 most common image sizes for ads- so I rarely see banner ads of any kind. I would rec that everyone give phoenix a look. As for IE add-ons, I think MyIE2 is the best, but I dropped it like a hot potato when I saw what Phoenix could do.

[Doug Raeburn]

Well, I bit on NetCaptor when it was promoted on this site a few months ago, and I'm still very pleased... not enough in Avant to make me want to switch. Besides its other features, NetCaptor has the best popup killer I've ever used... it works all the time and it's completely unobtrusive.

At least we have lots of choices. :wink:

[mhowie]

Ok I'll admit the popup blocking and integrated google in Mozilla are very sweet. But I agree with janak there are still compatibility issues with Moz, and the new version seems to hange on me about twice a day.

This is a point which should not be underrated. As much as I want to use Mozilla, as there are some superior points to it versus the seemingly static (in development terms) IE6, I find even the latest builds crash several times per day while performing "normal" browsing, while IE6 is rock-solid in terms of stability.

[yellowdemon]

Ok I'll admit the popup blocking and integrated google in Mozilla are very sweet. But I agree with janak there are still compatibility issues with Moz, and the new version seems to hange on me about twice a day.

This is a point which should not be underrated. As much as I want to use Mozilla, as there are some superior points to it versus the seemingly static (in development terms) IE6, I find even the latest builds crash several times per day while performing "normal" browsing, while IE6 is rock-solid in terms of stability.

Yes, the latest builds may crash for you several times a day (although they don't for me) but you are using builds, not milestone releases. I think 1.2.1 is quite stable.

[mhowie]

Ok I'll admit the popup blocking and integrated google in Mozilla are very sweet. But I agree with janak there are still compatibility issues with Moz, and the new version seems to hange on me about twice a day.

This is a point which should not be underrated. As much as I want to use Mozilla, as there are some superior points to it versus the seemingly static (in development terms) IE6, I find even the latest builds crash several times per day while performing "normal" browsing, while IE6 is rock-solid in terms of stability.

Yes, the latest builds may crash for you several times a day (although they don't for me) but you are using builds, not milestone releases. I think 1.2.1 is quite stable.

I should have clearer... I was referring to both 1.2.1 and 1.3a. It is getting closer, however, to the "IE6 standard" in terms of stability, and again, feature-wise...there is not contest (Mozilla wins). I just can not afford to have all my open browser windows taken down when Mozilla decides to crash...which does happen periodically.

Thanks,

[Jason Dunn]

I have mine set so phoenix does not display the 10-15 most common image sizes for ads- so I rarely see banner ads of any kind.

On behalf of Web designers everywhere who dish up free content daily, if everyone was like you we'd be out of business. Thankfully most people aren't like you. :roll:

[Janak Parekh]

This is a point which should not be underrated. As much as I want to use Mozilla, as there are some superior points to it versus the seemingly static (in development terms) IE6, I find even the latest builds crash several times per day while performing "normal" browsing, while IE6 is rock-solid in terms of stability.
Hmm. I had a number of crashes using 1.2 alpha and beta, but 1.2.1 has been rock-solid for me... I can't remember the last time Mozilla crashed, in fact. :) Both Mozilla and IE are extremely stable for me.

Make sure than when you upgrade from a beta release you nuke your profile -- that can often cause trouble. And that you uninstall, clean out the \Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla directory, and do a clean install of a new version.

--janak

[yellowdemon]

I have mine set so phoenix does not display the 10-15 most common image sizes for ads- so I rarely see banner ads of any kind.

On behalf of Web designers everywhere who dish up free content daily, if everyone was like you we'd be out of business. Thankfully most people aren't like you. :roll:

Well, keep in mind I have it set so they don't display; they are still downloaded. Since I never clicked on ads anyway, from a web host perspective, it is the same. As far as the web site is concerned, I downloaded and 'saw' the ad.

[sweetpete]

- Not easy to create new tabbed windows. In Mozilla, you can hit CTRL-T, middle-click on a link, CTRL-Enter on the address bar, etc.

Middle-click on link works. Ctrl-N works.

- Address guessing. If I type in "slashdot.org" and it's not in my address history, it expands it to "http://www.slashdot.org.com". Ugh! I either have to prefix it with http:// or www, or hope it's in my history.


I think that is because you are trying to hit Ctrl-Enter in the address-bar. IE and Avant do the same behaviour, and that is to add http://www.whatyouenter.com to complete the URL. If you enter slashdot.org and hit enter it will leave it as-is.

[Janak Parekh]

Middle-click on link works. Ctrl-N works.
Yeah, I belatedly noticed the Ctrl-N shortcut. In Mozilla there is a difference between "windows" and "tabs". I'm not sure which model is better. :)

I'm still getting flakiness on the middle-click. I'm having some weird sort of focus problem.

I still miss the Ctrl-Enter though, I type URL's all the time and want to be able to pop them up in new tabs.

I think that is because you are trying to hit Ctrl-Enter in the address-bar. IE and Avant do the same behaviour, and that is to add http://www.whatyouenter.com to complete the URL. If you enter slashdot.org and hit enter it will leave it as-is.
Maybe that's the case... what's weird is that I never do that in IE. Must be the tabs... that feature in Mozilla is hugely useful for me.

Thanks, I'll keep on playing with it.

--janak

[sweetpete]

Janak,

One thing you can do is change the default behaviour to have a new tab when you enter an address in the address bar. Also, I noticed it under the Go button, but that involves using the mouse.
I would send them a feature request. As Jason suggests, they are pretty open to making changes.

With regards to the focus issue, check the options (check mouse buttons). You can have new tabs opened in foreground or background based on what action you take. I have my middle-button default to background as I like to somtimes read on in the article I get the link from.

HTH

[yellowdemon]

I tried it. Very nice, except for a couple things:

- Not easy to create new tabbed windows. In Mozilla, you can hit CTRL-T, middle-click on a link, CTRL-Enter on the address bar, etc.
- Address guessing. If I type in "slashdot.org" and it's not in my address history, it expands it to "http://www.slashdot.org.com". Ugh! I either have to prefix it with http:// or www, or hope it's in my history.

I still prefer Crazy Browser (www.crazybrowser.com) over this one (due to those two issues), and Mozilla best of all.

--janak

Also, I assume you are using the tabbed browser extension? Check it out if you are not.

[brianchris]

Hi all,

Must say I was pretty impressed with this Avant thingy. It just seems to load the pages way slower then IE does :?: Didn't want to believe it at first so cleaned all the cache for both browsers and tested loading random pages, some simple, some large, some with large amounts of flash content... every time IE gets its way faster then Avant... how come ??
(I use 768 kb downstream dsl)

Mark

I agree....I love AvantBrowser (may even be officially hooked). HOWEVER, pages load slightly slower than they used to in IE.....any reason? One potential dent in AvatnBrowser's armor?

-Brian

[st63z]

Finally got around to installing AvantBrowser. Quick question, how do you disable it from adding its own name to the browser string? None of the other IE add-ons I've tried does that...

[theone3]

Hi,
Is there a way to disable the fact that all separate browsers load in the same Avant Browser? I like most of the features, but I don't like how I can't use "ALT+TAB" anymore :)

I know you can use F2 + F3, but that's not as easy as a the ALT + TAB keyboard shortcut :)Press CTRl and the Up or Down buttons

[theone3]

I have been using Moz 1.2.1 for the last six months or so on PC and Mac. I will definitely give this combo a try but it would need to be very good in order to trounce Mozilla.
Yes, Mozilla is very good -- but occasionally there are sites I need to access that aren't compatible, and when I do access them with IE, I get popups, too many windows on the screen, etc. Something like this would be a great counterpart. :)

--janak

Ok I'll admit the popup blocking and integrated google in Mozilla are very sweet. But I agree with janak there are still compatibility issues with Moz, and the new version seems to hange on me about twice a day.
There are two other Moz features I really like - text resize. Moz will increase the font size of EVERY page, not so with IE and style sheets. That feature is very handing on my laptop with a high res screen. The other feature is the ability to set a 'group' as your home page. I've already requested this in Advant.
The Group as homepage feature has been available for a long time.. look in the options menu

[theone3]

I still miss the Ctrl-Enter though, I type URL's all the time and want to be able to pop them up in new tabs.
Yea, I miss that too.. Its not too hard to do though.. just press CRTL+N then Enter, or click on the arrow next to the go er.. arrow