4 Your Computer Repairs

Posts Tagged ‘Internet Explorer’

A lot of people should have had the Microsoft browser ballot by now but was it as much of a choice as you think?

There were twelve browsers on offer but in reality they were only four.  Why four, well they all use one of four rendering engines Trident, Webkit, Gecko or Presto.  This means that any browsers using the same rendering engine should handle how it shows a website the same.

• Tridentis in the following browsers
  • Internet Explorer
  • Avant
  • Maxthon
  • Slim
  • Green Browser
  • Sleipnir
• Webkit is used in the following browsers
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Gecko is in the following browsers
  • Firefox
  • Flock
  • K-meleon
  • Sleipner
• Presto is used in the following browser
  • Opera

Why do browsers use the same rendering engine? Why reinvent the wheel, it is easier and cheaper for them to use one that is already built after all browsers are usually free so it helps reduce the amount of money spent on programming new ones.

Now that bit is over how do you decide what browser you want to use?  Is it what I am used to, what someone recommended?  Below we are going to look at some of the more technical reasons and let you have an informed choice.  I will only

I will show results from sunspider, ACID3 and Browser support.  These are industry standards that show how good the browsers are at displaying the the website. click on the images for a larger view

ACID3

Safari 4	Opera 10	Google Chrome 2.0 & 3.0beta	Firefox 3.5

Internet explorer 8

As you can see Internet explorer is way below the rest and if you think than the new Internet explorer 9 will do any better

It sill falls short compared to the rest.

Sunspider

Sunspider tests the speed the browsers handle javascript, which helps make a web page more dynamic, and like all speed tests the faster the better.

• Safari 4: 603ms
• Google Chrome 3.0 Beta: 636ms
• Google Chrome 2.0: 720ms
• Firefox 3.5: 1278ms
• Opera 10 Beta: 2975ms
• Opera 9.64: 3931ms
• Internet Explorer 8: 5441ms

Again as for internet explorer 9 it is better but it still lags behind

E9 PDC 2009 Demo 834.00ms

IE9 Mix 2010 Platform Preview 1.9.7745.6019 598.80ms

Browser support

This will show what your browser will support with HTML5 the new way of streaming video as youtube has started to offer this.

Safari 4

Firefor 3.5

Google Chrome

Opera 10

Internet Explorer 8

Internet explorer 9 does support HTML5 and CSS3 but I do not have a comparison chart for it.

If you are wanting more browser comparisons then have a look at sixvisions website

We will allow you draw your own conclusions as to which browser you want to use as it’s not all down to technical statistics but also down to individual preferences and what you are used to using.

Sunspider and Acid3 results from cybernetnews

Browser comparison from deepbluesky

If you want do download any of these browsers click on the links below

Safari 4, Firefox, chrome, opera

We have all heard about the dangers of allowing your child online without supervision but what stops can you put in place to help prevent these horror stories.   Here are a few tip on how to do this.

1. Make sure you make a separate account in windows that is either a standard user or limited user, this stops them changing any setting you make or even installing any programs you don’t know about.  To see how to do this click on the appropriate link.  XP, Vista and Windows 7
2. Never give then the password to the administrator account, again this would enable them to undo your settings.
3. Tell them never to give out any details, like address, phone number, email address, online usernames and passwords
4. If they have a laptop or computer in their rooms and you also have one downstairs then heavily restrict the one in their rooms and make then use the one you can see them use for social sites like facebook, myspace, bebo and twitter.
5. Talk to them about their online activity encase someone is bullying them online, let them know they can talk to you if they want to.
6. Use parental control.  Windows vista and 7 came with useful controls that let you limit what hours someone could log in as well, blocking certain websites and programs.  The other option you have is to get an activity report so you know what they have been getting up to.  Vista controls, Windows 7 controls.  You can see windows 7 parental controls in action here remember to set limits for games as well.  As for XP it does not have any built in but later I will look at a program that will help you.
7. Set restrictions on windows media player.  If you want to prevent R rated movies being played on the family computer then you can block films above a certain age rating being played. To do this go to ‘Tools’ then ‘Options’ then select the ‘DVD’ tab. Select the ‘Change’ button under DVD playback restrictions. Select the highest rating you want to be played and select OK
8. Set restrictions on Internet Explorer, this will block any content you think is too old for them
9. Don’t use your ISP’s DNS server, DNS explained (quite techie), one is OpenDNS.  OpenDNS has a free service that can block harmful website that have phishing or botnet sites. Other include DNSadvantage, openNIC, Scrubit and Google
10. If you have XP and don’t have the parental controls you can get software that will help, while they can not stop someone logging in when you don’t want them to you can however stop them accessing the internet.  One of the biggest and best know is Net Nanny, Bitdefender has it as part of it’s total security, which also has antivirus and firewall included.  For a list of other software click here This may seem like a lot of hard work but in most cases once it is set up you don’t need to go over it again unless circumstances change.  By following these tip, even if it only a few, then hopefully your child will have a good experience on the computer and the internet.Here are some extra links you might find handySuper nanny on video games
    Click Clever Click Safe: The first UK Child Internet Safety Strategy

The battle between the EU and Microsoft

After years of court battles, hefty fines and more fines in the future it looks like Microsoft have finally given the EU a solution they are happy with. If you use Internet Explorer in the EU you will be sent a small update giving you the choice of between 10 and 12 different browsers including some of the more common ones. This will happen on XP, Vista and windows 7 machines and is reportedly going to be in a neutral window and not in an Internet Explorer windows with the options in a random order.

The main browsers will be:

Internet Explorer , Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari on the main page but you can scroll to get AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and Slim Browser. This list will be reviewed every 6 months and Microsoft expects 100 million machines to have displayed the pop-up by mid-March.

Browser Popularity

The percentage of global internet traffic using the following browsers:
Internet Explorer – 56%
Mozilla Firefox – 32%
Google Chrome 5%
Safari – 4%
Opera – 2%

This could just be the beginning with other now wanting to challenge other default programs the Windows bundles, like notepad.

What browsers do you use and why?

I use Internet Explorer for Microsoft sites and go between Safari and Chrome form my main browsing. I used to like Firefox but I think it has went downhill in the last year.