Which Internet browser is quickest?

[A31]

Title says it all really, which internet browser do you guys think is the quickest, most stable and safest? IE7 on Win Vista pc is quite good but I've noticed it's getting slower now and for some silly reason I cannot upgrade to IE8...don't ask me why but whenever i try to install it it says I cannot install. I have Firefox 3.5.5 on my PC but I still don't think it's that good, are Chrome and Opera quicker than IE and Firefox?
A31

[goofyGAguy]

Opera owns all.

[dr_st]

There isn't necessarily a single browser that's quickest, safest and most stable...

I always use Firefox, because it's sufficiently fast (although may not be the fastest), sufficiently user-friendly, and has lots of useful extensions.

[craigmontHunter]

I use IE in xp, because it does what I need, and I like having the favorites menu on the start menu. In 200 or later, I use firefox, because I like tabs.

[lexicon]

I never use IE...

Chrome has simple interface and fast.
Mainly using AvantBrowser, it has small size, compact interface, and some features built-in like online bookmark storage, autofill, and url alias.

[emeraldgirl08]

Am pretty much using Firefox 100% of the time. I'm looking for a lite (less RAM hungry) browser for my dads 600X these days however.

Yes Emeraldgirl is on a diet

[qviri]

I haven't used it in a while, but K-meleon was pretty good back in the day, possibly the lightest browser with the Mozilla Gecko engine.

Chrome is decent but at least for me it tends to seize up after a couple of tabs open.

Opera is a mixed bag, very good for minimizing RAM impact if you're an absolute tab addict like myself, but can 'feel' kind of heavy at times and the default interface still looks pretty heavy. Great deal of features to allow you to use it faster if you're looking for that.

I don't even know why Firefox is in the poll

[mattbiernat]

Internet Explorer is the fastest when you are using ram disk. otherwise it is chrome.

[A31]

Chrome and Firefox appear to the be the "Favourites" here! Ok, tommorrow when I turn on my thinkpad again I'll download Chrome, I neeed a faster browser as my "non wifi" laptop internet connection is SLOW!!

[Marin85]

You don´t need a fast browser for a slow connection. You need a slow browser for such connections!

[Neil]

I think the browsers that best answer your question are not even in the poll (well, "other", I guess covers 'em):

For Windows - "OffByOne"
For Unix - "Dillo"

[Colonel O'Neill]

IMHO, Chrome starts up the fastest and loads pages the fastest, but I chose Firefox because with the right add-ons and a bit of config messing you get the same quick loading feeling as Chrome plus all of the other Firefox goodies.

[Kate_IE8_Team]

Hi, this is Kate with the Internet Explorer Outreach Team. If, by chance, you're finding that your Internet Explorer isn't as fast as you'd like it to be, try managing your add-ons. In IE, go to ‘tools’ and ‘manage add-ons’. Disabling any unnecessary add-ons may help your Internet run faster. Try disabling add-ons with more than a .2 sec load time. (i.e. tool bars)

Glad to see so many satisfied users!

[RealBlackStuff]

Glad to see so many satisfied [IE] users!

Only 2 fess up to IE, a third one maybe.
There are 12 posts so far. I'd say the enthusiasm for Redmond (read M$) is underwhelming.
I never use IE except for Windows updates. Stupid 'Refresh' button positioning in IE.
Firefox is by far my favorite.

[Marin85]

Hi, this is Kate with the Internet Explorer Outreach Team. If, by chance, you're finding that your Internet Explorer isn't as fast as you'd like it to be, try managing your add-ons. In IE, go to ‘tools’ and ‘manage add-ons’. Disabling any unnecessary add-ons may help your Internet run faster. Try disabling add-ons with more than a .2 sec load time. (i.e. tool bars)

Glad to see so many satisfied users!

Nice to see that M$ is trying to keep contact with their customers!... Just my very short feed-back in case someone is interested out there... My Firefox has 9 plug-ins and 5 add-ons, my IE8 has none, and Firefox still beats it by far... During the beta stage of Windows 7, IE8 beta was indeed very fast with nice smooth scrolling (like Opera), but it had some problems when rendering pages. "Unfortunately", this changed after the RC, that is, no more rendering problems, but slow, and the smooth scrolling in IE8 is plain awful. Nothing of these improved with the release of the RTM.

Just my 0.02$

[killer]

I think that which ever internet browser we choose at least we should welcome Kate to the forums. She has stuck out her neck to engage in this question. So, welcome Kate!

BTW, I use IE8 and I am happy with it. I did use Firefox and Opera but both browsers take up too much room at the top of the screen so that I have to keep pressing to go down the page. IE8 doesn't have those hindrances. It makes a big difference to me when I use internet banking.

However, Kate, as jdhurst asked in another question, perhaps you could explain Silverlight to us. If we understood we might be warmer towards MS.

[qviri]

However, Kate, as jdhurst asked in another question, perhaps you could explain Silverlight to us. If we understood we might be warmer towards MS.

Microsoft's attempt to copy and hopefully outdo in market share and kill off Adobe Flash.

[Tõnis]

I only have experience with IE and Firefox. I voted Firefox, because I feel it's generally faster -- tabs open instantly, and I do a lot of tabbed browsing -- but I think that IE is faster when browsing from one site to another within an already open tab or browser window.

[trent9008]

Chromium beats out Firefox by miles, esp. in startup time. Unfortunately it is a little buggy in places, especially with Flash.

[yak]

I would say Chrome is the fastest, Firefox is most stable and safest.

Since Firefox is fast enough and has a lot of useful extensions to choose from, that's what I use exclusively.

[A31]

Are the webpages in IE 8 cached in memory? If so, if you can disable the "caching" then it would be a lot faster!

[ThinkRob]

I use Firefox due to my ability to customize it with a wide variety of extensions to enhance its security and my privacy and comfort. Extensions I use for this include:

TACO
NoScript
ABP
CS Lite
CipherFox
Element Hiding Helper
Perspectives
RefControl
Web Developer
TrackMeNot
RequestPolicy

[Tõnis]

Are the webpages in IE 8 cached in memory? If so, if you can disable the "caching" then it would be a lot faster!

How does one one go about doing this? Thanks ...

[A31]

I've no idea!! I just heard that if the pages were cached in memory then it made the broweser slower.

[goofyGAguy]

I just heard that if the paes were cached in memory then it made the broweser slower.

How do you figure?

[A31]

How does one one go about doing this? Thanks ...

I think you just delete the Temporary Internet Files... and not only does it make your browser faster but it also increases free space on your HDD, last time I used Disk Cleanup in Vista to delete temp files I got about 2GB of space back, but I was running seriously low! Only had like 5GB of space left out of 74.5GB!!! Also, deleting Browsing History (in IE8 Ctrl+Shift+H) also speeds up the browser.

[ThinkRob]

I've no idea!! I just heard that if the pages were cached in memory then it made the broweser slower.

Nope.

Cached on disk I could kinda see... but pages cached in RAM will be far faster to load than those you have to download anew, guaranteed.

[A31]

I found a folder on drive C:\ (it's a hidden folder) called "MSOCache", I think some of the internet cached files are in this location - but then again it has other stuff too like stuff to do with Office. I wouldn't go deleting this folder though as it is a hidden folder which is probably so it can't get accidently deleted.

[A31]

Tonis, I've found a solution which I'm going to try...
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-2037-in ... orer-cache
...I'll post when or if it works!
A31

EDIT!
It is definitely an improvement here - just be aware though, these instructions are wirtten for IE6/IE7. If you are like me and using IE8, then when it says "Go the Temporary Internet files in the general tab and click settings", what you actually want to do is go to the "Browsing History" (in "general" tab) and then click settings, then click "never". But yes, definitely faster!

[RealBlackStuff]

MSOcache contains the install files from MS Office (2003 and probably also newer).
If you don't change anything (i.e. add features) to your Office installation, you can delete it.
If you do, and then decide to add something later on, you will be asked for the installation CD again.