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Check out Avantbrowser. It's a replacement "front end" for IE, supports tabbed browsing, popup blocker, ad blocker, script blocker, flash blocker, etc, etc, etc. Ctrl-N (or middle-mouse click, or mouse gesture, or however you want to open a new tab) works as you'd like it to (and me, too). As for wrong URLs hanging for 10-20 seconds, that's an oddity. I usually just hit Esc to stop loading the page.

Do not tempt the gods that way. You're just asking for something.

I didn't specifically ask for it, but for a long time I always felt good at not being infected with spyware. Incidentally, I was setting up a Windows network and decided to do a Windows reinstall. Plain IE 6 on my network was out of the question because of the lack of popup blocking and tabbed browsing, but I came across Avant Browser. I thought it was a godsend until one day, after minimizing everything I saw a Lycos Sidesearch icon on the desktop.

WTF? Lycos Sidesearch? How the hell did it get installed??!? To make a long story short, I looked around in the IE cache but never found the precise URL that installed that crap. I did find other spyware-installing pages, however, and it turned out my copy of IE was lacking a patch that allowed the pages to exploit an IE vulnerability to install themselves. I felt so stupid afterwards.

To be fair, the patch exists but it was about the only patch I didn't install out of all the other available patches. Still, I'm going to play it safe and go back to Firefox. Better to use a browser with non-major market share to avoid the crosshairs of spyware.

Still no tabs browsing in IE , so I'll stick to the Geckos.

I haven't heard opinions from other /.ers on this, but for me one of the biggest time savers is search engine prefixes. For example, my browser is set so that if I type "g tacos" into my url bar, I get the results of a google search on, you guessed it, tacos. I have a list of about two dozen: sd points to slashdot, sf to security focus, rfc to the ietf rfc listing. Does anyone know if this has been incorporated into one of the linux web browsers yet?

It would be pretty simple for them to have a local copy of the stylesheet and modify the HTML from the server to include this before rendering.

It can't do tabbed browsing

you can't split the window into multiple frames to make ftp'ing and file management easier

if you visit a website you can't go recursively up the website's root tree

There's also the rarely-recognized Avant which acts as an IE frontend, has the now-typical blocking features, good tabbed browsing controls, and remembers your open pages like Opera.

So, that would make IE *better* than Mozilla? Gasp at the heresy!

While IE may have it's flaws, it's not the demon most Mozilla-ites and Opera fans want it to be.

Besides, there are many free IE based browsers that have flash/ad/image blocking, multi-tabbed window browsing etc... My preference is Avant which does the job very nicely.

Mozilla is great but let's face it, for a lot of people The Internet means Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. So, as part of the setup get all of your new users to install either the Google Toolbar or the Avant Browser add-on for IE. They both do an excellent job of blocking popups in IE.

Given the *cough* rapid pace of MSIE development *cough* these days

Avant Browser is what IE should be like (granted, it's built on IE).

I've been using Firebird/Phoenix since 0.5 now. A friend recommended Avant Browser, which I reluctantly tried. It finally got me away from Firebird.

Avant's not really its own browser, but an add-on for IE. It includes a built-in pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, and 2-click filtering for flash, java, activex, sounds, movies, images, etc. Plus, it has a built-in Google search, and renders IE immune to most of the malware crap you'd pick up just by browsing (at least, in the 3 weeks I've been using it, Spybot S&D's only found 1 piece of spyware).

It's worth a shot for anyone who's looking for a change in their browser. And while I wouldn't call Avant flat-out better than Firebird, it's definitely an equal, which puts both browsers head and shoulders above the overbloated Mozilla. ;)

If you still want to use IE, use it with Avant browser wrapper. It displays the URL correctly in the address bar. And it has a tabbed interface and pop-up and Flash blocking.

It also doesn't affect the Avant, IE6 browser overlay.
In the test using Avant, the full bogus address is displayed, however, instead of the "%01@" that Mozilla displays, a "|" -type character is displayed.
For those attatched to using IE, Avant, or one of the alternatives, might be a useful alternative.

Occaisionally I'll hit a site with DHTML menus that render a little funky in Mozilla because they weren't coded right, but I never hit any sites that "need" IE.

I wish that was true at my work. Our IT and Engineering departments put little javascript programs that check to make sure you are using IE. Our HR department wouldnt even load on Mozilla. The Internal helpdesk uses NTLM which doesnt work all the time on Mozilla, maybe this release will fix it. Our IT is against all non-IE browsers. When WinXP came out, about half our sites where broken. This is what happens when your IT is in bed with Microsoft. I'm sure most companies with IT shops for the larger fortune 500 companies have this problem. (Other news our IT has been outsourced to HP, starting jan-1, so who knows whats going to happen now...)

My workplace is not 3rd party browser friendly, not by a longshot. I can hack html with proxomitron, rewrite html to trick many IT websites, but a few will plain not work. I've called IT and opened tickets, using the excuse "My desktop is a Sun box, and I use Netscape/Mozilla" their response, find a windows box somewhere. Or they provide a citrix client.

So, at work I use Avant browser(tabbed, ie core), at home I use firebird. I run into very few IE only sites at home, maybe 1 every couple of months.
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The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Try adding Avantbrowser to IE, if only for experiment's sake.

You might want to try Avant Browser if you're not satisfied with Java performance in Mozilla. Worked for me - everything's as fast as IE, plus tabs.

Don't forget Avant Browser! Its a MYIE2 style browser (based off of the ie browser engine). However it blows MyIE2 out of the water! Give it a try!

I already use a better alternative than Mozilla and it runs on top of IE.

If you really don't want to get rid of IE, there's also Avant, which uses the IE rendering engine, but adds all the features you're looking for.
Oh, and it's only one program to install...

If you want to add real functions to IE, like pop up blocking, flash blocking, tab browsing, etc, then try Avant browser.

It's small and free. Enjoy.

Try Avant Browser if you must use IE. It adds a shell around the browser for tab integration, popup blocking, and all those other goodies you like best about Opera and Mozilla.

Sadly, it can't do anything for IE's HTML or CSS support....

Avant Browser.

On windows machines I used to flip back and forth between moz and IE. Then I became psuedo-dependent on tabbed browsing. Avant is an IE based browser that offers a passable (read: if my boss demanded I remove Firebird from my work machine, I would use Avant) version of tabbed browsing, but it seems a bit crufty to me.

If you ever begin trying to develop web pages with CSS, moz/firebird begins to stand head and shoulders above and beyond IE.

Actually it looks as thought they haven't released IE7 because they're integrating it into Longhorn so much so that releasing a new version of the stand alone browser is irrevlevant.

That's why they're still releasing patches for IE6.01 but won't go the full nine and integrate tabbed browsing or gestures or any other cool feature because they're holding their breath for Longhorn.

Though, with this timeline they may actually just release IE7, but considering that there are existing IE alternatives, I don't expect any new IE stuff until 2005.

Slimbrowser
MyIE2
Crazy Browser
Avant Browser (not free)
Netcaptor (not free)

Slimbrowser
MyIE2
Crazy Browser
Avant Browser (not free)
Netcaptor (not free)

Check out avant browser. Tabbed browsing and mouse gestures for IE, right now. That way you avoid all the bugs, security problems, and generally bloatware shit software you get from open-sores projects.

MS may lose ground in the browser market because they have frozen IE at version 6 SP1

Yes but IE does have (free) third-party add-ons available such as CrazyBrowser and AvantBrowser that offer many great features similar to Mozilla. While CrazyBrowser development appears to be nailed to the perch or just resting, AvantBrowser is steaming along with a pretty active user community. Dunno if the masses are aware of these, though.

MS may lose ground in the browser market because they have frozen IE at version 6 SP1

Yes but IE does have (free) third-party add-ons available such as CrazyBrowser and AvantBrowser that offer many great features similar to Mozilla. While CrazyBrowser development appears to be nailed to the perch or just resting, AvantBrowser is steaming along with a pretty active user community. Dunno if the masses are aware of these, though.

Forced to us IE, but want popup blocking, blocked images, tabbed browsing, tab groups, and more?

Avant browser. It uses the IE core, but allows you to view IE only websites. Corporate uses are mostly effected.

Avant Browser

Also take a look at www.avantbrowser.com, its an IE shell with tabs, popup blocking and so on.

...use crazybrowser to make it barable (it adds tab support and popup blocking by wrapping the IE rendering engine inside itself)

Avant Browser is similar and adds Flash control and custom skins (a la Moz).

I use IE and have tabbed windows. Does that make it a real browser now?

Try Avant Browser then please STFU. It's a browser, it lets me view media, and it does its job fine. You Mozilla users are getting real boring with your elitism.

• MyIE2
  
• Crazy Browser
  
• Netcaptor
  
• Avant Browser
  

The best IE wrapper is Avant Browser [avantbrowser.com]. Crazy Browser just isn't as good. Try both and see for yourself.

Avant Browser, With a built in POP-UP killer (blocks ALL pop-ups, good and bad but it's easy to disable it with a click)