I’ve slipped quite nicely into using SlimBrowser for my browsing needs. Built on top the IE engine, for that lovely compatability thang, it boasts a number of cool features:
- Tabbed browsing. My God, tabbed browsing. That just so rocks, particuarly for a multi-multi-window guy like me.
- Groups. All my online comic reads are now in a single Comics group, meaning I can pull them up with a single click. And because the browser is tabbed (see above), it doesn’t completely overwhelm my Taskbar.
- The search bar can be configured to work just like Nutshell. Though it doesn’t come with definitions for Amazon or IMDB searches, it can be programmed for them. Keen.
- I was able (by reinstalling) to set up my IESpell spellchecker again. It can take most IE plug-ins, though none are guaranteed.
- It uses my Favorites, as-is. This is important to me, vs. some of the alternatives like Opera.
- Since it’s a single program, when you start pointing to a different download folder (Save Picture As or Save Target As), it is reflected across all open windows. This is, on balance, an advantage (as I use it).
- It does use fewer system resources.
- SlimBrowser remembers the last windows open, making it easy to recover them. That’s good, since I keep inadvertently closing the whole browser, instead of just a tab.
The only hitches:
- I don’t like the popup blocker as well as PopupCop. It’s at least as effective, but less easy to override (no one-off overrides by keystroke).
- I can’t use the MT Bookmarklet. Well, that’s not quite true. I can’t use the Link bar method, but I can, it appears, use the IE context menu method (I just discovered).
- Extending from the previous item, windows that are opened by various Java techniques either don’t work (such as that Link bar bookmarklet) or open up in maximized windows, which is sometimes odd. You can actually return the windows to normal size within SlimBrowser, but it’s a little awkward; regardless, this is a minor quibble.
- Alternately, if a child window is opened up via Java (e.g., the prompt for an URL to turn into a link in MT), you can’t tab to another window. So if I’m creating a link in an MT post to another page I have open, I have to go over to that page and copy the URL first before I open up the URL box in the post.
- Some programs that have IE hardcoded into them still call up IE instead of SlimBrowser. Nothing to be done for that, short of disabling IE, which seems a bit drastic.
I’m, overall, pretty darned pleased. Best and most intelligent advice Scott‘s ever given me, I daresay.
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For all of its quirks, it definitely fits my browser needs. The fewer system resources is a huge plus from where I sit.
Glad you like it!
The quirks are just that — quirks. Nothing that’s a show-stopper. I’m even learning how to deal with the popup-blocker irritation. Definitely a winner.
OK, I bit. Very fast download and install.
My only gripes so far:
I can’t scroll a page with my mouse wheel until I’ve actually clicked on the page. I assume I’ll have to click on each frame I wish to scroll through, too, on sites that have them. Not too big a pain, except that I always forget, and spin the wheel a few times before I realize nothing’s happening.
It alphabetized my Favorites list, and I had to go to a bit of trouble organizing them as they are in IE. Every time I save a page, I have to open View/Explorer Bar/Favorites to be able to drag items in the list. Can’t do it from the favorites list itself, which is mildly annoying.
Tabs are really nice, though! Of course, I keep going to the toolbar, out of habit! Oops!
I can’t scroll a page with my mouse wheel until I’ve actually clicked on the page. I assume I’ll have to click on each frame I wish to scroll through, too, on sites that have them. Not too big a pain, except that I always forget, and spin the wheel a few times before I realize nothing’s happening.
I suspect it’s just a matter of focus (you wouldn’t expect to be able to scroll an IE window unless you’d clicked on it, and, in fact, you can’t). I’d expect once you’ve focused on a tab, it and all its frames will scroll fine.
It alphabetized my Favorites list, and I had to go to a bit of trouble organizing them as they are in IE.
Yeah, I noticed that. I haven’t gotten around to resorting them. I probably need to drop a bunch of them, anyway.
Every time I save a page, I have to open View/Explorer Bar/Favorites to be able to drag items in the list. Can’t do it from the favorites list itself, which is mildly annoying.
Not functionality I ever use, to be honest.
>I’d expect once you’ve focused on a tab, it and all its frames will scroll fine.
Well, it seems to work now. Not sure what’s changed, but I don’t have to click any more. Cool. Time to set SlimBrowser as my default! Yee hah!
I’m failing to get the MT Bookmarklet ‘right-click’ menu to work… or the java version. Annoying, since it seems like a pretty sweet browser.
Huh. I went into the MT screen for it, configured it, and clicked on the link as specified. The context menu (right click) works just great.
(The Java one won’t, alas.)
Are you sure it isn’t blocking the window as a popup?
Hmmm.
Also, it (the context menu fix) does seem to have IE hardcoded in there. You haven’t deinstalled or renamed IE, have you?
I get an actual script error: “‘external.menuobjects.document’ is not an object” or something like that.
Might just be on my work machine. I’ll try it elsewhere.
For the record, on Margie’s machine, Slimbrowser was not working quite right — a number of image files were not showing up properly (i.e., at all).
It turned out that Margie’s Norton Internet Security setup needed to have Slimbrowser registered in it as a web browser and … huzzah! Seems to be working now just right.