High speed browser. Fast browser for an old computer - myth or reality

With the development of web technologies, the content displayed using a browser becomes more and more “heavy”. Video bitrate increases, caching and data storage requires everything more space, scripts running on user machines consume a lot of CPU time. Browser developers keep up with trends and try to include support for all new trends in their products. This leads to the fact that the latest versions of popular browsers place increased demands on the system on which they are running. In this article we will talk about which browser to choose for a computer that does not have enough power to use the Big Three browsers and the like.

As part of the article, we will conduct a kind of testing of four browsers - Maxthon Nitro, Pale Moon, Otter Browser, K-Meleon - and compare their behavior with, as the most voracious browser at the time of writing. During the process, we'll look at startup and running speeds, RAM and CPU utilization, and whether there are enough resources left to complete other tasks. Since Chrome provides extensions, we will test both with and without them.

It is worth noting that some results may differ from those you get from such testing. This applies to those parameters that depend on Internet speed, in particular, page loading.

Test configuration

To conduct the test, we took a really weak computer. The initial parameters are:

About browsers

Let's talk briefly about the browsers participating in today's testing - about the engines, features, and so on.

Maxthon Nitro

This browser was created by the Chinese company Maxthon International Limited based on the Blink engine - a converted WebKit for . Supports all operating systems, including mobile ones.

Pale Moon

This member is a brother with some modifications and one of them is optimization for Windows systems and only under them. This, according to the developers, makes it possible to significantly increase the speed of work.

Otter Browser

"Otter" was created using the Qt5 engine, which is used by the developers. The data on the official website is very scarce, so there is nothing more to say about the browser.

K-Meleon

This is another browser based on Firefox, but with the most reduced functionality. This move by the creators made it possible to minimize resource consumption and increase speed.

Startup speed

Let's start from the beginning - let's measure the time it takes for the browser to fully launch, that is, you can already open pages, make settings, etc. The goal is to determine which patient comes to a state of combat readiness faster. We will use google.com as the start page. We will take measurements until it is possible to enter text into the search bar.

Maxthon Nitro – from 10 to 6 seconds;
Pale Moon – from 6 to 3 seconds;
Otter Browser – from 9 to 6 seconds;
K-Meleon – from 4 to 2 seconds;
Google Chrome(extensions disabled) – from 5 to 3 seconds. With extensions ( , Browsec, ePN CashBack) – 11 seconds.

As we can see, all browsers quite quickly open their window on the desktop and show readiness for work.

Memory consumption

Since we are very limited in the amount of RAM, this indicator is one of the most important. Let's look into "Task Manager" and calculate the total consumption of each experimental subject, having first opened three identical pages - Yandex (main page), YouTube and the website. Measurements will be taken after some waiting.

Let's launch a video on YouTube with a resolution of 480p and see how much the situation changes.

Now let's complicate the task by simulating the real thing. work situation. To do this, we will open 10 tabs in each browser and look at the overall responsiveness of the system, that is, we will check whether it is comfortable to work with the browser and other programs in this mode. As mentioned above, we have Word, Notepad, a calculator running, and we will also try to open Paint. We will also measure page loading speed. The results will be recorded based on subjective feelings.

Maxthon Nitro experiences slight delays when switching between browser tabs and when opening programs that are already running. The same thing happens when viewing the contents of folders. In general, the OS behaves quite well with minor lags. The page loading speed is not annoying.
Pale Moon beats Nitro in terms of tab switching and page loading speed, but the rest of the system is somewhat slower, with longer delays when launching programs and opening folders.
When using Otter Browser, page rendering speed is quite slow, especially after opening several tabs. The overall responsiveness of the browser also leaves much to be desired. After launching Paint Otter, it stopped responding to our actions for some time, and running applications were very slow to open.
Another thing about K-Meleon is that the loading of pages and the speed of switching between tabs is very high. “Drawing” starts instantly, other programs also respond quite quickly. The system overall responds well.
Even though Google Chrome tries to unload the contents of unused tabs from memory (when they are activated, they are reloaded), the active use of the page file makes the work completely uncomfortable. This results in constant page reloading, and in some cases, showing an empty field instead of content. Other programs also “don’t like” the proximity to Chrome, as there are high delays and refusals to respond to user actions.

The latest measurements showed the real state of affairs. If under gentle conditions all products produce similar results, then when the load on the system increases, some are left behind.

Since CPU usage may differ in different situations, we will look at the behavior of browsers in idle mode. The same tabs shown above will be opened.

All patients show good results, that is, they do not load the “stone” while there is no action within the program.

Watch video

In this step, we will enable the graphics card by installing the NVIDIA driver. We will measure the number of frames per second using the program in full screen mode and 720p resolution with 50 FPS. The video will be included on YouTube.

As you can see, not all browsers are capable of fully playing video in HD quality. When using them, you will have to reduce the resolution to 480p or even 360p.

Conclusion

During testing, we identified some important characteristics of our current test subjects. Based on the results obtained, we can draw the following conclusions: K-Meleon is the fastest in operation. It saves maximum resources for other tasks, but is not entirely suitable for watching videos high quality. Nitro, Pale Moon and Otter are approximately equal in memory consumption, but the latter lags far behind in overall responsiveness under increased load. As for Google Chrome, its use on computers similar in configuration to our test one is completely unacceptable. This is expressed in slowdowns and freezes due to the high load on the paging file, and therefore on the hard drive.

Lightweight browser for weak computers. Review.

“Lightweight browser for weak computers.”

This question “rose sharply” for me about a year ago, when my old netbook began to work worse and worse, when reinstalling Windows and complete cleaning netbook from dust and dirt.

But I needed to continue using this netbook as a portable device for surfing the Internet.

To speed up the browser I saw two solutions:

Find a lighter browser for my old netbook.
Conduct a low-cost upgrade to your netbook to improve its performance

About these two, simple solutions I'll tell you in the article.

Deciding to look for a lightweight browser for a weak computer, I went through and tried dozens of browsers and settled on the K-Meleon browser. This is a full-fledged, but little-known browser in Russian.

After checking the operation of the K-Meleon browser on a netbook and making sure that it is really a lightweight browser for a weak computer, I decided to test it on my other computers to see how it works there.

This test showed that the K-Meleon browser is indeed the easiest browser for a weak computer of all the browsers that I tested.

I will not give you statistics comparing the performance of the K-Meleon browser in comparison with other browsers. This is my “purely visual opinion”. I compared how quickly browsers launched and how quickly identical pages on websites loaded.

Below in the article I will talk about other lightweight browsers for weak computers.

1. K-Meleon is a very fast, lightweight and customizable browser based on the Gecko engine, developed by Mozilla and also used in Firefox.
The K-Meleon browser is Free Software, open source, released under the GNU General Public License. The K-Meleon browser is designed specifically for operating systems of the Microsoft Windows family (Win32).

Go to the official K-Meleon website, select the browser version, installer or portable version, download and run. Or download the K-Meleon browser on the Russian-speaking team’s website. Links below.

The browser will launch. I’ll say right away that the browser interface has its own characteristics and, to be honest, it’s not very familiar to me.

For example, to export my bookmarks to K-Meleon, export from an HTML file is not provided, and I had to first export my bookmarks to the Internet Explorer browser and then from IE, export the bookmarks to K-Meleon.

But this is a minor inconvenience that you can ignore, the main thing is that K-Meleon is a really lightweight browser and works well on weak computers.

How to open VKontakte (vkontakte), Odnoklassniki and other sites in K-Meleon if they are blocked for you? At the top of the K-Meleon browser in the toolbar, find the button Ultrasurf and left-click on it or right-click on it and select enable. After a few seconds, the proxy mode will turn on and you will be able to visit blocked sites.

You need to download the K-Meleon browser on this page.

You can download the K-Meleon browser from the Russian-speaking team

The lightweight browser SlimBrowser has a lot of features (Automatic form filling, fast download manager, translation of web pages and text, blocking pop-ups and annoying ads and much more) that you will like.

Just go to official page and read it yourself, everything is in Russian.

You need to download the SlimBrowser browser on this page.

3. The next lightweight browser is probably a browser Opera. What I like most about the Opera browser is (free anonymizer), which allows me to visit blocked sites such as Linkedin. You need to connect the free VPN yourself in the Opera settings. Turn on free VPN In the Opera browser, you can go to Settings - Security tab - check the VPN box.

In fact, determining which is the easiest browser for a weak computer is a difficult matter. Since all browser manufacturers are striving to make them lighter, the lightest browser that was yesterday may not be the lightest today.

You can download the Opera browser from this page.

4. As an example, until recently I was satisfied with many things Yandex browser, but I didn’t like its “heaviness”, although even now working in this browser, I don’t see any significant differences in performance compared to the same Opera.

And such functions as a built-in translator, the Protect security system, which checks sites and files for viruses, blocks scammers’ pages, protects my passwords and data bank cards, and also protects online payments and other features I really like.

Starting with version 18.4.1, the Yandex browser has a “Simplified mode”, which is turned on automatically if the device has less than 2 GB of RAM and 1 CPU core.

In simplified mode, Yandex browser disables or does not change very much important functions for users such as:

Background Animation
Disables animation of those browser interface elements that waste a lot of CPU resources
Reduces the frame rate of videos and games on the page
Reduces background tab activity
and other

And in simplified mode, it becomes a lightweight browser that works fine on old and weak hardware.

You need to download the Yandex browser on this page.

Lightweight and secure browser from Comodo:

5. Comodo Dragon is a browser based on the Chromium engine and redesigned by the developers for greater security.

Comodo Dragon, according to the developers, was specially created as a lighter and safer browser. Offering users all the features of Chrome plus the level of security and privacy that users can only get with Comodo Dragon. Including a level of privacy that is much higher than that of Chromium.

Comodo Dragon has domain validation technology that identifies and separates high-level and low-level SSL certificates.
Stops cookies and other web spies.
And prevents all Browser download tracking to ensure your safety.

On my own behalf I would like to add that I for a long time I used this browser on an old netbook and the Comodo Dragon browser, I liked it.

You can download the Comodo Dragon browser from this page.

6. Avant is another good, fast and lightweight browser.

And if you are not satisfied with the K-Meleon browser, which I mentioned first in this article, I highly recommend trying the Avant browser.

Moreover, on the official website of the Avant browser, there is a USB version of the browser, which you can use without installing it on your computer.

Just download the archive, unpack it to the location you need on your computer or portable drive. Open the folder that appears after unzipping and run the avant.exe file, the browser will start and you can check how lightweight this browser is for your device.

The Ultimate and USB versions of the Avant browser have three built-in engines from IE, Firefox and Chrome.

In the Lite version only from IE. Please pay attention to this when loading your browser.

As I wrote above, the Avant browser has three built-in visualization engines: Trident, Gecko and Webkit, these are Internet Explorer engines, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

You can choose any default engine and switch to others if the current one cannot display the web page correctly. You can assign different engines separately for each site in the browser settings, which will allow you to automatically switch between engines while browsing sites.

Avant browser has many features such as:

If you need to change the interface language, customize the browser for yourself, click on the button, as shown in the picture below, a window will open in which you can select the desired function.

For weak computers and laptops, try different browsers and choose one that turns out to be a fast and lightweight browser for your hardware. And of course, look at how convenient this browser is for you.

Upgrading and improving the performance of a netbook, laptop or computer:

Look at all the add-ons that are in your browser and disable the ones you don’t need; the fewer add-ons you have in your browser, the easier and faster it will work.
Your device may be infected with viruses that prevent your browser and other programs from working properly. Check your device with the built-in antivirus and additionally an anti-virus scanner. A short review of antivirus scanners.
Really poor hardware performance of your device. In this case, I recommend adding random access memory (RAM) to your device. I would like to remind you that if you have more than 4 GB on your device RAM, Your device will need a 64-bit version of Windows. Your device will not “fly” with more RAM, but it will be able to better cope with resource-intensive applications. If you want the performance of applications and the operating system itself to improve in your device, you need to think about installing an SSD drive for the system drive.
There is not enough space on the system disk. If you have little space on your system disk, this may interfere with the correct operation of applications, including the browser. You need to clear system disk from unnecessary programs and files (video, music, etc.), or simply delete them, including from the Recycle Bin, or move/reinstall to another drive. After freeing up space on the system disk, you can defragment the disk (if you haven’t changed anything in the Windows 10 settings, defragmentation should happen automatically when you don’t use the device).
To manually defragment the desired disk:
open My Computer,
select the desired drive, usually the system drive is drive C,
right-click and select in context menu Properties,
open the Service tab
click the Defragment button
in the window that opens, click Disk Defragmenter for the selected disk.

Today, perhaps, not a single person can imagine life without the Internet, without the ability to communicate, the ability to download what you need, video chat for free, watch videos for free and much more. Life modern man split into two parts. The first is real, the second is virtual. The Internet has become one of the main sources of information. Without it, it is quite difficult to imagine the life of a modern person, so the efforts of programmers and physicists are aimed at constantly modernizing the Internet space and creating high-quality free Internet resources.

Without what will Internet access be impossible? For example, you installed a router at home or connected a dedicated network of an Internet provider, but all this can be called a waste of money if you do not have a browser installed on your computer.

A browser is a special program that provides access to Internet pages. Today there are a whole variety of browsers from different manufacturers, most of which you can download for free from us. There are so many browsers that choosing the best browser from all of them is incredibly difficult, and sometimes almost impossible. Each of the web browsers that can be found with us has advantages and disadvantages, so what to be happy about when you decide to download this or that browser for free, and what to put up with, everyone chooses independently. Of course, first of all, manufacturing companies release new browser programs for operating system Windows, since its users are the absolute majority.

Since you are reading this article, it means that you want to download a new browser for free to your computer. In order to find the best browser for yourself and download it for free, you need to decide which functions for Internet surfing are your priority. For example, if speed is most important to you, then the best thing for you would be to download the fastest browser for free. If your first priority is not speed, but, say, the convenience of the interface, the best thing for you would be to download a free browser, which contains a huge number of widgets, an express panel and fairly flexible interface settings.

On our website you can find a special section that contains all existing browsers for Windows, each of which you can get completely free. Among them you will find and be able to download for free the most popular ones, such as Opera, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, as well as lesser-known browsers such as Chromium, Pale Moon, Maxthon, Byffox and many others, which you can also download from us for free. All of these Internet browsers have their pros and cons, so the choice is always up to each of you what you want to download and what to use.

You don't have to worry that you may not be downloading the latest product. Our site only lists new browsers, so don't waste time searching for newer versions. All browsers that can be downloaded from us are displayed only in latest versions.

Absolutely every browser contains detailed description, in which its main capabilities and shortcomings are explained in a language that everyone can understand. After reading this description and looking at the screenshots, you can easily decide whether it’s worth downloading this browser or whether it’s better to look for another one. All that remains for you then is to download and install the selected browser on your desktop computer or laptop.

It is definitely worth noting that you can download each browser without registering on the site, which significantly saves your time. Moreover, downloading an Internet browser from our website is not only fast, but also absolutely free. We do not require money from you, just as the manufacturers themselves do not require it. Free browsers are free in everything, both to use and to download, so be careful and do not fall for the tricks of scammers.

This page presents more than two dozen browsers that are freely available. Absolutely every Internet user will be able to download a free browser of their choice, download it for free to their computer, install it and surf the World Wide Web!

Rate the program
(1 972 ratings, average: 4,54 out of 5)

A browser (as it is also called a web navigator or web browser) is a special program created to display information from the Internet on the screen of a computer or smartphone. This is applied software allows you to browse various sites, search necessary information, open web documents and process requests.

In an era of active competitiveness in the browser industry, it is quite difficult to surprise the demanding user and satisfy his needs. Therefore, versions of web navigators are constantly updated, optimizing already implemented functions and creating new ones. In the browser category there are many decent and convenient programs for every user’s tastes and needs, and our article will help you decide on the optimal choice.

Programs	Russian language	License	Add-ons	Rating	Ad blocking	VPN
	Yes	Free	Yes	10	Yes	Yes
	Yes	Free	Yes	10	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	10	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	6	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	10	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	5	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	5	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	7	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	5	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	5	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	7	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	5	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	5	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	6	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	6	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	7	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	10	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Yes	8	Plugin	Plugin
	Yes	Free	Partially	10	Plugin	Yes
	Yes	Free	Yes	8	Yes	Plugin

Browser usage statistics

Stable, reliable and fast web navigator. The interface does not “pressure” the user and can be modified depending on the user’s wishes. Optimized Turbo tools and Speed Dial allow you to increase the speed of the browser and quick access to popular pages. Privacy, spelling, downloader, password manager and spam blocker are the main advantages of the web browser.

A world-famous web browser that creates comfortable and secure conditions for the user on the Internet. The software allows you to create your own file storage database - Google Drive. Opportunity various kinds cyber attacks and pest intrusions are kept to a minimum. Smart omnibox, personalization, saving web surfing activity, translator, synchronization with mobile devices are the main, but not all, features of the utility.

World-famous web browser, winner of various ratings and tests, “favorite” of millions of users. The probability of failures is reduced to a minimum percentage, and the flexibility and speed of work in the utility is amazing. The wide functionality of the software will surprise even the most demanding user, since the Fire Fox not only optimized the operation of tabs, spelling, and history saving, but also made it possible to view PDF files, control by parents of visits to “forbidden” sites by children, 3D support and spam blocking.

A popular web browser that deservedly ranks fourth among software in this category in terms of the number of fans. A convenient search engine allows you to use various search services, the “memory” function opens previously closed sites, convenient work with tabs and an RSS feed are some of the main advantages of the browser.

An experimental development by Opera, amazingly realistic in the browser and tabs “come to life” when you touch the cursor. The developers have introduced a split-screen function, where you can work in several tabs at the same time. The pop-up window for watching videos can be moved around the home page screen, while simultaneously working and viewing multimedia. The tab's splash screen visually looks like a website, which makes it easier to find the desired web page. The screenshot taken from the screen can be instantly sent to social networks or by mail to a friend.

It combines the best features of Opera and Chrome and is popular and in demand among users. Loading pages on a weak network, automatic page translator, and Turbo mode are some of the main functionality of the web navigator. Web surfing through this utility is protected by the work of Kaspersky Lab, and the creators of the software synchronized its work with Yandex services and work with Yandex disk.

An easy-to-use browser that works even on older computers. Can accept the interface of popular web browsers Chrome, Opera, Mozilla, Internet Explorer and Yandex Browser. Cyber attacks through the utility are kept to a minimum, since they are not registered in the system due to the “age” of the browser.

A reliable web browser with powerful protection of confidential information from the famous Komodo company. The “portability” function reproduces all settings, saved tabs and history on other computers, and the “invisible” mode will hide your web surfing from prying eyes.

Interface copy of Google Chrome. Has its own eponymous search engine, the ability to restore an interrupted session, its own file downloader and work with several social network accounts at the same time.

Compact browser with fast data loading and stable operation. Built-in useful plugins and a translator will make visiting web pages much easier and save time. A powerful built-in downloader and an annoying spam blocker are other advantages of this web navigator.

An analogue of Internet Explorer, but with expanded and optimized operation and data protection. Auto-fill forms and a pop-up blocker greatly facilitate the user's work in the web browser. Using the “G” button you can configure specific commands for quick access to them.

It is similar to Mozilla, but with reduced functionality and increased performance. The ability to transfer all data from the Fire Fox to the Pale Moon has been improved. start page is replete with popular web services, and bookmarking visited sites makes it possible to quickly navigate to them.

A browser specially designed for a 64-bit system. It is a copy of Firefox, but with improved functionality and fast speed web surfing. Built-in players and downloaders allow you to listen to and download your favorite content.

A browser that has its own cloud storage and is created on two engines, Webkit and Trident. The “isolated window” option allows the user to log into the site under different accounts. The ability to create a screenshot of the entire web navigator window or a selected area, create your own “cloud” and various modes for high-quality surfing in the browser - these are the main features of the utility.

The browser developed by Mail.Ru allows you to synchronize with social networks and perform continuous work on the Internet. The built-in player allows you to create your own playlist of your favorite songs, search and play multimedia content from social networks.

Interface similar to Internet Explorer and functionally Opera. Important feature browser is blocking from annoying spam and flash animations that interfere with normal work on the network. You can completely switch work in the web navigator to the mouse by pre-configuring its gestures with the necessary buttons. “Protected browsing”, “smart” address bar and screen capture are important advantages of this software.

It will be indispensable for children’s work on the Internet and for parents to control their safe web surfing. The Stalker and Advertising Tools recognize malicious content and block various types of spam. The browser has its own search of the same name and can open previously viewed sites in the absence of the Internet.

The interface resembles the Opera browser up to version 15, but has a number of improved options. When opening large quantity tabs, the web navigator automatically groups them by topic, saving space on the working page. The user can leave notes directly on the site pages and use the integrated mail client. The background of the web browser is automatically colored to match the color of the open site.

A browser similar to Google Chrome, but with social media integration. The built-in chat allows you to communicate on social networks while surfing the web in parallel, and the sidebar will notify you of new messages from VK, Facebook and Odnoklassniki. The player allows you to listen to music directly from VKontakte. You can import bookmarks from other web browsers.

A browser with a similar base to Mozilla Firefox, but more anonymous and secure surfing on the Internet. Traffic analysis is protected, which makes it possible to anonymously visit sites and send messages. IP addresses are classified, allowing you to download files on sites limited in quantity IP addresses. This software does not require installation and can be used portablely on removable media.