Browsers are the software used to view world wide web pages. The very first web browser was written by Tim Berners-Lee, while at CERN (a European center for physics research). However the first browser to obtain popularity was Mosaic, which was written by Marc Andreessen. However the two browsers that are the most popular at the moment are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

Most browsers include the same kind of features however.

The back, forward, stop, refresh, home, search, favorites, address bard and history functions of Internet Explorer and now common for most browsers.

Internet Explorer

• keyboard shortcuts in Internet Explorer 6

  • A range of shortcuts you can use,

    • ALT+Right-arrow key - to go to the next page
    • ALT+ Left-arrow key - to visit the previous web page
      
    • ALT+Home key - access your home page
    • ALT+F4 key - close Internet Explorer
      
    • Ctrl+D key - to add a website to favorites
    • Ctrl+H key - open the history bar
    • Ctrl+N key - open a new browser window
      
    • Ctrl+P key - print a web page
      
    • Ctrl+W key - close the current browser window
• delete your cookies in Internet Explorer 6

  • A new improvements to Internet Explorer 6 is the ease of deleting your cookies. Before you had to go into the Temporary Internet Files folder and delete the cookies yourself.

    Now all you have to do in Internet Explorer 6 is,

    • go to Tools, Internet Options... and press Delete Cookies.
• delete the Content Advisor password in IE6

  • If you need to delete the content advisor password for some reason then follow these instructions,

    • find this registry folder using Regedit
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings
      
    • then delete the icon called Key in the right hand panel and press delete
    • close Regedit
    • g oto Tools, Internet Options in Internet Explorer 6
    • select the Content tab, and then disable
    • then dont enter a password, and press ok
    • this diables content advisor and any password

    it would be a good idea to back up your registry before this.

• Currently the most popular of all browsers, with one reason being that it has been supplied with the Microsoft Windows operating systems. Internet Explorer also has a great set of features such as Activex and XML support with the downside being that it requires a lot of memory, CPU and disk space resources.

Internet Explorer Problems,

• I have a problem changing the homepage address

  • Question - I have a problem changing the homepage address from the internet option bar? I tried to get ride of this homepage address ---- mk:MSIT Store:C:\spe\start.chm::/start.html# ---out from the homepage address. I've just current , default, blank key but it don't change to the new site. Please let me know how to change the site, I'm very troubled by it.

    Answer - You can clear the websites that are offered for selection by clearing your History by Selecting Tools from the drop down menu at the top of the browser window followed by Internet Options and under the General Tab selecting Clear History. Another way is to disable the Auto Complete function which can be done by Selecting the Tools drop down menu followed by Internet Options and this time selecting the Content Tab. Another reason could be that a scumware program has altered Internet Explorer. I would recommend getting adaware program to delete the scumware. Maybe you will also need to reinstall explorer as well.

• Netscape Navigator was the most popular browser in the early to mid 1990's and lost it's crown to Internet Explorer in the mid to late 1990's. Netscape Navigator believed the reason for this was Microsoft giving away Internet Explorer with Windows. However Netscape Navigator still does an excellent job and doesn't integrate itself into the bowels of Windows like Internet Explorer.

Some of the alternative browsers you can use for linux, mac and windows,

• Amaya - Amaya is an open source software project hosted by W3C.
• Emacs/W3 - Emacs has full Web browser functionality. [unix, win95, winnt, amiga, os2, vms]
• Firefox - 20 million users and allows you to import your favorites, settings and other information from ie.
• Hot Java - Hot Java offers a lot of flexibility and runs on many platforms.
• Lynx - Lynx is a text browser that allows you greater speed than graphical browsers.
• Opera - the most popular alternative browser due to its very fast speed and amount of features.

Browsers for the Mac

• Safari - Is the Mac OS X default web browser and loads pages quickly for Mac pcs.

Browsers for Linux

• BrowseX - free Open Source, cross-platform Web Browser, Mail Program, Talk/Chat client and more.
• Dillo - Is a small (less than 400 Kb), GTK+ based web browser project completely written in C.