[newportnews]

I've seen alot of people on the boards complaining of IE speed issues and I have done a couple of things to tweak it which will make it noticeably faster:

1. Go to Explorer: Preferences: Advanced

2. Set the "Remember the last... pages visited" # to 15 (if there is any site you visit often enough it should be in your Favorites). This is much less than the 300 pages it has to keep up with allowing it to spend more time browsing.

3. If you have broadband ELIMINATE THE CACHE -- right below the pages visited is the size of the cache, which is now much smaller because yu are not saving 300 pages in there. If you are using dial up set it to 2 MEGS.

4. Download the Apple Java Update from SU

5. Download the new Flash Update (On Macnn homepage)

Go ahead and enjoy your sped up IE -- all these changes can easily be switched back if it doesn't work for you.

[driven]

Originally posted by newportnews:
<STRONG>I've seen alot of people on the boards complaining of IE speed issues and I have done a couple of things to tweak it which will make it noticeably faster:

1. Go to Explorer: Preferences: Advanced

2. Set the "Remember the last... pages visited" # to 15 (if there is any site you visit often enough it should be in your Favorites). This is much less than the 300 pages it has to keep up with allowing it to spend more time browsing.

3. If you have broadband ELIMINATE THE CACHE -- right below the pages visited is the size of the cache, which is now much smaller because yu are not saving 300 pages in there. If you are using dial up set it to 2 MEGS.

4. Download the Apple Java Update from SU

5. Download the new Flash Update (On Macnn homepage)

Go ahead and enjoy your sped up IE -- all these changes can easily be switched back if it doesn't work for you.</STRONG>

Thanks for the tip.

How much of a speed improvement did you see?

[G Barnett]

Here's an even better tip:

1) Open your Applications Folder.
2) Select the IE icon.
3) type [cmd]-delete
4) Empty Trash
5) Install OmniWeb/iCab/Mozilla




G Barnett

[ink]

Originally posted by G Barnett:
<STRONG>Here's an even better tip:

1) Open your Applications Folder.
2) Select the IE icon.
3) type [cmd]-delete
4) Empty Trash
5) Install OmniWeb/iCab/Mozilla
</STRONG>

Amen to that! I used IE under OS9 all the time, but IE 5.1 for OSX is one of the worst browsers out there. Even the open-source Mozilla product is better.

[slo-mo]

Although I use OmniWeb now, I think IE for os 9 still is the best browser out there. (Mozzilla: terrible GUI, Omniweb: beautiful but slow, Chimera: Still has a long way to go, iCab: doesn't support enough standards.)

IE in OS X does everything the 9 version does, but even beats Finder when it comes to being slow and annoying.

But hey, thanks for the tip.

[Rainy Day]

The best way to speed up IE is to throw it in the trash and install iCab.

As for iCab not supporting enough standards, have you tried it lately? There are just a couple obscure CSS statements it doesn't support, and that's about it. Granted, many web sites use IE or Netscape HTML extensions which aren't part of the HTML standard, but even iCab supports many of these. I used to keep a copy of Netscape fired up for those sites that iCab couldn't handle, but i discontinued that practice a while back. iCab can handle 99.9% of the sites i visit these days. Admittedly, a few render a bit quirky still, but that's always because of the non-standard HTML on the site, and not because "iCab doesn't support enough standards."

And i couldn't live without some of the advanced features of iCab which, as far as i know, aren't to be found on other browsers.

[Rex]

...iCab, Omniweb, Mozilla... what ever you feel comfortable with... but the bottom line is always:
TRASH IE!!!!!!

And the truth may set you free.

[slo-mo]

...iCab, Omniweb, Mozilla... what ever you feel comfortable with... but the bottom line is always:
TRASH IE!!!!!!

Why are you all so mad at IE? Oh, it's a MS product ok, but I like it, the classic version at least. It does what it's supposed to do, and fast enough. Ok, it misses a lot of handy features, like blocking ads and popup windows, but I think it's a good browser, like it or not

Rainy Day, you're right, the stuff iCab doesn't support is non-standard code made by MS or whoever, but it's still pretty annoying when sites like QXL and Versiontracker looks strange.

Don't misunderstand me, iCab is lovely, and it has some nifty features, like pre-fetch, but Omniweb is my first choice in X.

If Omniweb speeds up a little, I might never go back, but if IE 6.0 is more "X-like", fast and feature rich, why not?

So please tell me, what's so terribly terrible about IE?? What makes you hate it that much?

[newportnews]

I also don't understand all the IE bashing...

I also understand it is a MS product and that is reason enough for some people to hate it. But the people in the Mac BU over at Microsoft work real hard to give us Mac people good versions of their software for 9 and X. I believe that while there is alot of work to be done in IE that it is by far the best of the current crop of OS X browsers.

IE doesn't excel at one particular thing but it also has no glaring defects... It's just a solid, fairly stable browser. I am sure that IE 6 will bring X features like Anti-Aliased Text but for now its just a carbonized version of the OS 9 browser.

I use a few MS apps on my computer (which ONLY runs OS X , I deleted all my OS 9 files as soon as I got the computer) -- Messenger, Office, Explorer -- and find them all to be good apps for what I'm using them for.

So please quit the MS bashing just for the sake of bashing them. They turn out good products and IE is FREE.

Last Point -- I would pay $$ if anyone developed a truly awesome OS X browser. I think this is a market niche that someone needs to explot.

[ 03-19-2002: Message edited by: newportnews ]

[KaptainKaya]

I don't mind MS stuff on my computer as well...but for X it just doesn't cut it. In classic, IE was smooth, Office was kick-ass, and most were happy. In X, they concentrated on Office, which is really 85% done and IE which at one time was labeled as 5.5b1, now its at 5.1.

[Andrew 8808]

Originally posted by newportnews:
<STRONG>But the people in the Mac BU over at Microsoft work real hard to give us Mac people good versions of their software for 9 and X. I believe that while there is alot of work to be done in IE that it is by far the best of the current crop of OS X browsers.
</STRONG>

Erm, I highly doubt the people in the MacBU are laboring around the clock for us. How many updates to IE have we had? And the only "good" version of software is Office X. IE is way behind what it should be as is MSN Messnger.

[Footy]

I'm also a fan of IE for osX. Netscape just didn't cut it anymore (has'nt for over a year for me) and I noticed nobody mentioned it.

However, I do notice that IE is faster in os9 than osX. Maybe I don't mind the osX version so much becuase I'm on a cable modem?

lloyd

[OverclockedHomoSapien]

Chalk up another vote for Omniweb. The Sneakypeeks are quite fast, although 4.0 version is too slow to use.

IE sucks, I can't stand it. But it keeps randomly setting itself back to the default web browser...such a M$ thing to do.

[slo-mo]

Originally posted by OverclockedHomoSapien:
<STRONG>
IE sucks, I can't stand it. But it keeps randomly setting itself back to the default web browser...such a M$ thing to do.</STRONG>

Whenever you install a new OW sneakypeek, you replace your old OW with a new one. As the system can't find the old OW, it starts up IE..

I think This happens to me all the time, always when I've installed a new sp.

[Cipher13]

IE5 for OS9 is awesome.
IE5 for OSX is the best of a bad bunch.

OmniWeb is a joke (sorry OmniGuys), Mozilla is even more laughable, iCab just plain sucks, and IE, well, is, as I said, the best of a bad bunch.

And yeah, I've used them all.

[titanX]

IE in OS X does everything the 9 version does, but even beats Finder when it comes to being slow and annoying.

In no way does IE in OS X does everything the 9 version does !!!

I can't remember how many times I had to launch Classic and run the 9 version of IE for some web features to work properly. Especially when it comes to any kind of Java applications, applets and certificates (try to emulate a mobile phone on the sonyericsson.com site with IE X !!)

In X, I think Omniweb is *hands down* the nicest browser (I say 'nicest' and not 'best' since it looks so much better than IE on most sites but is not even capable of dealing with javascript insctructions !)

Omniweb works for 70% of my browsing. 20% is done with Mozilla (when Omni doesn't work), 5% is done with IE (when Omni/Moz don't work) and the 5% remaining is dealt with IE in Classic (when Omni/Moz/IE X don't work)

That is to say, I have sometimes to use four apps before a website works properly : Omniweb, Mozilla, IE X, IE Classic...

When will we have at last a decent browser in X (like IE 9 Classic with OmniWeb Quartz rendering ??)

[ 03-20-2002: Message edited by: titanX ]

[sambeau]

IE has the best icon

[tngland]

Somebody mentioned the Prefetch feature in iCab.

I'm curious, just what do you use it for? How is it helpful?

[KaptainKaya]

Originally posted by Andrew 8808:
<STRONG>


Erm, I highly doubt the people in the MacBU are laboring around the clock for us. How many updates to IE have we had? And the only "good" version of software is Office X. IE is way behind what it should be as is MSN Messnger.</STRONG>

Sure Office X is good, but its basically a carbon copy of 9 with an Aqua UI. So IE is behind. Look at AIM for Mac. We can't host games like the PC can. You wanna think about other software that we have thats behid the PC version besides something from MS for once? ICQ is crap on both sides, Yahoo Messenger is at like 5 for PC and 1.1 on Mac. Dont get me started on MSN...how many Mac users actually use the voice chat??

[Andrew 8808]

Originally posted by KaptainKaya:
<STRONG>

Sure Office X is good, but its basically a carbon copy of 9 with an Aqua UI. So IE is behind. Look at AIM for Mac. We can't host games like the PC can. You wanna think about other software that we have thats behid the PC version besides something from MS for once? ICQ is crap on both sides, Yahoo Messenger is at like 5 for PC and 1.1 on Mac. Dont get me started on MSN...how many Mac users actually use the voice chat??</STRONG>

OK, I'm not disputing that almost all other software is behind too. I'm just merely pointing out that Microsoft doesn't have the best crap either.
Hell, in IE for X, I have to click Stop like 8 times before the page finally stops loading. Then usually it'll start loading again by itself! C'mon. I hope they update IE soon, I wouldn't mind using it if it just was a little bit better.


[ 03-20-2002: Message edited by: Andrew 8808 ]

[KaptainKaya]

Originally posted by Andrew 8808:
<STRONG>

OK, I'm not disputing that almost all other software is behind too. I'm just merely pointing out that Microsoft doesn't have the best crap either.
Hell, in IE for X, I have to click Stop like 8 times before the page finally stops loading. Then usually it'll start loading again by itself! C'mon. I hope they update IE soon, I wouldn't mind using it if it just was a little bit better.


[ 03-20-2002: Message edited by: Andrew 8808 ]</STRONG>

Oh I agree, I just couldn't understand all the MS bashing when there are other things that are behind the times too. IE is crap in X, hands down.

[ink]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
<STRONG>IE5 for OS9 is awesome.
IE5 for OSX is the best of a bad bunch.

OmniWeb is a joke (sorry OmniGuys), Mozilla is even more laughable, iCab just plain sucks, and IE, well, is, as I said, the best of a bad bunch.

And yeah, I've used them all.</STRONG>

I've used them all as well, and I've settled on Mozilla for my browser (with the 'modern' theme). Command-T (tabs) make it all worth while, and it renders complicated sites much faster than IE does (but IE renders very simple sites quicker, it seems). IE seems to start faster, but I rarely shut Mozilla down, so that is unimportant. That said, I loathe Mozilla's e-mail client (so I don't use it). I'm curious as to why you think Mozilla is "laughable"? It renders all the web sites I frequent just fine, and it has many features that IE lacks (disable un-clicked pop-up windows anyone? disable javascript z-window placement?).

[Drizzt]

I,ve used them all.. and periodicly switch between OmniWeb and IE.. here's why..

One of the web sites I developped.. and that I now use daily for my internship doesn't work with iCab, Opera and Mozzilla..

BUT! it has been checked by w3c tools and its OK..

iCab renders some tables improperly
Opera also and doesn't like my cookies
Mozzilla doesn't like my cookies..

Finally.. there's only those 2 options.. that shows things up right and just work..

[FERRO]

I just found something that speeds up IE on OSX...

Go to preferences and in the "web content" section...

turn off/unclick - "show style sheets"...

Gave me a good two/three second speed up... when a page is loading...

Just FYI...

I have broadband so my pages load fairly fast anyway, but it did make things faster....

------------------------------------

� FERRO 2001-2002

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: FERRO ]

[sungwoo]

Originally posted by FERRO:
<STRONG>I just found something that speeds up IE on OSX...

Go to preferences and in the "web content" section...

turn off/unclick - "show style sheets"...

Gave me a good two/three second speed up... when a page is loading...

Just FYI...

I have broadband so my pages load fairly fast anyway, but it did make things faster....
[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: FERRO ]</STRONG>

Yeah!!!!
I am on the 56k modem, and your tip really reduced loading time!
It certainly reduced 2~4sec which makes me feel very snappier.
Cheeeeeeers,

But, wait....
If you visit www.macosxhints.com, you will find the title of each tip can't see properly because the color of the title is changed black with blue background.
Well,,,,, always Pros and Cons.
This is the life.

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: sungwoo ]

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: sungwoo ]

[Bruce O'Neal]

i have to agree with some of these comments. i have been dabbling with several browsers and unfortunately netscape nor mozilla cut it for me anymore.

netscape is way too bloated and slow for everyday browsing. the best thing about it, are the keywords you can assign to your bookmarks, and the way it connects to netscape mail. other than that ... it is just too darned SLOW.

mozilla's latest release crashed and also brought down netscape in the process. it will not let me boot it up and then it makes my OS do weird things (slows down the whole system).

internet explorer ... i am also ashamed to say ... has worked perfectly out of the box from day one.

it is quick and reliable. it has choked on pages with complicated frames, but other than that it is cool. it displays JAVA (something that mozilla and netscape choked on) and works with most of my banking site.

sorry fellas, netscape should spend less time in court, and more time developing 6.2 into something that is a real contender.

[Cipher13]

Originally posted by ink:
<STRONG>

I've used them all as well, and I've settled on Mozilla for my browser (with the 'modern' theme). Command-T (tabs) make it all worth while, and it renders complicated sites much faster than IE does (but IE renders very simple sites quicker, it seems). IE seems to start faster, but I rarely shut Mozilla down, so that is unimportant. That said, I loathe Mozilla's e-mail client (so I don't use it). I'm curious as to why you think Mozilla is "laughable"? It renders all the web sites I frequent just fine, and it has many features that IE lacks (disable un-clicked pop-up windows anyone? disable javascript z-window placement?).</STRONG>

Because it's interface is SO SLOW... I can't stand working with it. It infuriates me just like OSX 10.0.0 and so on did. AWFUL interface, in that respect. And when you consider you're working with the interface (at least at a deeper level) 100% of the time in a web browser... well, heh, it's pretty important (I don't just mean any 'theme', but how its built on the inside).

IE is stable, consistent, and not TOO slow (compared to the others) - and wins hands down.

Though, I'll admit, I haven't even bothered with the last few builds of Mozilla...

[Koldolme]

Let me tell you who the uncontested speed king for OSX is!!
The fastest browser for OSX is Chimera. For those of you who haven't heard of it, check out at chimeras homepage. It is still early beta, but is already extremely fast. Try it for yourself and be amazed.

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: Koldolme ]

[EddieDesignsDotCom]

quite a lot of misled info here, too much to read

I'm also a fan of IE for osX. Netscape just didn't cut it anymore (has'nt for over a year for me) and I noticed nobody mentioned it.

Mozilla is superb right now. Amazing in fact. and it's more consistent with its windows partner across the board as opposed to IE 5 for X compared to IE 6 for pc
iCab has the best icon.
download the latest Java update (2 1.3.1??)
IE aint that bad but seems to slow down the system over time, I find quiting it then rerunning it refreshing things somewhat.

will try out Chimera, where is the dl link please?

edit: ok found the link under instal instruct. thanks

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: EddieDesignsDotCom ]

[Rainy Day]

Originally posted by tngland:
<STRONG>Somebody mentioned the Prefetch feature in iCab.

I'm curious, just what do you use it for? How is it helpful?</STRONG>

Prefetch loads linked pages into its cache in the background when iCab is idle. That way, if you click on the URL, the page is already cached and doesn't need to be fetched from the server. This feature can be disabled.

It has other nice features too, like automatic reloading of a local file which is being edited (whenever the file is saved). Has a similar feature for on-line pages too, by checking the modification date of the file.

Originally posted by slo-mo:
<STRONG>Rainy Day, you're right, the stuff iCab doesn't support is non-standard code made by MS or whoever, but it's still pretty annoying when sites like QXL and Versiontracker looks strange.</STRONG>

Have you used iCab lately? I can't find anything odd about how iCab 2.7.1 renders these sites? Even though this VersionTracker page has a whopping 445 HTML errors, even it looks "normal" to me.

Originally posted by Drizzt:
<STRONG>One of the web sites I developped.. and that I now use daily for my internship doesn't work with iCab, Opera and Mozzilla..

BUT! it has been checked by w3c tools and its OK..

iCab renders some tables improperly
Opera also and doesn't like my cookies
Mozzilla doesn't like my cookies..

Finally.. there's only those 2 options.. that shows things up right and just work.. </STRONG>

Care to provide a URL? I have found that the only pages iCab does not render properly are those which cause it to frown (i.e. those pages in which its built-in HTML checker finds errors), and it's only a small percentage of these pages at that (since most web sites have errors). I've also noticed that iCab's HTML checker tends to be a bit more lenient than the w3 checker.

There is no better browser than iCab for HTML development, IMO. If your page renders properly in iCab, it is because you're following the HTML standard, which in turn means that it will render across the largest range of browsers available. A good web site developer will want to write HTML code which is as compatible as possible. Code which only renders properly with one or two browsers is not good HTML. iCab's built-in HTML checker and auto reload features are time saving godsends for the web developer.

One note to those complaining that iCab is less than compatible: It has many preferences which can cause it to adhere fairly strictly to the HTML standards, or to relax things a bit. It has some Netscape and IE anomaly compatibility modes which i don't think are enabled by default. iCab is one browser where you really should explore its preferences before using. iCab has more preferences than i've seen in any other browser. It takes a while to fully explore them all, and to fully appreciate some of them.

Also, although it hasn't been mentioned specifically, i think many of the icons which come with iCab suck (i do not speak of the program icon itself, which i rather like, but instead icons like the toolbar forward and backward arrows, printer, home, relaod, etc.) It is very easy, however, to install your own set of icons and customize the look of iCab. Many alternative sets are available on the iCab web site. Not being overly artistic myself, i've downloaded most of them and have put together a collage which i use. Much more appealing (to me) than the stock choices. YMMV.

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: Rainy Day ]

[Drizzt]

It's no use to give the link because the cookie is used for authentification (and for obvious security reasons I won't give you a login/password )

I changed some code so it would work better with other browsers.. although it was supposed to be working right out of the box before.

Still.. the page shows up wierdly..

[malvolio]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
<STRONG>

Because it's interface is SO SLOW... I can't stand working with it. It infuriates me just like OSX 10.0.0 and so on did.

Though, I'll admit, I haven't even bothered with the last few builds of Mozilla...</STRONG>

Okay, launching Mozilla is slow, but no other aspect of its interface is slow.
Try the latest build! Moz has been vastly improved recently!

[kennethmac2000]

There's been all this talk of the Microsoft Mac BU being dedicated to the Mac, but where's a new release of IE!? Internet Explorer:mac development appears to have stagnated for the last 18 months!

How about supporting all the Microsoft proprietary scripting stuff that is supported by the Windows version for a start?

[eno]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
<STRONG>IE5 for OS9 is awesome.
IE5 for OSX is the best of a bad bunch.

OmniWeb is a joke (sorry OmniGuys), Mozilla is even more laughable, iCab just plain sucks, and IE, well, is, as I said, the best of a bad bunch.

And yeah, I've used them all.</STRONG>

Couldn't agree more. My thoughts precisely.

And for my IE startup tips:

• Buy a faster machine.
• Wait for MS to release a faster IE version.
• Wait for Apple to release a faster version of Mac OS X.