Multiple browers question.

[DonMills]

I very seldom us IE, however my old and outdated IE has been moving slower than a snails pace since last fall. Since IE came pre-installed on my desktop computer with Window, I had always used it exclusively, until I heard about Firefox (FF) and installed it about 2 years ago. I enjoy having 2 browsers, so I can have at least 2 of my Yahoo emails accounts open throughout the day, since I can not have 2 Yahoo email accounts open at the same time with the same browser. Yet I use FF about 99% of the time.

A friend suggested that I get Google Chrome (GC), due to my slow IE problems last fall. So upon getting GC, it works GREAT! Yet I still like FF 1,000,000 times better.

Since I am now very happy with both FF and GC, should I just delete IE? Yet if I do decided to get an upgrade IE, what is the most current IE available for a free download?

Lastly, by having three browsers on my computer, are they taking up a lot of space on my hard drive and or are slowing down my computer, either by the fact that they are loaded on my computer and or they taking a lot of memory whenever I use 2 at a time? In my case, I would not be using all 3 browsers at the same time, just 2 of them at the same time.

Your thoughts?

Don

 

[looseliam]

You can not delete IE in the conventional sense. You can make it disappear, so to speak.

If not in use, multiple browsers have little effect on your system aside from disk space which should be negligible.

TBH, I see no need to be using FF and Chrome simultaneously.

 

[silverbelt]

Yep, you can leave them all on your PC. The only time running multiple browsers will have an impact on your PC is when they're all actually running, not just living on your hard drive. When they're running, they live in your PC's RAM (which is a different kind of memory to hard drives). As you load more and more pages, your RAM will fill up, and it's really up to how much RAM you have to see how this affects how your PC will run. Closing browser tabs/windows or the browser itself will clear the RAM it's using. A sign that your free RAM is low is when performing nearly any task on the PC seems to take too long.

Internet Explorer will always be free to Windows users, so there's no reason not to update (if you still intend to use it, that is). Latest IE is 9.0, I think, though I'm not a user myself. Chrome (and I believe Firefox now, too) update themselves.

Deleting Internet Explorer causes a world of hurt on a Windows machine from memory. It's best to just leave it and ignore it. You can safely remove any shortcuts to it (desktop, quick-launch bar), but don't try to uninstall it.

If your problem is wanting to have multiple email accounts available at a time, try getting Windows Live Mail, or Mozilla Thunderbird. They're both free mail clients that you can add your Yahoo accounts to. The mail client will let you send and receive emails with both accounts at the same time, though I'll mention this doesn't use the Yahoo web interface at all, which may take getting used to. Also, if you go down this path, best to configure it for IMAP instead of POP. PM me if you need some help if you decide to do that and I'll see what I can do.

 

[Yngbldhwk]

DonMills: As others have said, you can't remove IE from Windows. But you can clear your browser cache (Tools | Internet Options | Delete | Delete Browsing History). Sometimes clearing the cache alone can noticeably speed up IE.

By the way, IE 9 is genuinely faster than all prior versions, so if you haven't upgraded, you might consider it.

Having said all that, I avoid IE except for when I'm at work.

 

[SexyGuy]

I have all three on my laptop, and I can honestly say that I prefer using: Chrome > FF > IE. With Chrome, I have almost full functionality, however, I do notice that one or two pages do not load up in chrome, or in the IE extension that I have. Thus why I have FF.

As for your email thing, I highly suggest Thunderbird. I have all of my accounts linked through there and its easy to do.

 

[DonMills]

Thank you very much Looseliam, Silverbelt, Yngbldhwk, and SexyGuy. I sincerely and greatly appreciate your help and advice. Based on what you all have shared, this is fantastic information to work with. I will reply back if I have an difficulties or further questions. Thus far, I think I will be good to go. Thanks much.

Silverbelt, I send you a special thanks for your detailed and educational reply, since what you have shared helps tremendously, since I am not very computer literate. I will try to download IE 9.0. Based on what you shared, I will not try to do anything to delete IE. Lol!

Don

 

[seven2go]

You didn't mention which operating system you have but IE9 is not available for anything earlier than Vista.
I primarily use Opera but use IE9 a lot too NOW.......after they fixed it.......

 

[DonMills]

You didn't mention which operating system you have but IE9 is not available for anything earlier than Vista.
I primarily use Opera but use IE9 a lot too NOW.......after they fixed it.......

Seven2go, oops! I forgot to mention that I have Windows XP. So I think that I will have to settle for downloading . . . I guess IE 8.0?

Don

 

[EJMichaels]

Here's another vote for Thunderbird if you want simultaneous access to multiple email accounts (with POP or IMAP). I have 14 accounts on mine.

Like someone here said, if you're concerned about space and performance, be sure to clear the cache, unwanted cookies, other temp files routinely or set your browser not to save much of those. You can safely experiment in the settings/options for that sort of thing.

 

[DonMills]

Thank you EJMichaels. I appreciate your input and suggestions.

Don