Just a quick one . Used to use Firefox and then Google Chrome was recommended to me, but chrome has become so slow these days ans now im looking at OPERA. Any good or are there better out there.
Cheers in advance.

I'm no computer geek but I'd guess that its not Chrome thats become slower but your computer and its background information processing when running Chrome.

Much depends on your OS and the state of your PC, especially how clogged your Registry has become. Easily the best thing you can do is do a clean reinstall of your OS, and then your PC will fly for a bit. Although of course you will need to reinstall every program which is why it's not a popular course.

Chrome remains, across the board, the least bad browser but within the total votes, there are many people who get much better performance from other browsers - for whatever reason. I use Chrome and Firefox. I would say both have got much worse performance-wise as they have bloated the code, and some upgrades have been truly shocking.

Have a look [url=http://internet-browser-review.toptenreviews.com/here[/url for a comparison of user ratings. Of course - which users, and what do/did they know is another good question but still.

The advertising blurb claims that [url=http://www.slimbrowser.net/en/what-is-the-fastest-web-browser.phpSlimBrowser[/url is the fastest for Windows 7 and XP but I haven't tried it. And it isn't the only new browser to make such claims, they regularly crop up eg SecretBrowser.

With Chrome, you might try something I do if my Chrome slows down or freezes, run Task manager and close down that Chrome process (there will be several) which seems to be hogging the CPU the most. Sometimes this will close your browser down but sometimes it will clear the blockage and you can get on at normal speed.

I used to use Opera years ago but have not done for ages. It had lots of features and could be complicated and also wasn't as compatible with some web sites as other browsers though I would hope that has changed by now.

I stick to Firefox and Chrome these days but neither seem as good as they were speed-wise. I quite often see the Adobe Flash player plug-in crash on Firefox and the browser grinds to a halt while it dies. This tends to be on one particular machine IIRC so maybe there is some conflict I can't spot somewhere. I prefer the simple user interface of Chrome and the automatic translation can be handy. Can't stand IE but still have to use it occasionally given certain sites I need to access use Microsoft proprietary features.

I know it's not 'trendy' but I use IE. I also use Safari but less regularly - more as a test browser. I've found Firefox to be troublesome and not a fan of Google Chrome.

With IE, most of the problems people have is add-ons and toolbars that need to be uninstalled and disabled.

Check you haven't inadvertently installed anything power hungry. Also check with your ISP that they're aren't undertaking any maintenance in your area. We had a BT man in the exchange outside our office for about a week and it slowed our internet down to a crawl to the point where pages were failing to load.

Not strictly about web browsers but since FA brought up re-installing the OS, would people recommend doing this if the PC is running slowly/slower? And is it a relatively straight forward process? I'm not a complete dullard when it comes to computers but neither am I anywhere close to an expert!

pcsupport.about.com/od/operating ... part-1.htm

pcsupport.about.com/od/operating ... part-1.htm

thanks all .no way could i do anything FA suggests as im totally useless with comps.
i ll just plod on and continue using chrome.

Mods can lock this if they want.
Cheers

IE on touch devices is absolutely brilliant.

On none touch devices all the browsers are pretty terrible. Firefox is okay, but still has too many compatibility issues and crashes an awful lot. Chrome isn't the nice, amazingly fast browser they show on the adverts either. Obviously a lot depends on how fast your PC and internet connection are.

I use Chrome, still find it the best

Best thing to do is clear you Cache out every so often, can do it through the Tools/Options etc or i use CCCleaner (download it off Filehippo or similar)

It's pretty straight forward as long as you have backed up all your files, email files, settings that you want to keep once you have reinstalled. The other thing you need to back up or download before you start is the drivers for your hardware otherwise you could end up stuck.

If you have bought a branded computer, you will more than likely have to reinstall with a branded operating system which will no doubt contain a load of pointless programs which often run in the background using up valuable memory and processor power and would be better to uninstall these.