Review: Avant Browser

Published Tuesday, July 06, 2004 3:23 PM

I was pointed towards Avant Browser earlier via a Blog Post and I must have to admit that I've pretty much fell in love with this.

Avant Browser, is in my own opinion, Internet Explorer on steroids. This very popular browser package incorporates Internet Explorer without a hitch, but adds an array of useful items. Such items include:

  • Flash Animation Filters
  • Built-in Popup-up stopper
  • Additional Mouse Functions
  • Multi-Window Browsing
  • Real Full Screen Mode / Alternative Desktop mode
  • Built in Yahoo/Google searching
  • Full IE compatibility
  • Skins

Okay, okay, so some of these are no brainers and can be easily used with the current Internet Explorer, or are already built in with FireFox / Mozilla, Opera, the one item that stands out to me is the Multi-Window Browsing. This takes surfing the internet to a MDI level (Yes, I know Opera can do this too). However, I'm a IE fanatic, and the huge differences between the alternative browsers listed above is in how things are presented to me.

At the time of this writing, Avant Browser is at version 9.02, Build 033, and it is stable as heck. The UI is a bit hard to get used to at first, but with the tool tips and customized skins, it makes it easy to get that IE feeling. With the price that cannot be overlooked (free!), Avant Browser is definately a must look for all.

by mhawley
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Comments

# AndrewSeven said on Tuesday, July 06, 2004 6:53 PM

Flash Animation Filters :D

# Sherrod Segraves said on Tuesday, July 06, 2004 6:56 PM

Avant Browser's Flash filter is great when visiting sites like Anandtech or Tom's Hardware.

On the other hand, I hate MDI mode, so I limit my use of Avant to sites that overuse Flash.

# Matt Hawley said on Tuesday, July 06, 2004 6:58 PM

I don't know how you could hate MDI mode, I love it because sometimes I have more IE windows open that can be displayed on the taskbar. Now, I only have 1 and can be used in Avant, wahoo!

# Søren Lund said on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 5:48 AM

If you like Avant you should definitely try out MyIE2 www.myie2.com. It has all the stuff you mention and then some. I instantly fell in love with this browser and haven't been using anything else since I discovered it a few years back.

# Chris J. Breisch said on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 11:40 AM

As Soren mentioned, I'm curious how Avant compares with MyIE2. That's my personal favorite. Also free, btw.

# Søren Lund said on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 4:56 PM

I gave Avant a spin after reading this post and while it did have some things going for it (sleek look, good performance) I did find some things which I think MyIE2 does better: You can search from the Googlebar by pressing ENTER (can't in Avant), IE plugis don't work at least I didn't figure out how to make them, and there was some other weirdness which I have forgotten at this point :)

# David said on Thursday, July 08, 2004 5:27 AM

It doesn't do GoogleBar! :(

# Matt Hawley said on Thursday, July 08, 2004 10:18 AM

Yeah it does, David. It also has a built in search bar, too, that you can configure to go to different search engines.