Fast browser for older PCs. Which browser to choose for Windows

Hello everyone It seemed to me that I was well versed in hardware and software. Well, maybe it’s not that great, but it’s enough to advise you on how to solve this or that problem related to software or hardware. Well, that's it. But if six months ago someone asked me what the fastest browser in the world is, I would have answered Mozilla. And I would be right, because if you don’t delve into the topic of browsers, then it seems like exactly how Mozilla loads a website page the fastest.

But I was wrong... And it all happened when I bought a board with a soldered connection for cheap. Atom processor 330 - small and remote. It has two cores, but there is Hyper-threading technology, that is, there are threads, resulting in 4 threads, and in Windows this is shown as 4 cores. Well, I thought, this is great, but I was a little upset when I realized that the performance was certainly not enough. Well, what should you expect from a mobile processor?

Well, that's it. I started thinking about how I could make the pages load faster in the browser. And then I installed Mozilla, but alas, it was too heavy for the Atom processor. Well then I installed Chrome. And fortunately there was enough memory (4 gigs), then Chrome worked somehow. I loaded even heavy sites, even if I had to wait a little. But I thought again, is it possible to find some kind of browser that will be like a rocket. And you won't believe it, I found it, it's called Pale Moon!

Pale Moon is a browser developed on the basis of Mozilla, which is somehow very cleverly optimized for both regular processors, and under Atoms. I installed it and I was shocked - many pages actually loaded much faster, the interface is nice, it doesn’t load anything and it eats up a little RAM.

There is a version for both 32-bit Windows and 64. Both XP and Windows 10 are supported. You can download from the official website, or write in the Pale Moon search engine and the official website should be in the first position:

There you download the version for your Windows. It installs without any glitches, during installation it is not suggested to install either Yandex software or Mail software, this is already good

When you first launch it, you will be prompted to import settings from some other browser:

The last point here is to give up imports.

Also during installation you will be asked to leave home page Pale Moon or import it from the browser Internet Explorer:

Well, that’s it, then the browser will install and you can try what kind of Pale Moon browser it is. It seems to be translated as Pale Moon.. But I could be wrong

So, after launching the browser, you will have an unpleasant jamb. Well, maybe it doesn’t matter to some, but there is no Russian language in the browser. But don’t worry, I’ll show you how to implement it there!

This is what Pale Moon looks like:

As you can see, in a word, it looks good and comfortable

Let me tell you right away that all these unnecessary buttons, the search bar (well, the one on the side of the address bar), all these bookmarks - all this can be removed and you can customize the browser for yourself.

Now about the Russian language. Let's go to this site:

palemoon.org/langpacks.shtml

Then down there we look for something like ru.xpi - this is the Russian language for the browser, look, here it is:

Click on ru.xpi and there will be a window like this, then click Install Now:

Then you should see the following message, saying that the language is installed normally and there are no jambs:

Almost everything, now all that remains is to activate the Russian language. See how to do it, first go to this address:

In the next message, click the I promise to be careful button:

Now look what you are doing, paste this:

general.useragent.locale

In the Search field and press enter:

There you should see the line general.useragent.locale, this line is a parameter that specifies the browser language. Here it now says en-US, but we need to change it to Russian! To do this, double-click on this line, the following window will appear:

And here you change en-US to ru-RU so that it becomes like this:

Click OK in this window and that’s it, now you can press F5 for the test, if it says that there are dragons here, then you did everything correctly:

Now, for the browser to be completely in Russian, you need to close it and start it, that is, restart it

Well, that’s it, so I opened the menu and everything is in Russian:

So there is nothing complicated here. Well, without leaving the checkout, I will also show you how to install a Russian spelling dictionary in Pale Moon!

To be honest, I either don’t remember or there is simply no setting where you can add a dictionary. Therefore, I propose to do this: open any page where there is a text field, for example, I opened the Yandex search engine. And right-click on text field and check the Spell Check box:

After that, right-click again and there will already be a Languages menu, and inside it the Add dictionaries item:

Then a tab will open, by the way Mozilla, and there you need to find Russian and click on Install dictionary. I immediately advise you to hold down Ctrl + F and enter Russian into the search, so you will find it faster:

I advise you to install the larger dictionary. Well there probably more words, which means better check, well, in general, I chose the larger one..

Then you will need to click on Add to Firefox:

And then there will be a message saying there are no jambs, everything is installed fine:

After this, you will need to check the Spell Check box again, and then Russian will be selected automatically:

Well, you see how it all turned out. I wanted to tell you about Pale Moon, but in the end I told you how to put the Russian language into it and how to add a Russian dictionary for spell checking. Well, how could it be otherwise, this is the first thing you need to do to make the browser more or less comfortable to use.

By the way, here is the settings window (you can get to it by clicking on the Pale Moon menu button in the left top corner and select the item there):

That is, you see it as if it were Mozilla, but not quite modern. That's right. Pale Moon is not made on the latest version, but, so to speak, on the one that is still modern. In general, it supports everything, YouTube and all sites, flash and video, in general, everything works there. It’s just that the version of Mozilla, as a base, is not the most recent, but simply fresh.

I don’t know whether you’ll like this browser or not, but actually I don’t see strong reasons, for which he may NOT like it. Here are the advantages I see in it:

Well, it looks like I wrote everything I had to! I strongly advise you to try this browser and understand that I’m not making it up, it’s really very fast and even somewhat reminiscent of Opera 12. And this, well, I’ve never seen such a browser, for me, this is the best that can be from browsers Today.

This article will talk about the best browsers that we can recommend for use on a weak computer. In principle, any modern web browser is suitable for these purposes, even voracious ones RAM Chrome and its clones on the Chromium platform. You just don’t need to install a lot of extensions and create a huge number of active tabs. But if we talk about products specially optimized for old or weak devices, then it’s better to take a closer look at Mozilla Firefox or to a browser based on his old Gecko engine - Pale Moon. But which of the two is still better for survival? Let's compare them: how they are optimized, and which one performs better in tests on BrowserBench.org.

Which browser is better for weak computers?

Modern Mozilla Firefox or a project based on its old one Pale engine Moon.

Mozilla Firefox for survival

In November 2018, Mozilla Firefox celebrates the anniversary of its existence in a new format - on the Quantum engine, which evolutionarily replaced the outdated Gecko engine, and with a new modern interface Photon.

The Quantum engine, among other things, was also announced as a solution for weak computers. Modern Firefox can work with several processor cores and is designed to save RAM. As its creators assure, the browser consumes 30% less memory than Chrome. Plus, Firefox can be further optimized by the users themselves. You can configure the number of its content processes optimally for your memory size, refuse interface animation, disable unused plugins, block video autoplay, and also use other features in hidden settings"about:config".

Pale Moon for survival

Pale Moon is essentially frozen in time. old Firefox, when he was still working on the Gecko engine. And how many knew him in the 2000s. and a little later, until the 29th version, released in 2014 and bringing new interface Australis, the predecessor of the modern Photon. Pale Moon is a browser fork from Mozilla Firefox 28 with an unchanged interface from the 2000s, but it is a living, enthusiast-supported, periodically updated product.

Moreover, this is a browser with its own content - its own themes, extensions, plugins. And even with its own user data synchronization service. Pale Moon is specially optimized for performance on weak computers by removing functions rarely used in Firefox and minimizing the use of RAM. Well, being a modified clone of the old Ognelis, like himself, “Pale Moon” can be further optimized for the specific interests of users in the hidden “about:config” settings.

Battle on BrowserBench.org

To compare these two browsers, we'll use BrowserBench.org, a web service designed to test browsers on various aspects of their performance. And for testing, as a basis for the work of web browsers, we will take a reduced hardware capacity virtual machine– with two processor cores of the old 2nd generation Intel Core I5, with only 2 GB of RAM, located on HDD drive. operating system Windows 7 Embedded is installed on the machine. Both Firefox and Pale Moon will be tested under the same conditions - with the same number of background Windows processes, in their pure form without extra tabs and installed extensions.

MotionMark

The MotionMark test measures the performance of browsers when processing graphics and web animation. Based on the test results, points are awarded, the more points there are, the correspondingly better browser copes with this particular task. And according to the results of this test, Pale Moon won by a significant margin. It received a score of 81.11, while Firefox only scored 59.78. “Pale Moon” was 26% more productive in terms of graphics processing.

JetStream

The JetStream test is designed to determine the performance of web browsers when processing Java content. The principle of summing up is the same as that of MotionMark - the more points scored, the better the web browser coped with the task. And here the victory is again for Pale Moon, albeit with only a 10% advantage. It scored 108.75 compared to Firefox's 97.582.

Speedometer

Speedometer is a test for clumsy performance; it measures the number of operations per minute. It works on the principle of simulating user actions to open different sites (with different content loads) and launch the same different web applications. The results are summarized in the form of a recorded number of such operations per minute. The more there are, the formally the better. And here Pale Moon has already lost miserably to Firefox - 14 operations per minute versus 36.6. By 38%, modern Ognelis, designed to work with several processor cores (in our case, two), is more effective than Pale Moon, essentially its own self from the distant past.

Appetites for RAM

Which of these two browsers is more economical in terms of RAM consumption? With the same background Windows processes, with the same sites open in web browser tabs, if they are open in Firefox, the system consumes 65% of memory.

If they are open in Pale Moon - 59%, 6% less.

To sum it up...

So, in two BrowserBench.org tests, Pale Moon wins, and Firefox wins in one. Few users use the browser in endurance mode, mindlessly and with particular fussiness opening anything in its window. Plus, Pale Moon uses RAM more efficiently. The winner based on the results of all tests is obvious - Pale Moon.

You can download this browser on the official website of the project:

www.palemoon.org

It’s just that it initially comes with an English-language interface; Russification (or translation into another language) is carried out manually by the users themselves. To do this, in the Pale Moon window you need to go to the project website.

Let's take a closer look at the most popular browsers For personal computers and laptops running Windows in the world and in RuNet, in particular. We will try to evaluate them as objectively as possible. advantages And flaws for the user. The main and most important characteristics– speed of operation, ease of use, safety, functionality.

Before moving on to the review, let's turn to statistics, provided by leading web analytics companies.

The latest data on the share of users in the world at the beginning of 2017 was provided by the Net Applications agency. It is worth noting that these statistics have not undergone global changes for several years.

Several companies maintain statistics on Russian-language Internet users, including OpenStat, LiveInternet and HotLog.

As we see, confident leadership in RuNet and in the world beyond Google Chrome .

But these are just statistics. In order to fully experience the quality of the work of reviewers, it is worth trying them all in action, because everyone may have their own specific wishes and preferences.

Mozilla FireFox – free web surfing

If you prefer simple interface, with minimum extra buttons and tabs, then this browser is definitely worth trying. During the initial installation you will receive a minimum of functions, which for some is even better - easy to use.

You can expand the functionality using numerous plugins And extensions, of which there is simply a sea (more than 100 thousand at the moment).

Different high level security Your personal data and passwords. Easy to setting.

An important advantage is blocking pop-up windows and RSS support. Updates independently, without user intervention.

High rates of development allow the observer to successfully compete with the leaders of the ratings, but it is still slightly inferior in performance the next browser in our review.

Google - Internet at the speed of Chrome

Chrome offers the greatest speed of work. The functionality is very well thought out. Features a very convenient multilingual interface, which all other browsers are trying to copy with varying degrees of success.

Browser automatically blocks pop-ups in search bar You can enter both the site address and the search query.

Extremely convenient feature fast page translation. Supports operating mode by several users.

It's more than just a browser - it's a platform for web applications. Built-in Flash player, it is possible to view PDF And DOC files directly in the browser window. For some it may be useful function turning on the mode incognita to disable tracking of your online activity and recording of your Internet activity.

Lots of extensions, unfortunately, not all of them are of high enough quality, since many were created by third-party developers. Because of them, there may be a decrease in operating speed, so you should install only proven plugins and extensions.

From shortcomings can be noted quite high loading RAM when opening multiple tabs, as well as tracking your interests, location and displaying advertising based on this information.

However, in general, it is not for nothing that this reviewer occupies a leadership position in Russia and the world, so we can recommend it first of all.

Opera - convenient, safe, fast

The once most popular Internet browser in Russia is now losing more and more popularity every year. But its Mini version for smartphones is still used by the majority.

Among advantages should be noted comparatively fast work , will be very useful for low-power computers. The speed can be further increased by using the " Turbo».

Easy to configure, can install about a thousand extensions And plugins. Has a pleasant interface.

TO cons Considering the large amount of loaded RAM, some sites may not be displayed entirely correctly.

Yandex Browser - fast with turbo mode

IN lately The Russian-made columnist is increasingly gaining popularity. True, the same engine is taken as a basis Chromium, and therefore the interface is similar to Chrome, but it must be admitted that it is a little more adapted for Runet.

Among the differences, we note the unusual animated background Internet Explorer, which improves perception. Interface simplified to a minimum. A variety of panels take up less space, resulting in a 20% increase in site visibility. Services integrated Yandex disk, mail, online translator and other specialized ones.

For some, the simplified interface may be a disadvantage; it will take time to get used to it. If you do not connect to various Yandex services, the browser will work limitedly.

Tor Browser Bundle – incognito mode

Not represented in the rating, which is no wonder - the browser is intended for users who want hide your data, spies trying to work on the network in incognita.

Basically it's Thor modified Mozilla FireFox, with a similar interface and functionality. But with its use you can hide your IP address, location and other personal data.

However, the cost of protecting your information will be significant. decreased productivity. That is, pages will open slowly, since traffic will be redirected through servers in many countries. You will constantly have to enter a captcha in a search engine in order to be checked to see if you are a robot.

If you care about privacy online – we recommend trying Tor Browser.

Internet Explorer - always at hand

Explorer is the grandfather of all modern browsers. Now he has already lost his position significantly. In all respects - security, speed, convenience, it is quite weak.

However, in the last Internet versions Explorer 11 tried to get closer to the leading browsers and level out a number of shortcomings.

However cons its use is still too many, because few users give it their preference.

Microsoft Edge– new fromMicrosoft

Microsoft does not give up and in 2015 creates a browser that is rapidly increasing the number of its fans. It replaced Internet Explorer in Windows 10.

Increased number of supported extensions, operating speed increased thanks to the use of the new EdgeHTML engine. Fully integrated in Windows 10, it cannot be used in other versions. We also worked on security.

From shortcomings– some sites may not display correctly, the menu is not functional enough, and it is difficult to customize for specific tasks.

Which browser is best to use in survival mode on a weak computer? In principle, any modern web browser is suitable for these purposes, even memory-hungry Chrome and its clones on the Chromium platform. You just don’t need to install a lot of extensions and create a huge number of active tabs. But if we talk about products specially optimized for old or weak devices, then it is better to take a closer look at Mozilla Firefox or . But which of the two is still better for survival? Let's compare them: how they are optimized, and which one performs better in tests on BrowserBench.org.

1. Mozilla Firefox for survival

In November 2018, Mozilla Firefox celebrates the anniversary of its existence in a new format - which evolutionarily replaced the outdated Gecko engine, and with a new modern Photon interface.

The Quantum engine, among other things, was also announced as a solution for weak computers. Modern Firefox can work with multiple processor cores and is designed to save RAM. As its creators assure, the browser consumes 30% less memory than Chrome. Plus, Firefox can be further optimized by the users themselves. You can configure the number of its content processes optimally for your memory size, refuse interface animation, disable unused plugins, block video autoplay, and also use other features in the hidden “about:config” settings.

2. Pale Moon for survival

Pale Moon is essentially the old Firefox frozen in time, when it still ran on the Gecko engine. And how many knew him in the 2000s. and a little later, until the 29th version, released in 2014 and introducing a new Australis interface, the predecessor of the modern Photon. Pale Moon is a browser fork from Mozilla Firefox 28 with an unchanged interface from the 2000s, but it is a living, enthusiast-supported, periodically updated product.

3. Battle on BrowserBench.org

To compare these two browsers, we'll use BrowserBench.org, a web service designed to test browsers on various aspects of their performance. And for testing, as a basis for the operation of web browsers, we will take a virtual machine reduced in hardware capacity - with two processor cores of the old 2nd Intel generation Core I5, with only 2 GB of RAM, located on the HDD. The operating system on the machine is Windows 7 Embedded. Both Firefox and Pale Moon will be tested under the same conditions - with the same number of background Windows processes, in their pure form without extra tabs and installed extensions.

MotionMark

The MotionMark test measures the performance of browsers when processing graphics and web animation. Based on the test results, points are awarded; the more points there are, the better the browser copes with this particular task. And according to the results of this test, Pale Moon won by a significant margin. It received a score of 81.11, while Firefox only scored 59.78. “Pale Moon” was 26% more productive in terms of graphics processing.

JetStream

Speedometer

4. Appetites for RAM

Which of these two browsers is more economical in terms of RAM consumption? With the same background processes Windows, with the same sites open in web browser tabs, if they are open in Firefox, the system consumes 65% of memory.

If they are open in Pale Moon - 59%, 6% less.

5. To sum it up...

You can download this browser on the official website of the project:

Greetings, friends. A couple of days ago, one of my friends asked me for advice: what browser best bet on old PC? The question drove me into a dead end; somehow I had never thought about such things. And since my friend is still waiting for advice from me, I decided to delve deeper into this topic and formulate my answer.

Browser, or web browser - application software to view web pages, web document content, computer files and their catalogs; web application management; as well as for solving other problems.

Let's start with the most common browsers. The point is that Google Chrome, Opera And Mozilla Firefox refused support Windows XP And Vista. That is, latest versions You won’t even be able to install these browsers on outdated laptops and PCs. And even if it does work, older PCs don’t have enough RAM to normal operation these browsers. Option using older versions - no best solution. Web standards do not stand still, which means that using older versions of browsers we will see a distorted display of modern websites. Or we won’t see it at all individual elements Internet pages.

However, there is still a choice. Today I will tell you about four modern browsers, which will work perfectly on old PCs and laptops, successfully coping with all standard tasks.

K-Meleon

K-Meleon has been around for over ten years. This Mozilla browser, which includes Firefox's Gecko engine. Design user interface The browser is very similar to that of regular Firefox. Like Firefox, K-Meleon has extensive options for customizing the toolbar, menu, and hotkeys.

Although you won't be able to add Firefox extensions to K-Meleon, the browser still has plenty of handy plugins.

K-Meleon is also the most fast browser, which is capable of running even on Windows 95, not to mention XP, Vista and other operating systems.

Of the minuses: K-Meleon is updated very rarely. Latest at the time of creation of this article stable version browser – 75.1, released in 2015. There is Russian localization.

Download K-Meleon from the official website. Pay attention to the heading “Latest Stable Release” - select one of the versions: Download installer, which requires installation, or portable, which does not require installation.

Midori

The creators of Midori designed the browser as an alternative to more bloated software products. While other browsers are constantly increasing in size, Midori remains minimalistic - the browser “weighs” only 37.7 megabytes. And since older PCs usually do not have roomy hard drive, this factor can be key when choosing a browser.

Despite its small size, Midori works perfectly with all the latest web technologies, including HTML 5 and CSS 3.

Midori was developed based on the webkit engine, which places it in the same family as Chrome. The browser does not have an extension repository, but it does have several settings available that you can use to tailor Midori to your needs.

Midori has both installation version, and portable, which can be used without installation on a PC, for example from a flash drive or CD/DVD disk.

Download Midori from the official website. Select one of the versions: installer, which requires installation, or portable, which does not require installation.

Pale Moon

Pale Moon – This browser is a fork from source code Firefox. Essentially, it's a stripped-down version of Firefox that runs on Windows XP and Vista. Pale Moon requires only 256 megabytes free memory and it is optimized for modern processors. This browser effectively uses system resources, which allows it to work on old PCs and laptops with enviable speed.

Pale Moon has a very similar look to the old ones Firefox versions interface design. Many extensions that are available for Firefox will be compatible with Pale Moon. In addition, this browser has its own exclusive add-ons. The browser also allows you to customize many settings for tabs, page content, etc., just like Firefox.

Update article from 12/21/2018. As one of my blog readers correctly noted, after a recent update, the Pale Moon browser has become more demanding on computer resources. Now the system requirements are:
— Windows 7/8/10/Server 2008 R2 or later;
— 1 GB of RAM;
— at least 200 MB of free disk space.

Download Pale Moon from the official website. Hover over the “Download” menu, then “Pale Moon” and select one of the available versions browser.

Maxthon 5

The fourth and last browser for today that I want to show you is Maxthon 5. This is promising software that continues to actively develop. System Requirements browsers are very modest: a 1 GHz processor, 512 megabytes of RAM and 64 megabytes of hard disk space.