Would this be a good 'mode' to use when using a computer in, say, a public library and you want to check your webmail ? I've only been into a few (5 or so) libraries and/or cyber cafes, and none had FF and they looked at me all screwy eyed when I suggested they maybe consider getting it. I guess those folks just don't make a habit of thinking outside of the bun. Sue

I use Opera primarily and yes it does have a spell check built in from version 10 on. Aspell was fully compatible and worked fine in previous versions so Opera has had a spell check for, well I think I've used a spell check in it for nearly a decade now. It's an excellent spell check too at least for my use. So I primarily use Opera, and often use K-meleon and then comes Firefox. Never have tried Safari or Chrome but really no need to since I like these so much. Opera is the standard of comparison for great browsers. It's fast, well-equipped with features, including a mail client if you need it. It is the most customizable I've used. I like maximum screen space so I customize the toolbars to just be one, and be smaller so I see more of what I want to look at. And it's only about 6mb download for the whole browser! Updates on the Internet Elephant are sometimes 5 times that! K-meleon is based on the old Netscape Gecko engine and is extremely fast. It doesn't have the features of Opera but I like it for checking webmail. Also I have Opera set to kill off a lot of ads and occasionally I need to see something so I'll just open it in K-meleon or Firefox. Firefox is an interesting browser. It's open source and has many varieties. They use extensions, now called "add-ons" to add features. Many are gimmicks. But so many things like paste & go should be built into the browser and I don't like having to constantly update Firefox. Every week there's probably 3-5 updates to be downloaded. Not a major problem, but still a nuisance. But I do like the weather extensions for Firefox and a couple others. But it's much slower than Opera or K-meleon, although light years ahead of the Elephant. The best thing is to try out several. Give them a fair chance, at least a few weeks and do some research on tips and the like so you use it more fully. It took a long time to get used to all the advantages of Opera and I only use the Elephant now for Windows Update. Like I said you might find you like one for one purpose and another for another purpose. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you need a stove and sometimes you need a refrigerator!

I honestly have not used IE in so long I am not familiar with it's settings and I am not home now so I can't get to my computer to see. I use Firefox on my desktop computer and it works great for me. If you have Firefox try it out, you may need to update it. Any time you want to open something in a new tab you can right click on it and choose open in new tab. You can also set up the sites that you go to regularly on the bookmarks toolbar and then you have a one click solution to get to any of them. To put sites on the bookmarks toolbar just grab the url address bar of the site and drag the url down onto the bookmarks toolbar and it will create a new spot for it. If your Firefox is not showing the bookmarks toolbar right click way up at the top of the browser and it should open up the options and make sure there's a check mark in front of bookmarks toolbar option. I wish I could help you with IE but I am in the RV down by the river. Lol Here is a link that might be useful: Bookmarks toolbar

First of all let's clear this up. Opera works fine with Vista. I've had Opera on my Vista machine since I got it and use Opera on every one of my computers. I know a lot of people using Opera on Vista. Any claim that it won't work on Vista is pure malarkey. If you're having trouble, you have other issues, but don't make the best browser in the world the scapegoat. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, (maybe millions?) of people are using Opera with Vista, and very happily. One of my favorite features is the X & Z keys for forward and back, rather than the combination of keys or using the mouse. I have the menu button and customized toolbar so I get maximum screen space. It's such a fast browser. In fairness, there's some pages out there written poorly so they don't always appear quite right in Opera, but Opera has adjusted. Then of course there's the sites, like the big one whose name shall not be said, who "borks" the sites. While yes, Opera is "different" from the Internet Elephant, Firefox, K-meleon, Netscape, Safari and other browsers are also "different" from the Internet Elephant. And what's more, they're different from each other. Ford is different from Chev, and they're both different than BMW, but that doesn't mean they're not all very similar in operation. Don't be afraid to try something "different". How does my computer know which one I want to open my sites with? The computer (and you have input) sets a key on a "default" program to use to open certain file types. For instance it may set Adobe Reader to Open .PDF files. And you might set a different media player to open .WAV files. These are easily changed if you like. If I download Opera and like it, how do I go back and forth between it and FF? If you have them open at the same time, simply use ALT+TAB or click on the taskbar to switch programs. Otherwise, you might have it automatically open in the browser of your choice or open up the program like you open any other. I would suggest using shortcuts in Quicklaunch for fast access rather than tie up your desktop or start menu. How would I go back to FF and uncheck to not make it the default browser? There's a setting in each of the browsers in Options for them to check each time to see if they're the default browser. You can just disable that option. ALSO, if I uncheck that box, does it list the other browsers so I can pick the one I want to make default? Not in the browser itself, but if you do a shift+right click and bring up "Open With", you can choose any program to open the selected file. I heartily recommend you give Opera a try. But give it a month or two so you get used to it. Do a search for "Opera Tips" and get a feel for some of the special features. You can customize it a lot or a little. It's far superior to Firefox in that Firefox requires the addition of so many add-ons to make it reasonably functional and all of the features are already in Opera. Not saying Firefox is bad, but it's really essentially an Opera Wannabe. However there are a lot of cool add-ons that can make Firefox unique too. I often run 3 browsers at the same time. One for surfing, one for monitoring a webmail account and sometimes the third if there's an issue with the others. Oh, and yes, there is one issue I have with Opera. I can't pay my phone bill using it. I have problems with Firefox too. But K-meleon works fine. I don't remember the last time I had to open the Internet Elephant. Another advantage of Opera: The elephant requires patches all the time. All browsers do. But the whole new Opera install is less than 6mb where IE's patches are often 3 times that. Makes a big difference if you're on dialup.