Tuesday, October 05, 2004

The main problem with Internet Explorer is its own success. It is used on more than 90 percent of all computers, which has made it and its codes, especially a feature called ActiveX, irresistible targets for virus writers. Microsoft's Outlook has the same problem, for the same reason. Two months ago, Microsoft released an extensive security upgrade called Service Pack 2, which contains many other improvements, is free and is definitely worth installing on any computer running WindowsXP. But it does not apply to older versions of Windows or the versions of IE they include.

There are many other browsers, including the popular Opera. Two I use every day are Firefox, from Mozilla, and iRider, from Wymea Bay, a small start-up in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Firefox is an open-source program - noncopyrighted and free from www.mozilla.org - created by a nonprofit foundation descended from Microsoft's old rival, Netscape. The browser doesn't look much different from IE, but it has many operational improvements - the most noticeable being better built-in protection against pop-up ads, and a tabbed browsing system that lets you easily keep several Web pages open at once.

IRider (www.irider.com), which costs $29, looks nothing like any other browser. It displays graphic thumbnails of all open pages down the side of the screen, making it easy to jump to the one you want, and it has many other unique ergonomic touches. When you open a page, for example, it can automatically begin opening all linked pages in the background, so they come up quickly if you select them. IRider takes some getting used to, but it has real advantages - and an excellent tutorial. I also keep using IE, meanwhile, because parts of the Internet are coded to accept nothing else. The handy Google toolbar, for example, works only with IE.