SlimBrowser 11.0.1.0

Overview

When it comes to web browsers the competition is tough. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are the most popular web browsers; however there are many other browsers that you don’t know about, and SlimBrowser is one of them. It focuses mainly on browsing and downloading speed, but keeps it low on system resources consumption. It has various features implemented, like an Automatic Form Filler, Facebook integration, web page and text translation tool as well as an ad-blocker.

Installation

You won’t find anything unusual in this installation. It is very straightforward and fast. At some point you will be asked whether you want to install additional languages for the program. After installation finishes you will be prompted to set SlimBrowser as your main browser. The software contains no malware so it is 100% safe to use it (av report).

The operating systems it can run on are Windows XP, Vista, 2003, 2008, 2012, 7 and 8.

Interface

First-time users will be presented with a message giving you the chance to import bookmarks from other web browsers.

The browser itself is not much different from any other browser; it has the menu bar, toolbar, bookmarks and the address bar at the top, along with a search box. All of them can be customized and re-positioned, since the program is highly customizable. There is also support for multiple tabs, a must-have feature in modern browsers. The rest of the window is for showing the web contents.

Pros

By default it has many favorites in the favorites toolbar (e.g. shop on e-bay or amazon, Google Search, SlimBrowser Homepage). Next to the address bar, apart from the casual buttons any other browser has (Back, Forward, Refresh, Home etc.) you can see a Facebook button, which gives you the ability to share instantly any web page (or part of it).

The AutoFill feature will help you save time filling forms that are required by online services. You can save the forms you’ve filled in and access them later by using a master password you’ve set.

The download manager that is implemented in SlimBrowser is one of its unique and most useful features. It gives you the ability to download files faster than normal by establishing multiple connections to the server you are downloading from. If you are downloading from a server that requires login, you can enter the credentials in the download manager and let it do the rest of the work.

What would a web browser be without an ad-blocker? This tool of course comes with its own built-in block list, which you can edit anytime.

If you come across a web page with a foreign language, you can translate it easily with the web translation feature which uses Google Translate. You can also change the translation settings in a way that better suit your needs.

Cons

The ad-block list is not updated automatically. You have to manually add any ads you see that are not included in the list.

Alternatives

Midori (free) is a lightweight web browser designed to be simple and user friendly, which uses the WebKit rendering engine and the GTK+ 2 interface. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux users. Maxthon (free) is another browser, and although it’s not as known it has many great features (such as a pop-out function for multimedia content) that not only computer users will enjoy, but tablet and pod users too.

Conclusion

Very good web browser that will keep you satisfied, especially if you don’t want to be too “mainstream”. FlashPeak did a really nice job on this software and it’s not a bad idea to give it a try.