Introduction

The basic premise of Rainmeter is that once you install it, it would enable you to load a variety of different skins that can serve a number of different functions. For example, some skins add a widget-like feature to your desktop such as a clock, a Google search bar,  or a weather forecast window to name a few. However, there are also more complicated and sophisticated skins such as ones that serve as some sort of a Control Panel allowing you to quickly access different elements of your system such as the Computer, your media players, different sites (Google, Youtube, Facebook, etc.). The variety of the different skins is immense and it would take you quite a while to try the different types. Also, since the program is fully open source, the majority of skins are actually created by users themselves. There are a couple of sites on the Internet from which you can download and install new skins for your Rainmeter. One such website is DeviantArt, from which we downloaded most of the skins for this review. Also, on this site you can get dynamic wallpapers for the Dreamscene tool.

How to use Rainmeter

As we already mentioned, it is very easy to use Rainmeter, yet, your experience with it would be much more pleasant if you have some technical knowledge so that you would be able to modify and customize the different skins as not all of them have user-friendly interface (more on that later). The program itself is really simple to use. You download it from the official site, install it as you would with any other software and run it (from an icon added to your Taskbar). A window opens where you can see three tabs: Skins, Layout and Settings. The Skins tab is where you can see all your Skins and load the ones you like. Layout allows you to save different Skin configurations ad directly load them instead of seeking the same skins and settings again. The Settings tab offers some basic options for Rainmeter. If you want to load a Skin, simply find the one you want from the Skins tab, click on it and then select Load.

Skins

Rainmeter is all about its skins. The program itself doesn’t do much apart from allowing you to load them. However, your true experience will depend on how good the skin is. Some skins you will find more pleasing or better programmed than others as most of them are created by other users and it is perfectly normal if some of them aren’t as polished as you might want them to be. That said, there are truly some amazing and highly imaginative creations out there that can turn your Desktop into a piece of art. Here is a link to DeviantArt’s Rainmeter Skin section – feel free to explore and see what fits your preferences.

One thing to note here is that Skins are saved in .ini format – this file format can be opened via any text editor. Once you open a skin file with, for example, notepad (the default tool for opening skins), you will see its code inside. This is where being tech-savvy could help you because as skins are all open source, everyone is free to edit them however they like. You can change variables and values in order to customize the skin and make it the way you want it to be. Some of the more user-friendly skins have some sort of interface that allows the user to easily change their settings/variables without the need to access the code but this isn’t always the case. The codes for the skins are not overly complicated so it is possible for customers that do not otherwise have programming knowledge to still manage to successfully modify a skin as long as they take their time.

Managing Skins

After you download a skin, it is saved as a .rmskin file – you are supposed to run that file and click on install. Installing the skin will automatically add it to your Rainmeter library. As we already mentioned, in order to load it, all you have to do is click on it and then select Load. Later, most skins allow you to modify some of their settings by right-clicking on the skin on your desktop which opens a drop-down menu with several options. To unload a skin, right-click on it and select Unload.

Conclusion

Rainmeter is truly an interesting and entertaining tool that anyone can use. If you want to invigorate the outlook of your Desktop or add to it new and useful utilities and features, you should definitely try this program. It requires very low system resources and will run without a problem even if your PC isn’t all that powerful so if you are up for it, go ahead and give it a try.

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Introduction

The core concept of Slimjet is to allow the user to optimize the time they spent online – the program not only tries to offer great performance and speed when loading pages but it also integrates a number of features to speed-up the working process. Also, it packs a satisfying number of useful and unique built-in features that can greatly ease-up one’s browsing experience similarly to what the developers of the Maxthon browser (review of Maxthon) have achieved with their product.

Interface

Since Slimjet is based on Chromium, nothing about it should look unfamiliar or unknown. However, in our opinion the browser also somewhat resembles Opera with its rectangular tabs and with its new tab page which seems to work a lot like Opera’s Speed Dial (which is a good thing). On the new tab page, there is a search bar where you can choose which search engine to use (you can’t choose the search engine with Opera’s Speed Dial) and below are a number of tiles with different sites. The tiles are fully customizable as you can change their size, number, colors and, of course, the sites that they represent.

Apart from that, there is nothing unusual or unexpected about Slimjet’s interface – it is clean and initially doesn’t have a lot of toolbar buttons. This, however, can be easily changed as the toolbar is fully customizable as well and you can add many additional buttons to it so that you have quicker access to the browser’s other features.

Like with most modern browser, the address bar and the search bar are combined and the user can choose which search engine to use on the search/address box. This combining of the two boxes normally regarded as less privacy-oriented compared to having them separated, yet some users might find this to be more convenient.

Performance

Slimjet is a fast browser and it’s performance is quite good. We cannot say that it is the fastest as there are a lot of other competitors but it surely is a reliable program if speed is what you value most in browsers. However, it is not really a lightweight browser. In terms of resource consumption, it doesn’t eat too much ram or battery power but it isn’t the most economical either. That said, we have no complaints in terms of performance or speed as Slimjet really is a good and fast browser so if this is what you are looking for, you should probably give it a try.

Features

This is where the fun begins – Slimjet is actually surprisingly versatile when it comes to extra features and it also has a number of unique treats for its users that you don’t normally get by default with other browsers. Here is a quick summary of what this program can do.

• Google Extensions – Slimjet supports Google’s Web store and is compatible with most add-ons from it which means that you will have access to one of the richest extension libraries at your disposal even though you wouldn’t be using Chrome.
• Ad-blocker – built-in ad-blockers seem to be becoming more and more popular among browsers and Slimjet is no exception. Its ad-blocker will help you get rid of any pesky and intrusive adverts so that your online experience could remain undisturbed and uninterrupted.
• Facebook share button – a feature that allows you to quickly share anything on Facebook.
• Video downloader – with this you could download most youtube videos to your PC. To add to that, the downloader even has an integrated converter that allows the user to download and convert a song video into mp3 format.
• Screen capture – allows for taking quick images from your screen; similar to Window’s snipping tool.
• Screen record – an interesting feature that allows you to record video of what you do on your browser and later save the file to your PC. However, this seems to need some polishing as it doesn’t work perfectly. Still, an interesting and potentially useful utility.
• PDF reader and an option to save pages in PDF format
• Weather info button
• Mouse gestures – allows you to quickly execute different commands such as move back and forward between pages and opening new tabs by simply holding the right mouse button and drawing an arrow with the cursor – depending on the arrow’s shape and direction, a different command would be issued. This is similar, yet more advanced version of Opera’s mouse gestures as in Slimjet there are many more possible gestures and what they do can be customized from the browser’s settings. This is one of those features that truly has the potential of optimizing your browsing time and speeding up your online work as long as you learn to integrate it within your working process.
• Quick fill – an advanced password manager that enables you to quickly access all your online accounts – another utility to speed up your browsing.

There are a lot more features and utilities that this browser offers so we cannot fit everything in one article. The bottom line is that Slimjet really has a lot to offer both in terms of functionality, utility and customization options.

Security and Privacy

You can expect Slimjet to be as secure as most popular browsers the likes of Chrome, Opera and Firefox – there aren’t any known big flaws in that department – the ad-blocker also helps avoid potential security risks which is a nice addition. As far as privacy is concerned, the combined search and address bar as well as the integration of the Web Store might compromise certain aspects of your online privacy as is the case with many other browsers. If you are concerned with your web privacy, there are other browsing programs dedicated solely on ensuring that their users’ online activities stay private (two such browsers you can see reviewed here and here).

Conclusion

Slimjet isn’t a very well-known browser program since there are more popular options than it out there. However, it seems that the developers behind this program have really tried to implement different elements from different browsers in order to create a all around internet tool that offers high-quality performance, a lot of opportunity for customization, a big number of extra utilities and features as well as satisfying protection and security. Therefore, if you are looking for an alternative browser program that can suit the needs of a lot of different types of users, we recommend you try Slimjet.

The post Slimjet Browser Review – speed and utility appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

Currently, the web-browser trend focuses on initial minimalism with subsequent versatility and functionality available through a lot of customization options. Maxthon, on the other hand, is anything but minimalistic – when using it, one gets the feeling that they are working with the Swiss army knife equivalent for browser programs. A lot of features that you’d normally get on other browsers only by installing some add-on or extension will be available to you on Maxthon from the very moment you install it in the form of built-in tools. Another interesting thing about this browser is that it combines two separate engines: Trident which is also used by IE and Webkit utilized on Safari and Chrome. Looking at most other popular browsers, we can see a number of similarities but when we have a look at Maxthon, it becomes apparent that its developers have tried to implement a number of other, original ideas, making their product rather unique when compared to the rest.

Interface

As soon as you open Maxthon, you are bound to notice that things aren’t really the way that you would expect them. When I first started this browser, I did not get the familiar feeling that one would have after switching from Chrome to Firefox or from Firefox to Opera. While there’s nothing about Maxthon’s interface that is too complicated or too unfamiliar, there’s certainly a need for exploration until you can feel comfortable with this browser. The main reason for that is the big number of buttons available at the toolbar as well as their unusual orientation relative to the search/address bar. Speaking of the search/address bar, as you have already probably guessed it, Maxthon, similarly to other modern browsers combines the search and the URL box which, though convenient, is less privacy-friendly compared to the old school interface where the two boxes are separated (as they are on Firefox).

When talking about the way tabs are handled, there are things to be desired there as other browsers have better tab implementation. That said, one neat thing you can do on Maxthon is split the screen (by pressing F10) and have two tabs displayed on your screen, each taking half of the space. Also, there are a couple of tab-related options once you right-click on any of the tabs.

We won’t go into detail, explaining each and every button as one article would not be enough to do that. Exploration, as we said, is necessary so as to start using this browser to its full potential. However, once you are familiar with all the different tools available at your disposal, you will come to realize the full potential of this program. Also, the unusual outlook of the browser’s interface might actually feel pleasant to some users as it is not something that you see too often with browsers.

Performance

Even though on the program’s official site it is claimed that it is very fast and high-performing, Maxthon isn’t as fast as some other web-browsing programs out there. That said, it is certainly not a slow browser either. We would say that Maxthon performs well and loads pages quickly enough for the preferences of someone who doesn’t need a super fast browser. A nice addition to the performance aspect is the relatively low memory and battery consumption that one can have with this program. While it isn’t best in this department either, it certainly does quite well. Overall, in terms of performance, Maxthon might not be the best, yet considering that it isn’t exactly a lightweight browser, it offers a satisfying level of speed and performing capabilities.

Features

Now we are talking – this is where Maxthon shines the brightest as it really comes with a lot of features that most other browsers do not have by default. We will only mention the most interesting and innovative ones but there will surely be some that are going to be omitted.

• Extensions – even though this is a lesser known browser program, it still has a satisfying variety of extensions (about 700) available at its Extension Center.
• Nightmode – when enabled, it changes the brightness and color schemes of your screen when the browser is opened so as to make the screen less straining for your eyes.
• Resource Sniffer – this unique tool that isn’t available on most other browsing program allows the user to extract and download data from any page that contains audio, video or image contents. You can even download Youtube videos with the Resource sniffer. It doesn’t, however, work perfectly as audio files seem to remain undetected by it.
• Snap – this tool works similarly to Windows’ Snipping Tool as it allows you to capture images from your browser and later save them on your PC. There are even a couple of extra options for altering the captured image.
• Ad-blocker – similarly to Opera, Maxthon has a built-in ad-blocker which prevents the display of irritating adverts when you are surfing the web – a really neat feature.
• External tools – there is even a button on the toolbar which opens a menu that allows for quick access to a number of commonly used Windows tools such as the Calculator, Paint, Notepad, etc. (the user can add additional programs there).

Security and Privacy

In terms of security, the browser has a couple of nice traits such as the aforementioned ad-blocker as well as an URL checker and a sandboxing feature for pages’ codes. While it is certainly not the safest browser, it sure offers significant security levels to its users. As far as privacy is concerned, the combined search and address bar lowers the privacy levels on Maxthon and also, in the past there have been a couple of privacy-related issues such as browsing data getting sent to the servers of Maxthon. However, this is nothing surprising or unusual as this is a common practice with most popular browsers nowadays.

Conclusion

Maxthon is not the best browser on the market but it sure is a unique and interesting alternative to more popular options. The wide variety of features that it offers and its high versatility are sure to please a lot of users that value those traits. Others, of course, might be put off by the fact that a lot of it might seem unfamiliar and non-intuitive but for those customers, there are more than enough simpler and less overwhelming browser programs out there.

The post Maxthon Browser Review – a multi-functional browser tool appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

Google Chrome is a heavy-duty browser program that is famous for it’s wide array of different settings and customization options as well as for its versatility, speed and performance. It is considered by many to be the best browser there is and there’s certainly a lot of evidence to support such a claim. That said, however, users must bear in mind that Chrome is certainly not flawless which is the reason why many people still seem to go for other alternatives when it comes to choosing a web-browsing program. Regardless, there is no doubt that Google Chrome has been the most popular and most commonly used browser for quite some time and its constant evolution and improvement is what ensures that it remains on the top.

Interface

As you might expect from a modern browser, Chrome supports tabs and following the current trend among browsing programs, the Interface of Chrome is minimalistic and clean. Similarly to IE 11 and Edge, Chrome too has its search and address bars combined which is normally seen as useful, but one must bear in mind that it reduces the privacy that the browser provides as anything typed in the Omnibox (the address+search box) gets sent to the Google servers even if you haven’t hit Enter to issue the search.

Chrome’s new tab page is similar to that of Firefox as it has a search engine bar and tiles with recently visited sites. The customization of the new tab page isn’t anything amazing as there are browsers such as IE11 and Opera that offer much more in that department. Still, it can be useful and you can always change the new tab page to something else from the browser’s settings.

Chrome handles tabs well, however, there is something that we do not like about this browser’s tabs and it becomes apparent once the users has opened a lot of them. If you open many enough tabs in Chrome, you will no longer e able to tell them apart at the top of your screen as the only thing you will see from each tab would be a tiny triangle-like shape with no website icon or title. Firefox and Opera handle this aspect of tabs in a much better way as Firefox simply hides excess tabs leaving enough space for the visible ones and allows the user to access the hidden ones by clicking on an arrow, whereas Opera always shows the icon of the website on each tab regardless of how many are opened at once.

Performance

Chrome has pretty much always been one of the fastest browsers out there and still offers satisfying performance. However, it is no longer the fastest one as there are other, lighter browsing programs that outmatch Chrome in terms of speed. One other thing we should mention here when it comes to performance is that Chrome is one of the most demanding browsers. It is infamous for it’s high RAM consumption and if you are using it on your laptop that is working on a battery, you will also notice that the battery would get drained much faster than it would if you are using some other browser. Chrome might be a lot of things but being a lightweight browser isn’t one of them. To use it effectively, you’d better have a computer with enough RAM and, if you are a laptop user, a good, strong battery. Otherwise, there are other good web browsers out there that aren’t as power-hungry as Chrome is.

Customization

Chrome indeed has a lot to offer in terms of versatility and customization. Chrome’s web store offers a rich library of all sorts of extensions and add-ons to boost the functionality of your browser and the extensive settings that the program provides can help you modify it so that it suits your needs. However, when it comes to ways you can tweak your browser, there are other alternatives that have more to offer such as Opera and Vivaldi. That said, you can hardly find greater variety of of options for expanding your browser via add-ons, which might also be a problem in Chrome. There are many instances of not so desirable or not so safe extensions which could lead to a number of issues so one must always be careful what they are installing on Chrome. Also, a lot of add-ins require access to different aspects of your browser and oftentimes tend to collect personal data which is the reason why Google Chrome isn’t the most privacy-oriented web-browsing application.

Extra features

There are a lot of neat features that Chrome has to offer – it has a built-in Flash and also supports PDF so it can be effectively use as a reader so you might not even need to download and install a dedicated reader program. It should also be noted that the browser was one of the first to provide its own Task Manager (separate from the Task Manager of Windows) to help the user monitor the activity of the program.

On the other hand, Google Chrome lacks certain rather common features that other browsers posses such as reading mode or integrated social sharing which is no big deal but would still be useful to have it.

A positive trait of this browser is that is has a very good syncing and installing it and switching to it is very easy and happens in about a minute.

Security and privacy

In terms of security, Chrome is considered to be one of the more secure browsers – it receives frequent updates and has very high-level support. However, when it comes to privacy, many users and researchers frequently point out that Chrome isn’t concerned with the privacy of its customers and oftentimes violates the user’s personal space. Web-site tracking, collecting of information, extensions that require way too many permissions, etc. This has lead to a lot of people leaving Chrome for more privacy-oriented alternatives and there indeed are a lot of other good browsing programs that allow for a much more private web experience.

Conclusion

Google Chrome is still one of the best browsers out there and is a solid tool for exploring the internet and helping with your work. You will hardly find anything that other browsers can do that Chrome cannot (with a few exceptions). It is a versatile program that gets innovations introduced on a regular basis. There is even a version of Chrome that allows users to experience beta changes to the program that are still not officially introduced.

However, as was said in the beginning of the article, there are several things that certain users might find unpleasant about Chrome such as the high RAM and battery use or the low privacy levels that it offers. Still, there is no doubt that it is a good program that can gets the job done which is why it is still the most popular browser out there.

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Introduction

Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source web browser created back in 2002. Currently, it is considered to be one of the best browsing options out there and it’s popularity has been just as high throughout the past decade or so. It combines performance, security, privacy and customization making it a one of the top three browser applications out there. Even though some claim that in more recent times, Firefox has been slowing down in terms of improvement and modernization, there is no doubt that it is still a solid piece of software with a lot to offer.

Interface

Firefox has a stylish outlook that is pleasant to the eye. The tabs are rounded unlike those of other popular browsers such as Chrome or Opera. The program handles the tabbed interface rather well and arguably, better than Chrome. The reason we say that is because if you have a lot of tabs opened in Chrome simultaneously, they will be all displayed at the top but you won’t be able to recognize them since as there won’t be enough space for their names. With Firefox, once the tabs get way too many, the browser simply hides the remaining that you can access by clicking on an arrow to scroll left or right to see hidden tabs. Some might see this as unusual and might prefer the way Chrome or other browsers handle tabs but we think that this feature is a neat addition. In our opinion, the best way of handling many tabs is that of Opera where even if there is an excessive number of tabs, each one still has the icon of the site displayed on top making finding the tab you are searching for easier.

One other peculiar thing about Firefox is that it doesn’t combine the address and the search bar unlike most modern browsers and goes with the old school interface of having separated boxes. It is up to anyone’s personal preference to determine whether this is good or not. Having a combined box makes it easier and faster to browse but having the boxes separated makes the user’s searches more accurate and more secure. One neat thing about Firefox’s search bar is that you can choose what search engine/provider to use further helping make your search request more accurate.

The new tab page of Firefox is a combination of a search engine and most visited sites. It isn’t anything special yet it can still be useful. However, the Speed Dial of Opera seems as a more convenient and useful new tab page.

The three-dash menu of Firefox includes tiles representing different settings and in our opinion this looks better than the way other browsers handle their menus with a lot of lines of text which might feel overwhelming at times.

Performance

Firefox is a fast browsers and is on the top of the list in terms of performance. It isn’t, however, the fastest one out there as Firefox is outmatched by Chrome, Edge and Maxthon. On the other hand, Firefox doesn’t use that much system resources in comparison to Google Chrome while still offering a very good performance and high loading speed. In fact, Firefox uses about as much RAM as Edge does which is pretty much half of the memory used by Chrome.

Extra features

Firefox is widely-known as one of the browsers that allows for heavy customization – the program has a lot of potential add-ons and extensions and also provides a number of useful features.

• For example, this browsers offers a reading mode option where any distracting page content would get removed leaving only the text and making it easier for the user to focus on it.
• Additionally, Firefox supports social network sharing which allows the user to quickly share something to any social media site by simply clicking on a single button without need to actually access the social platform.
• One other feature that the browser has is the so called Firefox Hello which is basically a tool that can effectively replace Skype as it allows for chat and live video conversations without the need to install additional software for that purpose.
• The syncing between Firefox and other browsers is another interesting trait of the former as it not only makes it possible to transfer bookmarks, profile names and passwords from other browsing programs but it also enables the user to continue their browsing session after switching to Firefox.

There are a lot more useful functions that this browsing software has and it’s capabilities can vastly be expanded via the rich library of add-ons that anyone can download. One thing that Firefox lacks is integrated Flash support and recently, the use of Flash on Firefox has been dying out.

Security and privacy

Firefox is famous for it’s high security and its respect for the user’s privacy. This is the browser which first introduced the Do not Track option. Also, the program includes malware and phishing protection and it also supports integration with antivirus systems. This web-browsing tool is oftentimes considered to be one of the safest of the popular browsers and for a good reason. Therefore, if you are looking for a versatile browser that comes with many additional features but still offers a substantial amounts of protection and is privacy-oriented, then Firefox is definitely a good choice.

Conclusion

Firefox is surely a great option that balances many important aspects such as versatility, customization, performance, low memory usage, security and privacy, holding all of those to a high standard. There is a reason why it is one of the most popular browsing options on the market and there aren’t many negatives to its name. Surely, it cannot be said that it is the best web-browser as this is highly a subjective matter but there is definitely a lot to like about this program and you won’t go wrong with it if you decide to give it a go.

The post Mozilla Firefox Review – stability, performance, customization appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

KMPlayer is a heavy-duty program and it comes packed with all sorts of options and settings that would require quite some time until you can actually say that you have explored most of them. This is actually one issue that some users might have with this program – it isn’t as simple and as straightforward as other similar and more popular applications. The fact that there seems to be no user manual in English doesn’t help either. All of this leads to the need for a certain period of getting used to the program but once you are past that, you are going to realize its full potential. It certainly isn’t a simple tool in any way and if you are looking for a more regular player, you should probably go for something else like, for example MPC or VLC. However, if you value versatility and being able to choose from many different options and have access to a wide variety of features, then you might enjoy working with KMP.

Interface

The Interface of KMP is nothing special, yet it looks slick and stylish. There is also a lot of customization to be had there as you can download different skins and modify the outlook of the program to your liking (even if this means making the player unrecognizable). There are two main menus that come with different options. The first one gets displayed when you left-click on the KMP logo located at the top-right corner of its window and the settings in there are focused on file navigation such as opening new media files, loading subtitles, disk management, etc. The other menu, which is the main one, can be accessed by right-clicking anywhere within the program’s window. Here, you will find that most of the buttons inside this menu are sub-menus of their own. A bit of exploring should be enough to recognize just how vast this player is and how much you can get out of it. However, as said earlier, it takes some time to get used to all that so bear that in mind – many options aren’t self explanatory and as there’s no user’s manual, it would require for you to manually explore the player on your own.

Compatibility

Even though it is good to be provided a lot of extra features by a media player, the main criteria which determines how useful the software is would be, in our opinion, its ability to play different media files. KMP does this well as it supports a lot of file formats so you are unlikely to come across a media file that the program cannot open. That said, there are better software tools in this regard out there – you can read about two such players here and here. Still, though, there is no denying that KMPlayer is good at what it does and is a solid choice for anyone who needs a reliable player with extra features.

Overview of main features

We simply cannot go over everything that KMP has to offer because, as we stated above, it is really a vast and big player. However, just to give you a general idea of what it can do, here are several examples:

• Extensive screen control menu allowing the user to modify the screen ratios in a variety of ways as well as a number of other options related to the way movies are displayed.
• Many settings related to the playback of a video including audio syncing, repeating sections, skipping sections, and a lot more.
• A wide range of filters for when playing videos. There are two separate Video sub-menus, one is labeled Basic which still offers quite a lot of options and the other one Advanced, which is obviously made for geeks and people who know what they are doing and/or enjoy tweaking around.
• 3D and VR support and settings related to that.
• Extensive subtitle management.
• Audio and video capturing.

…and much more…

Advertisement

One thing that we did not like about KMP is its ads. During installation, there were no hidden or misleading clauses and the program did not try to change any of our browser settings (as many other free applications often try to do) but after the installation was over, we were asked whether we want to install Avast Antivirus. Some might see this as an useful addition but we believe that it is rather on the intrusive side and is unnecessary. Another irritating thing is the advertisement materials that get displayed within the player’s window. There are even ads a the side of the player when a movie is being played if the screen isn’t maximized. Back in the day, when there were no ads on KMP, the player looked much better but currently, all the irritating advertisements you see kind of ruin the whole outlook of the program. This, in our opinion, is a serious drawback and makes the program less desirable than some less intrusive options out there that still come with nearly the same level of functionality. Still, readers shouldn’t get the impression that KMP is unusable due to the ads – nothing like that! As long as you remember not to click on them and as long as you don’t mind seeing them, the player is still a very good tool that is certainly worth it.

Conclusion

KMP is certainly not for everyone. If you want a more regular, easier to use program that doesn’t have any ads and a less steep learning curve, then KMP might not be the program for you. However, if you truly want to experience what is likely the media player with the most customization options and extra features (that is available for free), the you must definitely give this one a try. One article is absolutely not enough to cover all the things that this program can do and the only way to truly get to know this media player is to download it and see for yourself.

The post KMPlayer Review – a media player that has it all appeared first on Malware Complaints.

Introduction

Vivaldi is a free, open-source Chromium-based browser developed by a number of programmers who used to be involved in the creation Opera. Having said that, it should come as no surprise that the interface of Vivaldi heavily resembles that of Opera with square tab icons and a menu on the top-left side of the screen. However, there are quite a lot of unique traits related to Vivaldi that set this program apart from Opera or any other browser that you might have encountered.

Unique tab management

One thing that should make a lasting impression after starting to use Vivaldi would be the peculiar, yet very convenient tab management. First of all, the user is free to choose where the different tabs would be displayed – they can be listed horizontally at the top as with most other browsers or one could have them vertically at either side of the screen. Also, one could stack browser tabs on top of each other creating groups of tabs for quicker access and for saving screen space. Vivaldi really encourages its user to use all the customization freedom that they are given in order to create a browser that maximally suits one’s needs.

Speed Dial

Similarly to Opera, Vivaldi too has a Speed Dial page that is set as the new tab page by default. The speed dial is basically a page with bookmarks listed as tiles on the screen – it is fully customizable as one would expect. Of course, if you want, you can change the new tab page to something else and not the Speed Dial from the browser’s settings menu.

Transition

One particularly pleasant aspect of Vivaldi is that transitioning to it is very simple, easy and quick. It takes no more than a minute to complete and once you launch the browser, all your bookmarks from your previous default browser would have been transferred to Vivaldi. Therefore, if you are thinking about switching up to those browser, you wouldn’t need to worry about restoring your previous browsing configuration.

Extensions

One other good thing is that, since Vivaldi is build on Chromium, the user is allowed access the Google Web Store and could download and install extensions from there directly to Vivaldi without any effort. There are also a number of pre-installed extensions such as Adobe Flash that come with the browser by default.

Compatibility and performance

There shouldn’t be any issue with compatibility as Vivaldi supports Windows, Mac OS and Linux, however, when it comes to performance, there are a couple of things to be noted. First of all, Vivaldi isn’t the fastest browser out there. Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE, Edge and Opera seem to score better when it comes to browsing speed. This likely has to do with the second note we ought to make here and that would be the system resource consumption that comes from Vivaldi – this browser tends to require significant amounts of CPU and RAM which means that if you tend to have a lot of tabs opened all at once, you might experience performance issues with your PC if the machine isn’t very powerful. Therefore, we would advise you to consider the capabilities of your computer before deciding to switch over to Vivaldi. Of course, this doesn’t mean that this browser would make your PC super slow and you wouldn’t be able to normally surf the internet with this program but performance and resource usage is still an important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration.

Conclusion

While Vivaldi might not be the fastest or the best-performing browser out there, it certainly is a good browsing option for users who value customization as this program offers a lot of options and settings aimed towards that. It includes a lot of useful (and some not that useful) features – above we have mentioned only the most notable ones as the rest is for you to explore for yourself. All in all, if you seek a browsing program that is susceptible to heavy customization and you don’t mind a bit slower performance, then Vivaldi might be the option for you.

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Introduction to Opera

Opera is a Chromium-based browser which means that it shares a lot of similar characteristics with other browsers based on Chrome (Google Chrome included). However, there are a couple of things that need to be mentioned here which set apart Opera from other browsing programs which you might have encountered and used. The main thing that Opera is known for is a number of innovations that it has introduced. As you might have heard, Opera is said to be the first browser to use tabbed interface. It is often argued that what Opera did back then wasn’t exactly the tabbed interface that we know now, yet it did similar job before any other browsing program offered such an option. Here, we will go over the most popular and useful of them.

Built-in add-blocker

One neat feature that Opera has is an integrated ad-blocker that can be enabled from the browser’s settings. It works rather well and manages to block nearly all forms of intrusive ads that you might encounter on the Internet. The feature even stops YouTube video adverts that start playing at the beginning or in the middle of the video that you are currently watching. There is even a counter at the top-right which shows you how many ads the browser has blocked so far. If you want to disable the ad-blocker for a specific site, you can easily do so by clicking onto the X button next to the blocked ads counter and turn off the switch that gets displayed. All in all, a useful feature that has the potential to make one’s browsing experience much more pleasant.

Pop Out videos

Another interesting option that you have with Opera is to move the video that you are watching to a separate window which stays above your browser or any other window or program that is currently opened. That way, you can watch a YouTube or Facebook video while doing something else on your PC without the need to have the actual page with the video currently visible on your screen. In order to activate this, you’d simply need to hover your mouse over the specific video and click on a small double-screen icon that gets displayed on the top of it.

Speed dial

This is yet another unique feature that Opera has – the Speed Dial is a separate page which works similarly to a Bookmark Menu. The Speed Dial is the default page that opens each time you open a new tab. The sites displayed in the Speed Dial are organized as tiles making it easier to find the one you are looking for and also making it tab-friendly (for Android users, for example). You can freely organize and customize the Speed Dial page but you cannot change its surf engine which is always Google.

Mouse gestures

In addition to the previous options Opera offers, users are also able to make their browsing faster and more efficient by using mouse gestures in order to navigate through the pages. For example, holding the right mouse button and swiping left or right would enable you to go back and forward between the different pages. Also, if you hold the right mouse button and swipe down, a new tab will open. While some might find it easier to do those actions the regular way or via keyboard combinations, once one gets used to using the mouse gestures, the browsing becomes faster.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Opera is the only big browser that offers a VPN feature to help users improve the security of their system when using a public Wi-Fi network. As we all know using public Wi-Fi comes with a number of potential risks as getting your data stolen by hackers, or getting redirected to shady websites. A virtual Private Network helps you avoid that risk. A VPN can also enable you to access content that is unavailable for your geographical location such as certain YouTube videos, for example. Enabling this option is simple, all you need to do is go to Settings, scroll down until you find it and place a tick in the checkbox. After that, a VPN icon will appear left of the website URL and you’d be able to turn it on and off from there.

Lacking features

There are two main things that Opera seems to lack which might annoy some users. The first one is a Reading Mode option which is useful when reading articles on sites with a lot of banners and obstructive content. The other one is a social sharing tool. Also, in some cases, certain websites might fail to recognize the browser which can be rather annoying, though instances of this are rather rare.

Performance

Opera is one of the faster browser, yet it is not the fastest that you can have. Popular browsers that provide greater performance speed are Mozilla, Chrome, Maxthon and Edge. That said, Opera is still a good performer and it also has a Turbo Mode which, when enabled, compresses data that is transferred, effectively increasing the speed and decreasing the size of the loaded data. This is especially useful when the Internet connection isn’t fast or when the data which can be loaded is limited by your Internet provider. Also, there is a Battery Saver feature which reduces the browser’s use of energy – perfect for laptops when they aren’t plugged in to the grid.

Compatibility

Opera is compatible with versions of Windows from XP to 10 and it is one of the few browser which still issues updates for XP. It can also be used on Mac OS and on several of the more popular Linux systems.

Conclusion

All in all, Opera is a neat browser that comes with a number of unique features and options that users some might find highly-beneficial. And while this browser might not be the fastest and the best performing, there are very few things that it lacks which other browsing programs might offer.

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