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

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

VLC is one of the more popular media player options out there and for a good reason – it is a versatile program capable of opening a remarkable variety of data formats for both audio and video files. The user wouldn’t need to download any extra codecs as VLC already has them by default which is the reason why you will hardly ever stumble upon a file format that this player will not be able to open. This is really convenient and can save you a lot of time and nerves. There are quite a lot of good and popular media player programs out there which seem to lack the versatility of VLC, oftentimes being incapable of playing certain file types or requiring manual downloading of extra codecs to open less common data formats. With VLC, the user would hardly ever face such an issue which is the reason why it is the preferred choice of many customers. The program can be used on Windows, Mac OS and Linux so there is no problem with the compatibility.

Interface

The default Interface of VLC might seem a bit old-fashioned and not overly stylish but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On the flip side, the plain interface of the program makes it easier to navigate through its menus and settings. The player is easy to use and most of the options are self-explanatory. Also, if you feel like you want to have the program’s interface reinvigorated, you can always do that by choosing from a big list of skins for your player to replace the default interface with something that you would fancy more. In addition, we should also mention that there are a lot of customization options like choosing which buttons to appear and which to be left hidden allowing you to modify the program’s look the way that would best serve your needs.

Plug-ins and Extensions

One great thing about VLC is the wide variety of plug-ins and extensions to choose from. They are all available on the official site of the program and allow for even greater customization freedom. There is a description and a comment section below each add-on so that users could share their opinions and find out more about a certain extension.

200%!

Have you ever had the unpleasant situation of downloading a song or a movie where the sound is way too low and even when you have maxed-out the volume settings on your PC, speakers and player, the sound is still not loud enough. VLC has a potential solution for such an issue as it allows the user to boost the volume beyond the 100% mark all the way up to 200%. The difference is indeed noticeable when you compare the sound levels to other players so if you really do want louder, this might be the program that you are looking for.

Watching during downloading

One neat thing that VLC can do is play video that haven’t been fully downloaded yet. This can basically allow you to watch a movie while it is still being downloaded on your computer. This could, for example, be helpful if you decide that you don’t really want to watch this movie and there’s no need to fully download it on the computer. Also, the program can play files that have been zipped directly from the archive so there would be no the need to unzip them.

Other features

As you might expect it from a good media player, VLC comes with many more settings that we cannot list here. There are different modes for playing audio and video, good subtitle customization and sync options, different playlist settings, etc. In addition to that, it is all rather easy and simple to use and no one should have hard time navigating through this player and making use of its many features.

Negatives

There isn’t really much to say here. One thing that some might find a bit irritating is the fact that the player takes several seconds to start instead of starting instantly but this also depends on how powerful the computer it is used on is. Also, another somewhat annoying trait of VLC is that it doesn’t allow you to go back or forth when watching a movie by using the left and right keyboard arrow buttons the same way other players do. However, you can still navigate through a movie using the arrow keys, but you will first have to hold the Shift button and also, the transition isn’t as smooth as one might want it to be. Apart from those two minor inconveniences, there is not much else that we can point out as a downside to VLC.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a solid media player program for your computer that can open nearly all video and audio file formats and allows for a lot of customization, then VLC might be something that you will like. It serves both as a good movie and music player that will hardly ever have any issues playing a certain type of file. Add to that the fact that there s a satisfying amount of additional settings and a couple of unique features and you got yourself a very good program with only a few small negative traits.

Summary

Pros

• Superb support of different file formats
• Lots of customization options
• A big library of add-ons

Cons

• Doesn’t run as smooth as one would like it to

The post VLC Review – a player with superb file format support appeared first on Malware Complaints.

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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