Non-default browser opening (AvantBrowser 7.0.3.2)

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I’m having some peculiar web browser issues that I believe are being caused by Windows not applying the ‘default web browser’ to all instances where a browser window should be opened. At work and at home I use AvantBrowser (AB) for my browser, dutifully set as the system default. When I click on a link in Word or Excel 2000, Windows (both 2K and XP) uses Internet Explorer instead of AB, though Outlook behaves properly and opens the link with AB. WindowsUpdate also uses IE by default, ignoring the default browser setting. Is there a Windows/Registry-based fix that can force these programs to use my default browser?

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David – I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to your question – Instead, I just have more questions:

I’ve been looking at AB ever since I seen it mentioned in another forum. My only reason for even considering another browser is because I always seem to end up with two or three instances of IE running at the same time. I’m thinking that AB’s use of tabs will be a better solution…

I’m capable of reading the highlights on AB’s homepage, but could you explain a liitle more about the benefits of using AB vs. IE ? Do you use the UCMore add-in? Other than your current issue, have you discovered other bugs or problems with AB ? Other compatability issues? Speed? Can you still have a Print Preview button on the Toolbar? And lastly, would it keep me from having to open multiple instances of my browser ?

Insight appreciated and good luck with your current problem.

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First off, my apologies for such a delayed reply – life has a way of interrupting plans, don’t you think? At any rate, I’ve found AB to have more than enough advantages to completely abandon using IE altogether (except when certain programs seem hard-coded in favour of IE). My old computers running Win98 or ME was frequently ending up with severly reduced system resources when IE had multiple instances open; I had even seen my total resources drop into the single digits! With AB I noticed that the problem was greatly reduced, probably because it was only one program open to display multiple windows versus multiple programs open to display just one each.

I do not use the UCMore add-in. Debating on whether UCMore is spyware or not is moot – it calls home to tell its masters what you do online, so that is enough reson for me to want to avoid it. Besides, AB uses Google for its search engine, so I don’t see the need to ‘enhance’ my search capabilities.

The toolbar does not have a print preview button, and printing still suffers from IE’s right-margin cutoff problems. However, the toolbar does have a ‘Trash’ button that makes it easy to clear unwanted temp files, cookies, history, etc. from your system (in addition to AB’s options allowing this to be done automatically when the browser is closed). One small complaint I do have is with the ‘Mail’ toolbar button. The default behaviour is to open your mail program and unlike some of the other features there is no way yet to change the default to ‘Send a link’, and there is no option to ‘Send a page’; furthermore, the message it creates when sending a link is created using Outlook’s ‘Rich Text’ format instead of my preferred default of HTML. AB does get updated fairly regularly, so perhaps these problems can be addressed in an upcoming release.

I think the biggest benefit of all though is AB’s multiple tabbed window interface. System resources are conserved, taskbar space is preserved (there is even a ‘Minimize to Tray’ option), and the multiple window setup also allows for one really nice feature – how AB handles Favourites and Groups. An option at the top of each Favourites sub folder is ‘Open All Favourites in This Folder’, and you can also create a Group of links (they do not necessarily have to be Favourites) that can be opened all at once – these days, I like my ‘News’ group that opens up 8 or so different news pages so I can get a quick fix). The ‘Navigation’ menu adds an additional feature that integrates very well – Auto Refresh (current or all), with time lenghts ranging from every 10 seconds to every 15 minutes.

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Hi, Dave ~

Thanks for the AB general survey. I am going to give ‘er a go. Were I to pose a or two, I hope you won’t mind.

Incidently, the new 7.0.5.2. update added:

• Fixed a bug: Closing a window contains media player 9 may result in a error message.
• Added Maximize All button to the toolbar
• Added Close All Except the Current button to the toolbar
• Customized Window-Control Buttons[/list]

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Dave – I appreciate your reply. I’ve been using AB for the last ten days and I’m completely sold. It is a more than adequate replacement for IE and it also made it possible for me to delete Pop-Up Stopper. My only complaint is that I still have several programs that will auto-open Internet Explorer when a browser is summoned. I bet there’s a way to stop this behavior…

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Well… that’s the question that got this thread started in the first place!

A couple of days ago I sent a message to Avant Browser ‘Comments’ concerning the non-default behaviour and that perhaps there is a registry setting that AB is not hitting when it is being set as ‘default’. I received an automated response – I hadn’t really expected otherwise – but hopefully the author will be able to take a look at the situation, and perhaps even fix it in a future release.

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Hi, Dave ~

WOW! I am hard to please and I am thus far ecstatic with Avant Broser It is so smooth, intuitive, easy to operate and yet familiar but with so many perfectly working combined GREAT features that are only found piecemeal in some browsers and other features in yet other browsers if they work at all. The tab feature is far superior than that of Moz & Netscape, Opera & MyIE. The interface is so customizeable, clean and non-clutttered or busy. I could go on and on listing all the fine elements built right into this puppy that simply runs on the IE engine!

Thank you!

I am VERY interested in enabling AB to open all links auto. I will assist in this endeavour by searching as well.

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Here’s a thought that just came to mind that I’ll throw out to other non-IE browser users: Do all programs behave properly for Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc.? I just tried using Excel to ‘get external data’ from a web page, and the browse button opened IE, but what if I had Netscape set as my default browser. Would Excel still use IE, indicating it is likely hard-coded in the application, or would Excel use Netscape, thereby pointing to a limitation inherent in AB instead? Perhaps someone could test this out and post back. Now I would expect MS to be more likely to hard-code in favour of their browser, but since ZoneAlarm was also misbehaving it might be worth looking at in a non-IE environment too.

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I need to post my gleeful astonishment w/ another excellent feature of AB. You know how sometimes when IE hangs you lose all your open windows? Well, AB gives you the option to automatically reopen all previously opened windows upon restarting should such an event occur – and it did – and it did I am loving this browser more and more each day.

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I run Mozilla 1.2.1 (haven’t gone to 1.3 yet) and when I tried your Excel question, the program opened another Mozilla browser window. I was also recently asked to help someone at work who is using Word 2000 and trying to use the “download clipart” function. There, Netscape is the default browser and the clipart download function opens Netscape but the Microsoft script at the specified web location DOES NOT WORK properly within Netscape. Ha! What else is new. I copied the URL to the clipboard and opened IE 6. Going to the specified URL with IE worked as it should and clipart can be successfully downloaded into the user’s library. I showed her the workaround procedure and that’s what’s she’s having to do.

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Well………………..

I hope everyone that wanted the Avant Browser got it while it was hot! I was forced to do a reinstall of WinXP over the weekend and went bqck to the Avant website to get a fresh new copy of AB but it appears that they’ve closed up shop.

I settled for an alternative, “Crazy Browser”, but it’s not quite as good as AB. Biggest problem is it’s just too slow. If anyone finds an alternate source for the AvantBrowser, please post it – I, for one, sure would be grateful.

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Hi Ricky

A quick web search turned up the following sites for an Avant Browser download……..

topshareware
sofotex
majorgeeks
freedownloadscenter

As well as ZDNet, TUCOWS and other sites.

Have a Great day!!!
Ken

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It must have been a temporary glitch, because I was just at the AvantBrowser site and it is up and running as before.

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Hi Ricky:
I just downloaded AvantBrowser V7.0.5.0.2), so I don’t think they’re out of business.

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Hi All

I tried the avant browser site just before my last post and Mozilla couldn’t find it. I just tried it again from David’s link and can’t find it. Tried IE….nope!! Tried links from some download sites….nope!!

Any ideas as to what’s going on? (The site is still registered as per “Whois”.)

Have a Great day!!!
Ken

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Now it works!

The site has REALLY been down most of the weekend.
Now I know how my wife feels when she says the car won’t start, so I get in, turn the key, and it fires right up!

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Hi Ricky

Still won’t work for me….I keep getting the error message:

“www.avantbrowser.com cannot be found. Please check the name and try again.”

Have a Great day!!!
Ken

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You’re right – on again, off again. I don’t know what the problenm is. It did work for me just long enough to do the download. Got version 7052, it’s about 780k in size. If anyone wants it and can’t get to it, I’d be happy to email the file. Also, some of the shareware sites mentioned may have access to the file whether the parent site is up or not…not sure how that works. It would seem if we can’t get to it, neither can they!

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The Avant Browser site is back online again. According to the web hosting page, they didn’t pay their hosting fee so were kicked off. I guess they must have paid it now or found a new host site. Since it is freeware and depends on donations from grateful users, this is not too surprising.

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In case you still need to know about hyperlinks , the trick is to tick > http , ftp etc in options , in whatever browser you are using .

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Hi:
I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Could you explain what problem you’re talking about & what steps you mean? Thanks.

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Yep , referring to the main theme .

Non-default browser opening (AvantBrowser 7.0.3.2)

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I appreciate your response but I’m not sure it fixes the problem…

The problem is: Even though I have Avant Browser set as my default browser, many apps will auto-start IE when a hyperlink is clicked. As an example, when I’m reading one of Woody’s newsletters in my email program, and I click a link within that newsletter (email), IE will automatically open to that particular webpage.

This is mind boggling as I know I have set AB as my default Browser! Even if I have AB already open and running and click a link from within an email, it will ignore the fact that I have a browser ready – still opens IE…

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Yes I was having the same problem , by going to Files & Protocols > Use Avant Browser etc > tick the 3 boxes .

Re click on set Avant as default & click Apply .

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Also, according to last month’s Maximum PC or PCWorld, I alleviated the same problem w/ Woody’s newsletters and other links by:

• Close all instances and then open only one instance of Avant
• ‘Tools‘ > ‘Avant Browser Options…‘ > ‘Files and Protocols‘
• Check all boxes
• Click ‘Set Avant Browser as the default browser‘ button
• ‘Apply‘ > ‘OK‘
• Close Avant then reopen one instance of Avant
• ‘Control Panel‘ > ‘Add or Remove Programs‘ > ‘Set Program access and Defaults‘
• You must select ‘Custom‘ > Select ‘Use my current web browser‘ > ‘OK‘
• Close Avant then reopen and you will now be in business [/list]This will make Avant open as your browser on all browser and e-mail links. Avant has acknowledged there may be some occurrences of IE opening with some MS apps on occasion, but it has not happened to me so far other than IE opening only upon my first internet connection of the day.

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Hi Bruce:
Thanks for the detailed instructions. However, I don’t see

• ‘Set Program access and Defaults’
  [/list]under Add/Remove Programs. I’m using Win 98.

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Hi, Phil ~

Mark has reminded me thrice recently that certain features are XP specific and I continue to fail to remember this at posting time – my apologies. You will need to adjust accordingly.

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Hi Bruce:
I just downloaded the new Avant Browser, but haven’t installed it yet. What didn’t you like about Mozilla? Or perhaps a better way of asking is why do you prefer Avant Browser so much over Mozilla.

The reason I ask is that i had another tabbed browser (Express Browser), but it seemed to use more resources. Mozilla seems to use less resources than IE (when I open multiple windows in IE).

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Hi, Phil ~

I had no success w/ Mozilla. Per my post 236332, those were just some of the many touted features that did not seem to work or work right, half the pages I visit did not render properly and overall seemed very clunky and non-intuitive.

Avant has so many nice, useful features I don’t know where to start.
In addition to Dave’s post 242153, I suppose I will round out the feature that really appeal to me:

The ‘tab’ feature works like task bar buttons in the status bar of the Avant Browser leaving only one button in the actual Windows task bar. You know how if IE crashes you lose all your windows? Avant remembers them and reopens them next run! The menu is VERY customizable. I personally think it is silly to have buttons for dupicate features already on a drop-down to keep the interface uncluttered. One great feature is holding Shift+Ctrl to open a new page – but w/o losing focus of your current page! You can have the browser automatically open up pages when fired up. You can stop images from loading at the push of a button on a page if you want the text quickly from a graphics intense site.

I also like the option from ‘File’ to open ‘New’ blankcurrenthome choices & ‘Open Recent’ feature. The ‘Auto-Refresh’ is VERY handy when in a forum or at a page that changes in real-time. You can push a button to go up a level from the page you are currently. In addtion to the integrated Internet Options, the Avant options allow you to modify behaviour of nearly all aspects of the browser.

The ‘Help’ file is cut & dry and in plain English. The author has integrated quite a few requests from the public (that’a how this was built) and the there is a forum dedicated solely to Avant.

I will wrap up here as this is getting long. You will find other features I haven’t mentioned useful and perhaps some I did not so. The only feature it doesn’t have (yet) as Dave pointed out is the option to send an HTML page, but overall this browser eclipses IE by far depite the fact it is built on the IE engine. I must admit that being a longtime IE user made it easier to adapt, but nonetheless it is easy to learn and tweak it to your liking.

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Thanks for the details. I’ve been having some trouble with Mozilla also…actually, some of the same problems that you had. I thought that since I had used NS 4.75 for some time, Moz would just be the same with improvements. But I have had trouble setting up the mail, connecting to the server, etc. So right now, I use NS for mail & Mozilla for browsing. But I’m going to give AB a try. Thanks again for all the details.

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Hi David:
I’m not sure either. If you don’t get an answer here soon, you might try asking either on the IE forum (it’s sort of related, since IE is opening) or even on the forum that corresponds to your operating system. I say that only because there may be more people in those forums that are familiar with registry hacks.

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