What is a Browser and which should I choose?

Browser: Short for Web Browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. The most popular browsers are Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, Apple's Safari and Opera. These are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text. In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video, though they may require plug-ins (small additional programmes) for some formats.

Your choice of Browser is often governed by your organisation, most novice users work with Microsoft's Internet Explorer as this is the default on a Windows computer.

IE7

As to which Browser you should choose is really a matter of personal taste and the sites that you visit. Microsoft's dominance means that some developer's have written web sites specifically for the Explorer system and therefore their pages may not work as effectively in other Browsers.

On my my machine I have three browsers installed: Mozilla is my default browser and the one that I use most often. Opera I use because of its accessibility options and I have the security options tied down. And I have Microsoft Explorer 7 installed because some e-learning management functions were written for IE7.

To find an alternate Browser type any of the above names into a search engine and you will be able to find a page with full download and installation instructions. HOWEVER, do not install software onto any machine without agreement from the organisation who owns the computer.

If you have any questions please post a comment.