New Browser Comparisons IE8 Vs Firefox 3 Vs Chrome 

I’ve read several reports recently that most people surfing the Internet do not utilize extensions on their browsers. This surprised me a bit, because I rely on so many extensions that the thought of not using them is shuddering. Maybe it is because I spend so much time on the Internet with my work, and maybe it is because I’m basically lazy, but not having extensions to lessen my workload, and improve my overall performance, to me, is like buying a car with no extras (like a stereo, or tires). 

For this set of articles however, I was asked to look at the “stock” performance of these three browsers, like I was a “normal” Internet surfer. 

Tabs

To start this set of comparison articles, I’m going to focus first on the Tabbing functions of the browsers. 

All three of the browsers (IE8, Firefox, Chrome) are tab browsers now. This is not a surprise, because tabs are simply a requirement these days. The actions of the tabs are a bit different with Chrome. In IE 8 and Firefox, when you hold the CRTL key down and click on a link, a new tab is opened at the end of your tab list. In Chrome, a new tab is opened just after the tab you opened the link from. 

This opening sequence is kind of nice once you realize what is happening, because it helps group topic sequences together by default. 

When opening new tabs, IE begins to slow down. IE is fairly fast with one or two tabs open, but when you reach 5 or 10 tabs, the whole computer begins to see a large drain on resources. 

With tabs open to some web sites, Firefox begins to slow down as well, and can even begin to error out, or do some rather confusing things until the browser is closed and restarted. It will even crash at times. 

I have not gotten Chrome to slow down or crash with opening tabs yet, and don’t think I haven’t tried. 

Basic Speed

Since we are not looking at the use of extensions or add-ons with these three browsers, speed definitely goes to Chrome, a hands down winner in both loading time, and the use of temporary caching on your computer so that coming back to a web page only loads what is new, and not every file a second time. 

The draw backs to Chrome are usability. The interface is sparse, incredibly sparse, and it is difficult at first glance to see what to do, or where to do it. 

IE is much sparser than it use to be, and more user friendly. I would guess that most users are familiar with the interface today anyway, but looking at it with “new eyes” I would guess that a new user could figure out how to get to a web site, or a search engine after a short study. 

Firefox is much better than both of these for user interface, maintaining a more familer menu layout, and ease of use format, which anyone familiar with any computer program will become comfortable with after only a few seconds. 

Page Loading

IE still has problems loading many web pages in the “intended” manner of the creator. This is due to a continued lack of keeping with Internet standards. This is a long story, and most professional web designers today simply make a version for IE and a version for the rest of the known world. However, you may come across a web site or two which doesn’t seem to look right in your IE browser. Unless you compare the web site using another browser, you will probably never realize the oddities. 

Both Firefox and Chrome use the Internet Standards, and I have not had any problems with Flash or other multimedia content with either of them. 

Crashing

Perhaps it is because I hammer on browsers all day long, visiting an average of 60+ new web sites a day, that I notice Firefox crashing more than I’m use to. It could also be running Firefox on Vista, but really that doesn’t make much difference at the time of the crash. 

IE crashes just as often as I’m use to. After about an hour of hard surfing, I normally restart the browser before it crashes, expecting it to freeze up on me soon. Not the best review for them, but I personally don’t like loosing work, so a quick restart is better than trying to find something I just lost. 

So far, I haven’t gotten Chrome to crash. Again, its not because I haven’t tried. However, because of the sparse interface and lack of any real tools, I am still not excited about Chrome at this time. 

Bookmarking

This is an area Chrome falls flat on its face, so does IE. Firefox allows you to “Save All Open Tabs” into a Bookmark folder with the click of a button. Chrome has a Star up by the address bar that allows quick bookmarking, if you know what that star is, but otherwise, bookmarking doesn’t even look like an option. 

IE is the same old slow, clumsy bookmarking it has always been, and again, with its tendency to slow down the computer when more than five or six tabs are open at one time, I guess it doesn’t matter much.

In a previous post, discussing the Restore Points on the Vista operating system, I mentioned a few times that Restore Points do not backup or protect our personal data, documents or other files (i.e. digital picture areas, mp3 collections, game scores, etc.). Vista offers the Backup utility to protect these areas. 

Setting up a regular backup schedule for your home computer is always a good idea, and a primary use for external drives. While you can use writable CD’s and DVDs to hold your backup files, I don’t recommend doing so if at all possible. External drives are much better for this function. 

Too many things can happen during a CD or DVD write operation which will make your backups useless for restoring.  External drives are:

• inexpensive these days
• hold a great deal of data
• are much more stable during the writing process

Your backups have a much better chance of being useful for restoring them later. Also, an external drive can remain plugged in so that the backup doesn’t fail trying to use a CD that is full or no longer writable. 

The Backup Configuration Utility is located at :

Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Backup Status and Configuration. 

Once open the Utility is fairly easy to setup, with very few options. If you have a large external drive, it is best to back up as much as possible; no telling what file may become “important”. 

What’s the difference between Backing up and Copying? 

The question I’m asked most about Backup utilities is “Why can’t I just copy everything on my hard drive to my external drive once a day? Why do I need a Backup utility?” The answer is “you can” and “you don’t”, but there are advantages to a backup utility over simply copying all of your files. 

Vista Backup and Restore Files Not included

A backup utility normally backs up “all the files” the first time you make a backup, and then it keeps track of files that have been changed or altered since the last backup, so the next time the utility runs, it only copies the files which appear to have been changed. This saves a great deal of space in our storage area, and allows for a saved history over longer periods of time. 

The second advantage is that backup utilities generally run automatically, so we don’t have to remember to run them once a day. For some people, always remembering to run the backup is easy, for the rest of us, well, life tends to be busy, and one less thing to remember means, one less thing to forget. 

What is Saved with the Windows Backup utility? 

Basically just your personal files and data. The backup doesn’t make copies of your program files, nor any copies of your system files. This is because it is running under the belief that a backup should only pay attention to “data” and not programs. The logic goes something like: 

If there is a catastrophic problem with the system and it crashes, then:

• The hard drive should be formated
• The system should be restored with a clean install
• Programs should be installed cleanly (off the original disks or from the Internet)
• After the system is stable, data should be restored from the backups

There are some who disagree, or could bring up many scenarios which make this logic … un-logical, but on the whole, for the home user, this is a good way to look at system administration. 

This logic also gives us the most effective way to utilize limited backup storage space. After-all, we already have copies of all the programs we use, and the Windows Vista software on disks, or from the Internet. Right? 

If you don’t, now would be a good time to get that collection together. 

So, System Restore Points protect our Drivers and system files from corruption due to updates and changes. 

Backups protect our personal data… but not our personal settings (like our passwords), for obvious reasons. 

First Run though of the Backup Configuration

We started up the Backup Utility. We want to setup the backup and the schedule, so we click on Change backup settings, near the bottom of the dialog box. 

The first requested information is; where to save our backup files. Here we can choose the CD, DVD or external drive (Vista will default to an external drive if it is present). We can also choose a network drive. 

There are some really nice external network drives these days for home use, and soon I’ll be writing an article on the different types of external and network drives available. Right now, choose the best option you currently have available. The suggested order (best to not-so-good) would be External Drive (connected by USB or Firewire), Network Drive, DVD, CD. 

After we choose our storage area, we are then asked what type of files to backup. I like the “Select them all” option here. I can’t think of any good reasons not to back up a particular file type listed on this dialog, but if you have a good reason, then now is your chance to insure the file doesn’t get backed up. 

Our final setup dialog asks us how often and when to run the back up program. Remember that the computer needs to be on, in order to backup. It won’t power itself on to run the backup at 2AM (but that would be a very cool option). So if you turn the computer off at 10pm every night, have the backup run prior to 10pm with enough time to finish. 

My home computer is on all the time, I only turn off the monitors to save electricity, but I let the computer itself go into Sleep Mode. Vista will “wake” from Sleep Mode to run a scheduled backup. 

I set my backup to run everyday, because just about everyday, some major change has been done to my files. I work with a lot of documents, spreadsheets and business proposals here on my home computer (which is really an home-office computer). But, if you do not make huge changes every day, then perhaps once a week will work out for you. 

Once a month is just silly. Remember that the backup will not be copying files over which have not been changed or updated. So, if you do very few changes (you use the computer mainly for email and web browsing), set it for once a week, and it will be a very fast backup. 

There is a check-box at the bottom of this last dialog, which asks if we wish to make a “full backup in addition to saving our settings”, which has confused several people. What this is asking is “Do you wish to run this backup now, or wait until your scheduled time?” 

There is a Vista backup utility which comes with the more expensive versions (not the home basic or home professional version) which makes a complete copy of your hard drive; a Snapshot of your system. This “full backup” is not what we are talking about here. 

Also, for the schedule, if you have the Windows Vista Home Basic version, you will not be able to setup the Automatic backup… though Windows will remind you to backup your files, which means you open up this utility and click on the Back up now button. 

I do recommend checking this “run now” box to do a back up at this point. You can work on your computer while the backup is running. The backup process will run in the background, and it is good to know how slow your computer will be while a backup is running, especially if you have set the schedule to run at 5pm (or while you are typically working on the computer). 

Summary Information

The basic Backup utility which comes with Vista is functional, and it has worked for me without me noticing it, which generally means it is not causing me problems. However, it doesn’t have a great deal of functional options, and if you are a Vista Home Basic user, then it doesn’t have automatic scheduling available.  

If you find that these draw backs are too much for you, then it would be good to find a backup software system which will meet all of your needs. If you would like some suggestions in finding a backup system, jump into our forum area and tell us your needs. Chances are one of our experts knows exactly which one would best suit you.

Sometimes Windows updates are not updates on Vista. System Restore Points are handy items to know about for several reasons. If your computer is set to Automatically install updates from Windows (something I don’t recommend for any software, including Vista), then they can be even more handy.

However, if you are experimenting with a new software, which you are really hoping will work, but are not quite sure about, then System Restore Points can help you out here as well. 

Windows is supposed to automatically set a new restore point before doing a system update through the Windows Update Service whether you are doing a manual update, or the update is set to perform automatically. 

I prefer not to have automatic updates, and to set my own restore point before I start an update process, or before installing any New software. 

What it does

System Restore is for the System, this is important to keep in mind. The utility does not back up personal files or settings. It only backs up System settings, such as drivers, the registry, the menu, the desktop settings, and other System settings which are set at the time the Restore Point is created. So if you are installing a new sound driver, or changing some other driver software on your computer, you might want to set a Restore point before beginning the change or installation. 

What it doesn’t do

The System Restore Point is a picture or snapshot of your system; not your personal files and data. Favorites and Bookmarks, and notes, and MP3s are not system settings (though for many of use they are far more important). So for these objects and files it is better to have a File Backup of your important information files to an external drive. 

How to Make a System Restore Point

After this long lead in, Making and Using a System Restore Point is really easy.  

To create a system point manually, we can restore to later:

Right Click on the My Computer Icon or go to 

Start-> Right Click on My Computer

Click on the System Protection Tab

Choose the Drive you want to make a restore point for… On just about ever computer in the world, this is going to be the main C:\ Drive.

Click on the Create button.

Give your Restore Point a name; make it a good name, something you will recognize three weeks from now. Updates and driver installations may not show problems or make your computer unstable right away. Also, you will be able to tell the difference between unimportant automatically created restore points and restore points you made at critical times. 

How to Restore the System to an Earlier Point

Ok, the update made the system unstable, or the program made all kinds of crazy stuff happen and you want to restore the system to its former, happy self. 

Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Restore

On this dialog you can find a quick link to the System Properties dialog as well for creating Restore Points. Since we are Restoring right now, we just click the Next button.

We are now presented with a list of Restore Points indicated by date. Choose the Restore Point you wish to set the system back to, and Click the Next button. 

A confirmation message will appear (when does a confirmation message not appear on Vista?), and we click Yes. 

This may take a bit, so don’t stress if the computer seems to freeze up for a few minutes. There is a lot going on with a System Restore. 

The computer will shut down and then turn back on automatically, allow this to happen and do not interrupt the process once a restore cycle has been started. Interrupting the process could damage the restore point storage, forcing you to choose an even earlier restore point, or having to re-install from scratch… which is never fun. 

Other Notes on Restore Points. 

The average restore point costs your computer 300 megs. These are big files, so show some respect in making them, and periodicaly check your list of restore points and delete previous “auto-created” points, or points you know you no longer need to keep your system resources free. 

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