There are some negatives in Avant Browser. Some web pages that we routinely view in Netscape no longer functioned properly here. Avant also seems to suck up an inordinate amount of processor usage, and like its IE forebear, it runs a bit on the slow side. And then there are the small annoying ticks. For instance, a status bar in the lower right hand corner of the screen shows the percentage of a page that is complete. But it tends to be an all-or-nothing deal, stopping at 3 percent and then jumping to 'complete.' Without that visual feedback, it is difficult to tell when the browser is "thinking" versus when it is stalled.
Speaking of stalled, some users have complained that Avant is prone to rather catastrophic crashes, though we had no direct experience of this. In any case, there is a safeguard — a built-in backup mechanism allows users to recover pages that were open at the time of a crash.
All in all, Avant certainly is a step forward from the more stripped-down Internet Explorer, which many are tempted to continue using simply because it came with their machines. For a new look and some new functionality at no additional cost, Avant makes for a relatively simple upgrade. Installation is fast and easy, and any experienced IE user will have it up and running in just minutes.
But on the other hand: Why bother?
The gains here are relatively slight, with the only real highlights being ad blocking and tabbed browsing, both of which are readily available in Netscape, also for free. Moreover, it is by no means difficult to find and download individual best-of-breed solutions that fulfill many of these same functions — PanicWare's free Pop Up Stopper software, for instance.
Overall, Avant Browser is a (mostly) stable and functional product, and frequent upgrades have steadily improved its reliability. If the added features will enhance your productivity, you could do worse than giving this freebie tool a test drive.
