Avant Browser is a free web browser for Windows that combines website navigation with a choice of rendering engines and tools for displaying several pages together. Its Lite edition uses the Internet Explorer engine, while Ultimate also includes Firefox and Chrome engines. Both the way a page is rendered and the way it occupies the browser window are part of its browsing controls.
Avant Browser’s per-site rendering engines
In Avant Browser Ultimate, you can select a default engine and switch to another when a website does not display properly. The browser also accepts engine preferences for individual websites in its Options. When you return to one of those sites, Avant Browser changes engines automatically according to that setting.
Lite does not include the additional Firefox and Chrome engines, so it does not provide the same three-engine choice.
Split View, detached tabs and full screen
Split View puts multiple websites on screen at once, keeping their contents visible without repeatedly switching between tabs. It can be used to keep a reference page beside another site or to leave a video visible while reading a separate page.
A tab can also leave the main browser window. Dragging its button out of the tab bar creates a detached window, which can be set to stay above other Windows applications. This gives an individual page its own position on the desktop while the remaining tabs stay in the main window.
Avant Browser offers two ways to give pages more screen space. Full Screen hides the toolbars until the pointer reaches the appropriate edge: the top reveals the toolbar and the bottom reveals the tab bar. Full Desktop uses the same approach while keeping the Windows taskbar visible. Mouse gestures issue browser commands through movements drawn on the screen.
AutoFill logins and online bookmarks
AutoFill stores web form entries so a saved website login can be opened with one click. It also has a Startup folder: placing saved entries there makes Avant Browser log in to those sites when the browser starts. A site that you open occasionally can remain a manual AutoFill entry, while a regularly used site can belong to the startup collection.
Bookmarks have a separate online service for accessing saved sites from different computers. Avant Browser also uses an encrypted standalone bookmark file for storing that collection.
Content filters
Avant Browser includes a popup blocker and advertising filters. The right-click menu’s Add to AD Black list command lets you add unwanted page content to the filter, extending the blocked items beyond the existing rules.
Other controls stop particular types of content from downloading, including pictures, video, sound and ActiveX components. Private Browsing avoids retaining browsing data on the computer.
Media downloads
The built-in Video Sniffer looks for video in the page being viewed and offers a download action for detected items. Avant Browser also includes a multithreaded downloader for files linked from websites or email, bringing file transfers into the browser’s own download tools.
RSS feeds
The RSS reader presents feed items either as an Outlook-style list of headlines or in an expanded view. You can scan the headline view for an item of interest, or use the expanded view to read more of the feed content together. Update notifications can alert you when a subscribed feed changes.
