CG艺术实验室

Introduction#

I don't know how many people still remember the term "surfing the internet". It's like the internet is a vast ocean, and websites are the waves of this ocean, while browsers are the surfboards under your feet.

Nowadays, browsers are something that every digital worker uses every day. I am quite picky about this surfboard. With the blessing of OCD, I naturally polish this tool to make it more handy and have developed my own way of using it. Every now and then, someone asks me what browser I use and how to surf the internet more scientifically (not what you think). So, I decided to write a separate article about it.

Excellent Browsers#

When choosing a tool, I have talked about the general criteria in the article How to Use Windows PC Elegantly in 2024, but there are some differences when it comes to browsers.

First, speed is everything.

If a browser is not fast enough, it can ruin your mood. Even if a website takes 3 seconds to load, you will think it's the website's problem. I have the same requirement for my own website. It has to be fast because people are becoming less and less patient.

Second, more features are not important, being able to turn them off is.

Tab groups, bookmarks, password management, sidebars, translation, reading aloud, reading mode, privacy, and security. These are the standard features of modern browsers, not to mention other special features, which are already too many. Of course, more features are better, but they must be able to be turned off. Not everyone will use them, and having them enabled without using them is a burden and will inevitably affect speed.

Third, convenience and aesthetics.

This is mostly subjective. Geeks would love to open web pages directly in the command line, while stock traders would love to see stock charts as soon as they turn on their computers. Aesthetics are also important, but I won't go into details.

Browsers I Have Used#

From the famous IE 7/8/9/10/11, 360, Maxthon, to Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Safari, Min, Tor, and Arc. It can be said that it has been a bumpy journey, and the experience has been terrible.

Since I learned in college that domestic browsers are all Chrome-based shells, I stopped using them. It's not because they come with bloatware, are slow, have too many features, cannot be completely uninstalled, constantly seek attention, or have privacy and security issues. I think most ideal and tasteful people should use Chrome more.

It is necessary to explain that the essence of a browser lies in its rendering engine, which is a hardcore engineering work. There are only 5 rendering engines for browsers on this planet:

1. Trident (IE) Engine: This is the browser engine developed by Microsoft, also known as the IE engine, and is one of the earliest browser engines. Browsers based on the Trident engine include Internet Explorer, Maxthon, The World, 360 Browser, etc. The characteristic of the Trident engine is good compatibility and support for various websites and web standards, but the rendering speed is relatively slow.
2. Gecko Engine: This is the browser engine developed by the Mozilla Foundation and is widely used in browsers such as Firefox and Netscape 6 and above. The characteristic of the Gecko engine is that the code is completely open, the development is advanced, the rendering speed is fast, and it can provide a better web browsing experience.
3. WebKit Engine: This is the browser engine developed by Apple and is widely used in browsers such as Safari and Chrome. The WebKit engine is characterized by its fast speed, high efficiency, and is not constrained by IE, Firefox, and other engines, thus having better security. WebKit is currently one of the most popular browser engines because of its excellent performance and smooth web browsing experience.
4. Presto Engine: This is the browser engine developed by Opera Software and is widely used in browsers such as Opera 7 and above. The Presto engine is characterized by its fast speed, high efficiency, and can provide a better web browsing experience. However, as the market share of Opera browser gradually decreases, the influence of the Presto engine is also diminishing.
5. Blink Engine: This is a browser engine developed by Google based on WebKit and is widely used in browsers such as Chrome and Opera. The Blink engine inherits the advantages of the WebKit engine and has been improved and optimized, providing faster rendering speed and better compatibility. Domestic browsers are based on this open-source project of the Blink engine. If Google had not open-sourced this engine, there would be no domestic browsers. There was even a joke about it before.

Since there are only a few rendering engines, each browser optimizes and maintains its "own child" the best. It is best to choose from them.

Currently, I Use#

My main browser is Edge.

To be honest, I have developed a love-hate relationship with Edge. I hate it because it has become more and more "bulky". It is always messy when I open it for the first time. Fortunately, as I mentioned earlier, you can turn off the features you don't need.

I love it because it uses the Blink engine, which is fast and supports native Chrome extensions. I can seamlessly sync bookmarks, history, and even send files to my phone using my Microsoft account. The UI has also been upgraded this year, and overall it looks good. I hope the default theme can achieve a pure Fluent Design style, then it can be my retirement browser.

Another browser I use is Safari.

There is no other reason, it performs best in the Apple ecosystem. The UI is excellent, cross-device syncing is seamless, and it is fast.

The only two drawbacks are that it is too "secure". Sometimes I encounter the problem of "unable to establish a secure connection with the server", and I even encounter this problem when opening my own blog, which always makes me suspect that it is a server problem. The other drawback is that the variety of extension plugins is not rich. I have to install an additional app just for an ad-blocking extension.

Initial Configuration of Edge#

It comes pre-installed with Windows 10/11, and you can install it on other platforms here. I recommend logging in with your Microsoft account and enabling all sync features. This way, when you change devices, you don't have to set it up again, which is very convenient.

If you are "moving" from another browser, I also recommend logging in with your Microsoft account first and then importing data from other browsers. This way, you only need to do it once.

On and Off#

Edge has too many settings options, but fortunately, there is a search box in the settings interface, so you can search for various settings options without having to look for them one by one. ~I don't have to write down the locations one by one either.~

• Microsoft Rewards: Off, not available in China.
• This page edge//settings/privacy: Keep "Prevent tracking" and "Microsoft Defender" on, prioritize browsing security, and turn off the rest.
• Hover menus: Off, designed for touch devices, not user-friendly for keyboard and mouse operations.
• Open Office files in the browser: Off.
• This page /edge//settings/languages: You can turn them all off.
• Startup boost: On.

Other options can be selected according to personal preferences and needs, and they do not have a significant impact on performance. After configuring these settings, your browser will definitely be much faster and cleaner.

Some Hidden Settings#

Like Chrome, Edge also has a hidden settings page with many experimental features. In fact, they are already quite stable, but these features are more for developers. Turning them off does not affect normal use, but turning them on usually makes the browser even better.

Enter edge://flags/ in the address bar to open the experimental features settings page, and set them as follows:

• Smooth scrolling: On, the latest version has it enabled by default.
• Overscroll history navigation: On, for high-refresh-rate displays, enjoy smooth scrolling.
• GPU hardware acceleration: On, reduces CPU usage, and it is said to be more power-efficient, but I haven't compared it.
• Parallel downloading: On, downloading will be faster.
• Scrollable TabStrip: Makes the scroll bar rounded instead of a large square, looks better. You can turn it on or off according to personal preference.

This page is only available in English, but fortunately, these options can also be searched. You can refer to the screenshot below to configure them.

Useful Extensions#

I don't recommend installing too many extensions because they can slow down the browser and may interfere with each other. It is also recommended to install them from the Chrome Web Store because they are updated quickly and can be trusted.

Here are a few extensions that I use most frequently:

• Immersive Translate: This is an amazing extension, the translation effect is stunning, the best web page translation tool, hands down.
• uBlock Origin: A low-performance ad-blocking extension, no need for customization or settings, just leave it on. If you encounter ads that are not blocked, simply right-click on the ad and you can hide anything you don't want to see.
• Tampermonkey: This is something you don't know until you use it, and it will surprise you. It is essentially a web script manager. You don't need to know what it means. In short, you can install some small scripts through it to achieve many useful functions. For example, price comparison for e-commerce, ad-blocking for videos, search for resources on cloud storage platforms, optimize the interface of specific websites, etc. It can achieve a wide range of functions, and you need to explore it yourself. There are many articles online introducing it, so I won't go into details here. However, I don't recommend installing too many scripts either, as they can also affect performance.
• SwitchyOmega: A tool for setting browser proxies separately. It can also detect broken connections on the current website. You can even set different proxies for different domains to ensure the best connection status.
• RSSHub Radar: Another powerful tool. If you are used to using RSS feed services, you should know about it. It can convert almost any website into an RSS feed service.

Conclusion#

In addition to these basic settings, browsers also have some keyboard shortcuts, which, once familiar, can be very efficient. I use the following shortcuts frequently:

• Ctrl+L: Quickly search history, bookmarks, and URLs.
• Ctrl+T: Open a new tab.
• Ctrl+H: View history.
• Ctrl+J: View download list.

As you get used to these shortcuts over time and remember the locations of commonly used features, you will definitely save a lot of time. You don't need to follow all of my practices, some of them are too OCD. It's better to choose and customize according to your own thoughts. If you have better tips and tricks, feel free to discuss and exchange ideas. Peace 🤟.