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CNET Editors' review
The world is awash in free and shareware Web browsers. Certainly, the fact that programmers can take the rendering engines of the big two and integrate them into their software is largely responsible. But users want choices, and programmers do not disappoint. Since the most important bits are within the rendering engines, the choices basically come down to packaging, tweaks, optimization, and bundled themes, plug-ins, and extensions.
Internet Spirit's default theme and layout is good if you don't mind five rows of toolbars and some icons that don't quite make sense. Many preference settings require a restart of the browser. Unfortunately, OpenDNS didn't recognize the developer's Web site, to which several Help menu options link. There are tons of features available by default, through plug-ins, which can be disabled if desired. There doesn't seem to be a way to install themes or plug-ins directly from within the application. In our testing, the developer's claims that this is a smaller, faster browser were only partially substantiated. We found IE7 and Firefox 3.0.7 both to be slightly faster on initial load of the same page. However, it is clear that Spirit's memory footprint, with the developer's default settings, is consistently smaller than a fresh install of Firefox 3.0.7 for nearly identical browsing sessions.
We had no stability issues with the browser, though the installer crashed in the middle of installation. It does, however, install and uninstall cleanly. At 20MB it's a bit of a hefty download, but the price (free) is right, and may be worth it for a browser that runs lean while offering some advanced features.
Publisher's Description
From Hardy Creations:
Internet Spirit is an extremely fast, customizable, lightweight Web Browser for the Win32 (Windows) platform based on the Gecko Layout Engine (the rendering engine of Mozilla). This Browser is a freeware Internet browsing software suite released under the EULA software license agreement. It is fully customizable with skins (themes) and contains several advanced features. Internet Spirit does not require any other Web browser to be installed.
Version 3.1 has bug fixes, new splash screen, and more themes added.
What's new in this version: Version 3.1 has bug fixes, new splash screen, and more themes added.
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All versions:
1.0 starsout of 2 votes
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Current version:
1.0 starsout of 1 votes
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"Suspicious program, (possible malware?)"
Version: Internet Spirit 3.1
Pros
Didn't get much of a chance to use it.
Cons
First time restarting after installing, the program begins on startup. I may have missed that option when I installed, but I wouldn't have purposely allowed that. Came with a program called Loader.exe which appears to be spyware/virus.
Summary
I am not saying that the program necessarily is spyware, but it makes me very concerned that a web browser thinks it needs to open on startup with the pc. Couple that with the fact that the loader.exe is possibly spyware, and it's too great a risk to allow on your pc. (It is possible that the loader.exe is a sub-program to start the browser, but I cannot tell for sure.) From what I found on Loader.exe with a quick Google search, it seems to be quite a nasty little bug.
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