8 Ways You Can Speed Up Internet Explorer

8 Ways You Can Speed Up Internet Explorer

Nobody likes a slow internet browser; frankly it’s a royal pain in the ass. We have better things to do then sitting around waiting for a page to load only to stair at a blank page. When it comes to slow internet browsers Internet Explorer has a history of being slow and clunky even with the best connection possible. Even their latest update Internet Explorer 9 is still much slower then browsers like Google Chrome or Firefox.

However there are some things you can do to speed up Internet Explorer. I’ve put together a list of 8 things that will speed up Internet Explorer’s browser, so you won’t have to pull out your hair in frustration anymore.

1. Delete favourites

If your brand new to the internet favourites store links from sites you want to book mark to return to later on. The more of these you have the slower your browser becomes. Deleting unneeded favourites is one of the easiest ways of speeding up Internet Explorer.

2. Disable add ons and tools bars

Add-ons and extra toolbars can really slow your browser down. Save only the ones you’re going to use, the rest are just useless.

To manage and remove unwanted add-ons go to the top right of the screen and click on tools, select manage add-ons, then scroll through list of available add-ons and disable anything you don’t want to use. Tool bars are located in the same place so just repeat the process to remove them.

3. Keep your pop up blocker on

Having unwanted pop up’s can really slow things down, not to mention can be a huge pain especially the ones that auto play audio or video.

4. Clean your browsing history

Over time these stored files can start to slow down your browser. To clear your history go to tools, select internet options, and where it says browsing history click delete.

5. Don’t check for new versions of cached websites

When it comes to cached sites the actual cached site itself isn’t slowing down your browser. It’s when you visit that site that Internet Explorer is searching for any new versions of stored pages that slows it down. If you’re like me and visit a lot of different sites this can really affect its speed.

To fix this again go to tools, select internet options and go to browsing history. From here click settings and you should see the following window.

Here you have a couple options. You can either select never which won’t sync any cached pages or instead opt to have to sync every time you start Internet Explorer.

6. Google Chrome frame

Google offers a way of speeding up Internet Explorer called Google Chrome frame. What it provides according to Google “is an open source plug in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and Java Script to Internet Explorer”

This works on Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9 and requires nothing more then to click on the big blue button that says get Google Chrome frame. I tried this on Internet Explorer 9 and it more then double its speed. To get Google Chrome frame you can click on the link here.

7. Ad accelerators to speed up frequent tasks

Both version 8 and 9 of Explorer have accelerators. These are quick links to sites you would use a lot such as YouTube or Blogger. In a way they work pretty much the same way as favourites minus the having to open your favourites tab and scrolling through a list of book marks. Accelerators won’t actually speed up your browser, but they will save you some time from having to constantly do a Google search or type a URL to get to those sites.

8. Use a public DNS

A public DNS (domain name system) such as Google public DNS is another option for speeding up Internet Explorer. To learn how to switch over to Google’s public DNS click on the link here.