Top 9 Web Browsers for Windows Review 2022

Web browsers are software programs that enable users to view pages and material on the World Wide Web, the Internet-based system of interlinked content. That's why we call web browsers a door to the information space. And if you are trying to find the best web browser for Windows 2022, you might have landed on the right page.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. Firefox includes pop-up blocking, tab-browsing, integrated Google search, simplified privacy controls, a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser, and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

When using Private mode, this browser app for windows uses a feature called Tracking Protection to prevent requests from tracking domains, thereby loading the web pages considerably fast.

Microsoft Edge Legacy

While Microsoft Edge browser is definitely a compelling upgrade to Internet Explorer in Windows 10, it's struggled against aggressive competition from Google, Apple, and Mozilla. But with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Edge has had two and half years to mature and improve. Let's see how it stacks up.

Key features of this web browser for Windows:

1. A fundamentally fluid and snappy browser

On release day, Edge loaded pages quickly and scrolled smoothly. About a year later, Microsoft added support for add-ons, so you have things like LastPass, Reddit Enhancement Suite, Evernote, Pinterest, and ad blockers -- but they don't slow down the browsing experience like add-ons have been known to do. While Firefox may struggle with HD video streaming, and Chrome may eat up a lot of system memory, Edge has neither of these problems and is a night-and-day improvement over Internet Explorer.

2. Android and iPhone integration

When this browser launched alongside Windows 10 in mid-2015, it lacked a way to smoothly sync your activity to mobile devices. With no Android or iOS version of Edge, Google Chrome has ended up dominating on Android, and Apple's Safari browser has a deeply integrated presence on Apple devices. Now Microsoft has finally come out with mobile versions, albeit in beta testing form. When you log into your Microsoft account in Edge on Android or iOS, it will now sync your open tabs, browsing history, and saved website passwords with your desktop version of the browser.

3. Built-in, high-quality PDF reader

In the past, a PDF reader was something that Windows users had to get themselves -- or they wrestled with the version in Windows 8 that had a frustrating UI that took over your whole screen unexpectedly. In Windows 10, Edge is actually the default for PDFs, and it works well. These documents open quickly and scroll smoothly, and you can treat them like any other tab in your browser.

Plus, you can now annotate your PDFs; there's highlighting, copying sections of text, underlining, and integrated Cortana AI (Microsoft's competitor to the Google Assistant and Apple's Siri). For example, you can highlight something and ask Cortana for more information.

Edge still suffers in the add-on department, and its continued absence in Windows 7 and 8 is a puzzler. But it provides a very smooth browsing experience in Windows 10, Android, and iOS; its modest add-on collection includes a lot of popular tools and services; and getting on iOS and Android is a big step forward for users who prefer the Microsoft ecosystem over Google's and Apple's.

Pale Moon (32-bit)

Pale Moon is an Open Source, Goanna-based web browser available for Microsoft Windows and Linux (with other operating systems in development), focusing on efficiency and customization. It's completely built from its own, an independently developed source that has been forked off from Firefox/Mozilla code a number of years ago, and focuses on efficiency and ease of use by carefully selecting features and optimizations to improve the browser's stability and user experience while offering full customization and a growing collection of extensions and themes to make the browser truly your own.

Main features of this web browser:

• Optimized for modern processors.
• Based on our own optimized layout and rendering engine (Goanna).
• Safe: forked from mature Mozilla code and regularly updated with the latest security patches.
• Secure: Additional security features and security-aware development.
• Supported by our user community, and fully non-profit.
• Familiar, efficient, fully customizable interface.
• Support for full themes: total freedom for any element's design.
• Support for easily-created lightweight themes (skins).
• Smooth and speedy page drawing and script processing.
• Superior gradients and fonts.
• Increased stability: experience fewer browser crashes.
• Support for a growing number of Pale Moon exclusive extensions.
• Extensive and growing support for existing web standards.

Vivaldi for Windows 64

Vivaldi is a free web browser that brings some fresh new tricks to browsing without feeling complex. Its advanced features are straightforward to access, so we can all be power users. Vivaldi runs on Windows, macOS, Android and Linux, but not iOS.

Key features of this web browser for Windows:

1. Uses Chrome extensions

Because Vivaldi is built on the same engine as Chrome and Chromium, it supports Chrome extensions. While not all extensions are guaranteed 100 percent portable, most should work fine. That means there's a ready-made base of extra features to tap into.

2. Attach notes to web pages

Any web page can have a note attached to it. This can include links, a screen grab, and even markdown formatting to make notes more readable. It's easy to copy notes to other apps.

3. Bookmarks speed dial

 When you open a new tab, its start page houses a series of "speed dial" websites. Put the sites you use most frequently here, and they will always be easily accessible. Vivaldi will even make speed dial suggestions from your browsing history.

4. Pop-out side panel

A panel down the side of the browser window gives fast access to bookmarks, search history and tabs and notes. You can add specific web pages to this panel for fast access. An example might be a social media feed that needs regular checking. This panel is on the left by default, but can go on the right if you prefer.

5. Web panels

You can add favorite sites to the side panel so that they are always easily accessible. Unlike the bookmarks speed dial, when a web page is opened from the Web panel it appears in its own dedicated pane. This means two web pages can be viewed side by side. You might use this to compare two websites, read one site while writing into a Google doc, keep a social feed accessible all the time, or use a chat or collaboration app.

6. Tab stacking

Several tabs can be grouped into a "stack" by dragging them onto each other. You can view thumbnails of every tab in a stack just by passing the cursor over the tab, and open a page into the browser window with a click on the thumbnail. To open all tabs in a stack at once, right click and select Tab tiling; they will open in separate vertical windows. Obviously there is a limit to the number of tabs this is useful for: two or three tabs work well on a standard screen, while ultrawide screens can cope with more.

7. Status Bar extras

The Status Bar on the bottom of the Vivaldi window includes a page zoom slider so it's easy to get text on sites at just the right size for reading. There is also a toggle for making image loading settings -- turning images off can keep bandwidth use down. Another button can be used to set image animations to play once, never, or in a continuous loop.

8. Easy screenshot

The Status Bar also has an easy screenshot tool that can save a full page or a selection to JPEG, PNG, or to the clipboard.

9. Page Actions

 A whole host of settings can be made for specific web pages from the Status Bar. This can be a lot more useful than you might think. You could be on a page whose color design makes it difficult to read, for example, or that has not been properly calibrated for color-blind users. There are lots of different color filters, including making a page black-and-white or grayscale, inverting the colors and rendering it sepia.

10. Reader View

Some web pages are so full of extraneous content that they're difficult to read. One Page Action sends a web page into Reader View, which removes panels and sidebars, just leaving the core images and text.

Opera

This web browser for Windows includes some features that are actually designed for smartphones, like, a data compression mode and battery saver. Other exciting features the Opera can flaunt are in-built ad-blocker, screenshot tool, cryptomining prevention, VPN service, currency converter, etc.

Just like other browsers for Windows, Opera also supports cross-device sync. But those without an account can use the Flow feature that works via QR code scans. However, the standout feature is the Opera Turbo feature that compresses web traffic and makes it one of the best web browsers for those who have low bandwidth.

More than 1000 extensions are available for Opera. However, one sense of satisfaction comes from knowing that users can install Chrome extensions in Opera. That’s because the browser has started using the same engine as Chromium.

Tor Browser Bundle

Tor protects you against a common form of Internet surveillance known as "traffic analysis." Traffic analysis can be used to infer who is talking to whom over a public network. Knowing the source and destination of your Internet traffic allows others to track your behavior and interests. This can impact your checkbook if, for example, an e-commerce site uses price discrimination based on your country or institution of origin. It can even threaten your job and physical safety by revealing who and where you are. For example, if you're traveling abroad and you connect to your employer's computers to check or send mail, you can inadvertently reveal your national origin and professional affiliation to anyone observing the network, even if the connection is encrypted.

The free Firefox-based Tor Browser Bundle integrates the Tor network's enhanced privacy and security. If you would have thought Onion Routing involved wooden crates and flatbed trucks or maybe a sandwich order, you might be surprised to hear it's actually an online security technology. Think of an onion's layers: in Onion Routing, layers of encryption make it impossible to trace messages back to their point of origin. Once a secret project of the U.S. Naval Research Lab, it's now the concern of the Tor Project, an open-source community devoted to developing Tor, the software implementation of second-generation Onion Routing technology, and to maintaining the Tor network.

It includes the Vidalia network connection utility, but it's much less fiddly than previous Tor implementations. Basically, the Tor Browser does it all for you. Both the Tor Browser and access to the Tor network are free.

We extracted and opened the Tor Browser, which includes the Vidalia Control Panel, a small dialog box for configuring and managing your connection to the Tor network. But the software did it all itself, connecting and opening the browser in a Tor start page. Though the browser uses a green globe icon, it's basically Firefox 10 with Tor-specific features added to the toolbar. The Tor Browser's extras include NoScript, which by default is set to Forbid Scripts Globally. The green onion icon is called the Torbutton; it's the key to Tor's features and settings. Its menu let us create a New Identity, open the Cookie Protections manager, and set the program's Preferences on three tabs: Proxy, Security, and Display settings. The Security Settings offers by far the most choices, with eight submenus of options.

In use, we found the Tor Browser to be just like other Firefox clones. We know what you're asking: did the Tor Browser slow down our surfing? Yes; there's no doubt that some familiar pages loaded more slowly than usual. Was it annoying? Hardly. Most users will see similar slowdowns on a daily basis. Bottom line: the Tor Browser Bundle makes it easy to take advantage of Tor's proven benefits.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the Web faster, safer, and easier. Use one box for everything--Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and Web pages. Thumbnails of your top sites let you access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab. Desktop shortcuts allow you to launch your favorite Web apps straight from your desktop.

Google's Chrome Web browser has become one of the most popular in the world, thanks to smooth performance, support for add-ons, and features like casting and voice search that are absent in or only partially implemented by competing browsers like Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

Pros:

The best add-on support: Chrome slightly edges out Firefox in two ways. One, your add-ons are linked to your Google account. So if you download a new version of Chrome or install an add-on on one of your devices, when you log in to your Google account in Chrome on another device, the browser will automatically download and install those add-ons or updates. Two, the Chrome version of an add-on frequently has more work put into the user interface. For example, the login UI for LastPass is much nicer looking in Chrome than it is in Firefox. That matters if you're logging in and out of LastPass all day.

Plus, Chrome's task manager (access it by pressing Shift-Esc) breaks down how much RAM and CPU power each add-ons is using, so you can identify ones that may be causing issues with browser performance or device battery life. Firefox has some tools to track add-on performance, but they're not nearly as user-friendly.

Great casting support: Casting in Chrome used to require an add-on, but it's now embedded in the browser. If you have a TV with a Chromecast device and it's on the same network as your PC, you can open a Chrome tab on your PC and send it to y0ur television. Or you can cast a streaming video that's embedded on that tab. This is handy for presentations or for watching a video on a big screen. By contrast, for Firefox, only the Android version can stream, it doesn't support as wide a variety of video types, and you can't cast a tab.

Voice search: When you go to Google.com in the Chrome browser, the search field has a microphone icon in it. Click it to search using your voice, if your computer has an enabled microphone. For most people, this is much faster than typing a search query.

Cons:

Memory usage could be better: It's not unusual for Chrome to use over a gigabyte of RAM, even when you have just a few tabs open that are more or less static. There are understandable reasons for that -- for one, Chrome has to remember your recently closed tabs so that they can quickly reload on demand. But Chrome does not tend to scale down its usage on devices that have limited amounts of RAM.

Resistance to add-ons that download embedded videos: As the owner of YouTube, Google naturally doesn't want people downloading its videos and viewing them without the ads that make it profitable. But offline viewing is important for people with unreliable connections or who expect to be away from the Internet for an extended period of time.

Google has partly closed the gap with its YouTube Red subscription, which lets you download videos from the site for $10 a month, removes ads, and provides Google Play Music at no added cost. (And conversely, if you subscribe to Google Play Music, YouTube Red is bundled for free.) But that only applies to YouTube. If you dig around, you can find a few add0ons that lets you download embedded videos in Chrome, but they all have varying degrees of sketchiness.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 11 is the new browser from Microsoft with improved performance, faster page load times, new standards support for next-generation sites, and completely revised F12 developer tools. It includes new capabilities to improve real-world Web site performance, support for the well-defined and commonly used features of the emerging ECMAScript 6 standard, support for WebGL, and high quality, power-efficient HTML5 video without plugins.

Internet Explorer 11 is compatible with existing sites, which just run faster and look better in IE. In IE11 we have also added a number of APIs to enable new experiences, and we have changed or removed APIs to ensure that more sites work today and in the future.

Google Chrome (64-bit)

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the Web faster, safer, and easier. Use one box for everything--type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and Web pages. Thumbnails of your top sites let you access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab. Desktop shortcuts allow you to launch your favorite Web apps straight from your desktop.

Since its release in 2008, Google Chrome has gradually come to dominate the web browser market, even on platforms with pre-installed competition. The reasons for that are complex, but one of them is that Google constantly iterates to make Chrome better. At the same time, Mozilla has changed the landscape with its Firefox Quantum overhaul. Let's see if Chrome is still the king of the hill.

Pros:

Media-heavy pages load and scroll smoothly: Compared to Mozilla Firefox, Chrome has always fared better when it comes to streaming HD video or just loading a lot of images at once. Microsoft's Edge browser has stolen some thunder here lately, but Edge isn't available for Windows 7 (and it's only available on Android and iOS in beta testing form), which puts a serious dent in its audience reach, and its add-on library is relatively tiny. Firefox Quantum has narrowed the gap, but Chrome remains better for video above 1080p and faster than 30 frames per second, unless your PC has recent internal components that can take the load off your central processor -- a system called hardware acceleration. If you have that, then Firefox and Chrome are pretty even in our real-world usage testing.

Google cloud services are tightly integrated: The browser itself has a Google account log-in dialog. When you log in, not only can you sync your bookmarks, browsing history and settings from other devices that you run this browser on, but you'll also get logged into Docs, Maps, Gmail, and other Google services. At the same time, you can opt not to sign in to Chrome and just log in to those services on their respective websites. You can sync with Firefox and Safari, but doing so doesn't connect you to anything that resembles Google's cornucopia of cloud services.

The more we dug into Chrome's settings, the more impressed we were with Mozilla Firefox. And if your computer has hardware acceleration for HD video, then Chrome's historical performance advantage with media handling is more or less eliminated. Chrome's remaining major feature advantage, at least on the desktop, is a single sign-on for its cloud services. If Mozilla's imminent overhaul to the mobile version of Firefox is as comprehensive as what they've done with the desktop version, then Google may find itself playing catch-up like it did nearly a decade ago.

Conclusion

These were our picks for the best web browser for Windows. What we mostly see in the world of the web browser software, be it the browsers for Windows or some other platforms, it's ruled by one of the big names. And what do you think is the best web browser for PC? Try them and find your desired one.